We clean windows in Ocala. That is all we do.

Glass, and the things attached to it

Ocala Window Cleaning does one trade. Interior and exterior glass, the screens in front of it, the tracks underneath it and the frames and sills around it, plus the careful cleanup new glass needs after a build or a remodel. That is the entire service list, and it is deliberately short.

A window cleaner who also does gutters, roofs, lawns and pool cages is really a handyman with a ladder. Doing one thing all week means the crew has cleaned ten thousand of the window styles that exist around here: the aluminum single-hungs on a seventies block ranch, the vinyl double-hungs in a 2005 subdivision, the lanai sliders every Florida house seems to have, and the French panes that take four times as long as anybody expects.

Why Marion County glass is its own problem

Two things make windows here harder than windows in most of the country, and both of them come out of the ground.

The first is hard water. Much of the county runs on well water or irrigates with it, and it is loaded with calcium and magnesium. When a sprinkler head throws that onto a pane in the afternoon sun, the water evaporates and the minerals stay. That is not dirt and it will not come off with soap, no matter how long somebody scrubs. It needs a dedicated treatment, and left long enough it etches into the glass permanently.

The second is what the air carries. Oak and pine pollen in spring coats everything in yellow. Lovebugs twice a year leave an acidic residue that damages finishes if it sits. Add the dust from unpaved county roads and the reason most homes here settle into a twice-yearly rhythm becomes obvious: once after pollen season, once in the fall.

Pure water on the outside

Exterior glass gets rinsed with purified water. Running tap water through a filter and resin strips out the dissolved minerals, and water with nothing in it dries without leaving anything behind: no spots, no film, no soap running down the stucco.

It also means ground-floor and most second-story glass is reached from the ground on a carbon-fiber pole instead of a ladder leaned against your gutters. Fewer ladders is safer for the crew and easier on your house.

Inside is somebody’s home

Interior work means being in your house, around your furniture, with your dog deciding whether to supervise. Floors get covered, shoes get covered, anything moved gets moved back. The crew works room by room rather than spreading across the whole house at once, so you are never boxed in.

How a price is worked out

Window cleaning is sold by the hour whether or not anybody admits it, and the hours come from pane count, height and condition. We count the panes, look at the access, ask whether you want the inside done and whether the screens are coming out, and send one figure.

That figure is written down before anything is scheduled, and it is what you pay. If we arrive and find something nobody could have known from the drive (mineral etching behind a hedge, a second-story run that needs a ladder set after all), the work stops and we ask you first. Nothing gets added to an invoice after the fact. The cost page shows the ranges openly, because a customer who already knows roughly what the job is worth is a better customer to have.

Things we will not do

• Quote a firm price over the phone without a window count. Anyone who does is guessing, and the guess gets corrected on the day in their favor.
• Promise that every stain comes out. Light mineral spotting polishes out. Glass that has been etched for a decade improves but may not come back. You get told which one you have before you are charged for it.
• Sell a maintenance plan you cannot cancel. Recurring visits are a calendar reminder, not a contract.
• Pressure wash window screens. High pressure stretches and tears the mesh. Screens get washed by hand.

Who we tend to work for

• Homeowners on a twice-yearly rhythm, after the pollen and again in the fall.
• Snowbirds wanting the outside done while the house sits empty: easy to arrange, we just need gate access.
• Storefronts and offices on a weekly or monthly route, cleaned before the doors open rather than in front of customers.
• People listing a house, where clean glass is the cheapest thing you can do before the photographer arrives.
• Anyone told their sprinkler spotting is permanent. Often it is not.

Owned and run in Ocala since 2009

This is not a new outfit chasing a trend. The company was set up in Marion County in 2009 and has been cleaning glass around Ocala under the same ownership ever since. It started the way a lot of good local trades do: one person doing careful work for neighbors and friends, and those people telling others. Most new customers still come that way.

Over the years the tools have changed more than the approach. Water-fed poles and filtered water now do most of the outside work, and the inside soap is a mild mix that is gentle enough for window film and factory tint. What has not changed is that the owners still answer questions, look at tricky jobs themselves and stand behind the result.

Post-construction glass is a big part of the work too. Builders and remodelers call when new windows are covered in paint overspray, sticker glue and drywall dust, and that glass needs patience and the right blades so it comes clean without a single scratch.

Straight answers about the company

• Insurance: general liability; certificate sent on request, before work starts.
• Area: Ocala, Silver Springs, Silver Springs Shores, Belleview, Marion Oaks, Dunnellon, Summerfield, The Villages, Anthony, Reddick, Citra and Ocklawaha.
• In business since: 2009, locally owned the whole time.
• Who answers the phone: a person who has been on the vans, not a call center.
• If something is wrong: say so at the walk-through and it gets redone before we leave. Spot it later and we come back.