The geothermal line under Warm Springs Avenue has been heating these houses since 1892, and a good share of the sash above it is nearly as old. Wavy original glass, true divided lites, transoms, leaded panels, painted wood kept in service by design review. We clean it with deionized water, no soap and no blades.
A vinyl slider forgives almost anything. The sash on Warm Springs Avenue does not. Most of what faces the street here is 1890s to 1910s wood double-hung: true divided lites, wavy original glass that ripples when you sight down it, transoms over the entry, leaded or stained panels at the stair landings. Design review keeps that glass in service instead of vinyl, so glazing putty, painted muntins and old float glass are part of every job on this street. We work by hand and with deionized water on soft bristle. No soap, no razor blades. Old glass carries surface imperfections and embedded mineral fleck, and a blade catches those and drags a scratch across the pane that never comes back out. Sills get wiped dry, putty lines do not get flooded, and anything loose in the came or the glazing gets pointed out before we touch it.
The mature canopy over this stretch is why summer glass here goes sticky rather than dusty. Silver maple, Norway maple, linden and old American elm carry heavy aphid populations from June on, and they mist honeydew down onto sash, screens, porch ceilings and parked cars. It dries to a sugar film that fingerprints, streaks under a low sun and will not come off with a hose. Pure deionized water lifts it and rinses clean because there is nothing dissolved in the water to leave behind. Then October arrives and the same trees dump into the gutters. On a 1998 subdivision that is a nuisance. Here it lands in original or replicated half-round gutter on a steep roof over a two- and three-story elevation, which is a different job, and the reason we book Warm Springs gutter work after the drop finishes rather than in the middle of it.
Half-round hung on spikes or old strap hangers does not behave like modern K-style. It is shallower, it carries less water, and the hardware is often original or a replication matched for design review. We clean it out by hand, bag the debris, flush the downspouts and check the outlets, because half-round packs at the elbow long before the trough is full. No pressure into seams or solder joints. The roof pitch on these houses means most of the work happens off ladders with standoffs instead of walking the roof, so shingles, slate and ridge stay untouched. Gutter cleaning starts at $199. If a hanger has pulled loose or a section has separated at a joint, we photograph it and tell you rather than bending it back into place and calling it fixed.
The Boise City Canal heads out of this stretch of Warm Springs and runs west across the old city toward Collister and Hill Road, and plenty of yards along here still carry ditch rights. That water is untreated: silty, algae-carrying and mineral-heavy. One misaimed impact head lays a gritty tan haze plus hard white spotting across a first-floor bay and the painted sills under it. Boise tap water is not much kinder at roughly 10 to 13 grains of hardness, so rinsing with a hose just trades one spot pattern for another. Deionized water answers both, because there is no dissolved mineral left in it to dry down. The glass sheets off and air-dries clear, which is what we call the RainShield finish. If a sprinkler head is throwing at the house, we will tell you which one before we leave.
Deep wrap porches put a roof between a ladder and the second-floor sash. Three-story elevations, dormers and stair-landing transoms sit above mature foundation planting, boxwood, and original iron or wood fencing nobody wants a ladder leg dropped into. So most of the exterior gets done from the ground with a water-fed pole, which keeps ladders out of the beds and off porch roofs entirely, and ladders come out only where the reach genuinely requires it. Parking is on-street along the avenue, so we stage close and carry in. Inside, old double-hung gets operated gently. Some of these sash are painted near shut and we will not force one open to reach a lower pane. Where we cannot open something safely, we clean what is reachable and say exactly what we left.
Window cleaning starts at $199 and is priced by pane count, which matters more here than almost anywhere in Ada County: a house with true divided lites has several times the glass edge of a same-size house with modern units. We count panes, not square feet, and quote before anyone starts. Screens are $50 more, and a free annual screen clean comes with a membership. Gutters start at $199. Pressure washing runs $0.20 per square foot on walks and drives. House washing is $0.18 per square foot, soft-wash and low pressure, which is the only method that belongs anywhere near original painted wood siding or century-old brick. Memberships are monthly or quarterly with no contract, quarterly saves $100 per cleaning, and every visit carries a 7-Day Rain Guarantee.
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No. Wavy 1890s to 1910s glass and early float glass carry surface imperfections and embedded mineral fleck, and a blade catches those and drags a permanent scratch across the pane. We clean with deionized water on soft bristle and finish by hand. If there is paint overspray or hard mineral bonded into a pane, we tell you what it is and what the realistic options are instead of scraping and hoping.
Not the way we run it. There is no soap or detergent involved, the water is controlled at the brush rather than blasted at the frame, and we do not flood putty lines or leave water standing in the sill horns. Sills and stools get wiped. On sash where the putty is already cracked or gone, we work drier still and flag it so you can get it re-glazed before the next wet season.
Yes, by hand and gently. Leaded panels and stained transoms get low water volume, no ammonia and no pressure against the came, because solder joints and the lead itself flex more than people expect on a hundred-year-old panel. If a panel is already bowed, or the came moves when we touch it, we stop, photograph it and hand it back to you for a glass restorer. That repair is not ours to make.
Yes. Screens are $50 on top of the window price, and a free annual screen clean is included with a membership. Old wood-frame storms and screens come off the house rather than getting scrubbed in place, then get laid flat, cleaned and dried before they go back, because original screen cloth and mortised wood frames rack easily if you lean on them. Tell us at booking how many storms are hung so the job gets the right amount of time.
That is the only way we do them here. Debris comes out by hand into a bag, downspouts get flushed, and outlets and elbows get checked because half-round packs at the transition well before the trough fills. No pressure into seams or solder joints, and no walking a steep roof. Gutter cleaning starts at $199. Late October is the honest month for it on Warm Springs, once the maples and elms have finished dropping.
We are based in Meridian, about twenty-five minutes west, and work Boise Monday through Saturday, 7am to 7pm. Same-day and next-day slots are usually open outside the October gutter rush and the April irrigation turn-on. Reflekt is locally owned, fully insured, and rated 4.9 stars across 115+ Google reviews. Call or text (208) 453-6760 with a rough pane count, or we will count it at the door.
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