No. Exterior water-fed pole cleaning is done from the ground or a ladder outside the glass, so most Boise jobs run without anyone home. What actually decides whether we need you there is whether we can get into the yard — and in Boise that answer depends on which part of town your house is in.
Every Treasure Valley city we work in gets the same core answer: you don't need to take time off for exterior window cleaning. What changes house to house isn't the water and the pole, it's the fence line. Boise has more locked-yard variation than any other city on our route, because it stacks four different eras of housing — 1900s North End bungalows, 1950s Bench ranches, and 2010s Barber Valley subdivisions — inside a five-mile radius, and each one gates the backyard differently. So the honest Boise-specific answer is: give us working access to every side of the house, and you can be at work, at Boise State, or out of town.
Warm Springs Avenue mansions and North End Craftsman bungalows sit on lots with a hundred years of landscaping grown up tight to the house — mature maples, foundation shrubs, and narrow side-yard gaps that were never meant for a ladder. On these blocks, the second-story sash windows are often only reachable by walking a pole or ladder through a side gate, past a hose bib and around a flower bed that's older than the sidewalk. If that gate is padlocked, we can't get to the back of the house even if the front is wide open. Leave the side gate unlocked or give us a code, and the crew works the whole exterior without you present.
Newer construction in Barber Valley, Harris Ranch, and Bown Crossing is alley-loaded — the garage and often the only usable backyard entry sits off the alley, not the street. Front doors here are frequently decorative; the real working access is a gate off that back alley, sometimes with a keypad if the HOA requires it. If we only have your street address and no alley gate code, we're stuck working the street-facing glass and skipping the back. Tell us up front whether access is off the alley or the front walk, and which one is locked, and we'll plan the route before the truck shows up.
A lot of Boise yards, especially anywhere near the Boise City Canal, the Greenbelt, or the older ditch-fed North End and East End blocks, are fenced specifically to keep a dog off open water. That's smart, but it means the fence that protects your dog also locks out the crew. We won't let a dog out, and we won't work a yard with a loose dog in it — both for the dog's sake and the equipment's. If you can't be home, the simplest fix is putting the dog inside the house or a kennel for the two to three hours the crew is on site, and leaving that gate unlocked.
Exterior glass and the free annual screen clean that comes with membership are outside-only work in most Boise homes — screens pop out from the exterior track without touching the inside of the house. The exception is Warm Springs Avenue and North End historic homes still running original wood sash with seasonal storm windows, where the storms sometimes only release from inside. If your house has true divided-lite wood windows and interior storms, tell us when you book, and we'll either schedule a time you're home or work out interior access with a spare key or a trusted neighbor.
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Yes, for the large majority of jobs. We use deionized water and an extension pole to clean glass from outside, so nobody needs to unlock a door or be present. The only requirement is that every gate we need is unlocked or we have a code, since we won't hop a fence or force entry.
Tell us at booking and we'll work around it. We'll clean every window we can reach from unlocked areas that day and note the locked section on the account, so a callback for just that side doesn't get charged as a full second visit. It's far easier to just leave one gate unlocked than to schedule around it twice.
Yes. Crews won't enter a yard with a dog loose in it, whether the dog is friendly or not — it's a liability issue for the dog, the crew, and our gear. Put the dog inside the house or a kennel before the appointment window starts, and the crew can work the whole exterior without disturbing anyone.
It changes how carefully we work, not whether you need to be home for the exterior. Original wood sash and wavy glass on Warm Springs Avenue and North End bungalows get gentler handling than a modern vinyl slider. The one case that does need you present is if seasonal storm windows only release from inside the house — flag that when you book.
Through the alley gate, not the front door, since that's usually the only real access to the backyard in Harris Ranch and Bown Crossing layouts. Give us the alley gate code or leave it unlocked when you book, and we'll plan the visit around that instead of the street side, which is often just the garage face.
No, in most Boise homes screens come out from the exterior track the same way the glass gets cleaned, no entry required. The exception is older North End and Warm Springs Avenue homes with interior-release storm windows or screens — for those, mention it at booking so we can plan proper access.
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