How to Evaluate a Window Cleaning Company, and the Questions That Matter

The five checks that predict a good job

Five checks predict window cleaning quality better than price does: current liability insurance and workers' compensation, a quote built on a counted number of panes, a stated method for exterior glass, a written guarantee with a time limit on it, and review volume with recent dates attached. Each one is verifiable in under ten minutes, before you hand over a gate code or a house key. Price is the weakest signal in the group. A $99 quote and a $340 quote can describe the same house and completely different jobs, because one covers exteriors only with soap and a squeegee while the other covers both sides with screens pulled and tracks detailed. Run the five checks first, then compare the numbers that survive. Reflekt Window Cleaning publishes a $199 starting price on windows and quotes by pane count so the comparison is possible.

Ask for a certificate of insurance, and read the dates on it

The single most useful document a window cleaning company can send you is a carrier-issued certificate of insurance. Window cleaning is not a licensed trade in Idaho the way electrical and plumbing work are, so there is no license number worth asking for. The certificate is the real check, it comes from the insurance carrier rather than being typed up by the company, and most established operators can have it emailed within one business day. Two coverages matter. General liability, commonly written at $1 million per occurrence for small service firms, pays if a ladder goes through your bay window. Workers' compensation, which Idaho employers are generally required to carry for employees, matters because an injury on your second-story ladder can otherwise land on your homeowner's policy. If a company stalls, changes the subject, or sends a screenshot instead of a certificate, that is your answer. Reflekt is fully insured and locally owned.

A quote is only comparable if it lists a pane count

Two window cleaning quotes are comparable only when both state how many panes were counted. A pane is one side of one piece of glass in a frame, so a double-hung window with an upper and lower sash is two panes per side, and interior and exterior are counted separately. Grid and divided-light windows multiply the number fast: one 6-over-6 colonial window is a single opening but twelve small sections to work around. Square footage of the house tells you almost nothing, because a 3,400-square-foot home with large picture windows can carry fewer panes than a 2,100-square-foot home with grids in every opening. Ask each company three questions in writing: how many panes did you count, are both sides included, and are screens and tracks in that price. Then divide. Reflekt prices windows from $199 by pane count, so a 25-pane job at the starting price works out to roughly $8 per pane.

Ask what actually touches the glass

The cleaning method decides how long the result lasts, so ask what touches the exterior glass. Three methods dominate residential work. Soap and squeegee is fast and looks perfect on day one, but surfactant residue left on glass and in frames gives airborne dust something to cling to. Untreated tap water pushed through a water-fed pole leaves the dissolved minerals in that water behind as spots when it dries. Deionized water is filtered to near zero total dissolved solids, typically under 10 ppm, so it dries without leaving a mineral deposit and can be left to sheet dry rather than squeegeed. Reflekt cleans with 100% pure deionized water and no soap, finished with a treatment called RainShield that helps glass shed the next rain. For siding and concrete, ask about pressure instead: soft washing runs under roughly 500 PSI and relies on cleaning solution, while concrete pressure washing runs 2,500 to 3,500 PSI. Aiming 3,000 PSI at stucco or lap siding is how trim gets wrecked.

Guarantees, contracts, and add-on pricing

A guarantee is worth exactly what its written terms say, so ask for the number of days and what triggers it. Rain is the standard test case in the Treasure Valley. Freshly cleaned exterior glass hit by a storm two days later is not a workmanship failure, but a company with no re-clean policy leaves you paying twice. Reflekt carries a 7-Day Rain Guarantee, which is a defined window rather than a vague promise of satisfaction. Ask about contract terms separately, because recurring plans in this trade sometimes lock a homeowner into twelve months with an early-termination fee. Reflekt's Monthly and Quarterly memberships have no contract, hold a recurring slot, and include a free annual screen cleaning. Ask how fast the company can actually show up, which matters for a listing photo deadline or a move-out inspection; Reflekt keeps same-day and next-day slots. Get add-on pricing up front too: screens are an extra $50 at Reflekt, and gutter cleaning starts at $199.

Read review dates before you read review counts

Recency tells you more about a window cleaning company than total review volume does. A 4.9-star average built on forty reviews from the last six months describes the crew that will show up at your house; a 4.7 built on six hundred reviews stretching back a decade describes several past versions of a company, since crews turn over and owners sell. Three things are worth looking for. Whether reviewers describe the specific work, meaning screens, tracks, hard water, or second-story glass, rather than only praising the service in general. Whether any one-star review received a real reply instead of a template. Whether reviewers posted photos, which are hard to fake. Reflekt holds a 4.9-star average across 115+ Google reviews since opening in April 2025. Treat testimonials that live only on a company's own website as marketing copy rather than evidence, and be skeptical of any company that cannot point you to a public review profile you can open yourself.

Where these questions will not help you

Three situations make the checklist irrelevant, and knowing which one you are in saves money. First, if your glass is already etched, meaning the pane looks hazy from every viewing angle because mineral has bonded into the surface, no company and no method restores it. The honest answer there is glass replacement, which Reflekt does not perform and will refer out. Second, if you need nightly or overnight service on a large commercial building, a small local residential crew is the wrong fit regardless of how well it answers these questions. Third, Reflekt has been operating since April 2025. If your standard is a twenty-year track record under the same ownership, Reflekt does not meet it, and that is a legitimate reason to hire someone else. Below roughly 32 degrees, exterior window cleaning stops making sense for any company, because water freezes on the glass faster than it can be pulled off.