In Lusk District, sprinkler damage doesn't run block by block. The older homes near Boise State had irrigation added one owner at a time over decades, so a head aimed wrong on one lot etches that house's south windows while the neighbor's glass stays clean. We quote by severity, after we read the glass.
Newer subdivisions out west got their sprinklers installed all at once, by one contractor, to one plan. Lusk District didn't. These are older infill lots where irrigation went in whenever an owner got around to it, so one house has 1980s brass impact heads throwing a hard arc into the siding and the house next door has modern rotary nozzles kept low and tight. There's no HOA landscape contractor setting one standard across the block, which is why we can't quote this service sight-unseen here the way we sometimes can in a uniform subdivision. Two houses a hundred feet apart genuinely show different damage. The apartment and condo buildings closer to campus are the opposite case: one property-managed system on a timer, watering the same lawn strip against the same ground-floor units every night for years.
On the older bungalows, the sill is often only two or three feet off grade, which puts the bottom sash right in the spray line of anything aimed at the foundation planting. We find the worst damage on the elevation facing the largest lawn panel, and in this part of Boise that is usually the front, plus whichever side has a strip of grass squeezed between the house and a detached garage or shared driveway. Narrow lots make it worse, because there's nowhere to put a head that isn't close to a wall. On the multifamily buildings, it's the ground-floor sliders and patio glass facing common lawn, and it's usually only the lower half of the pane. Second-story glass is almost always clean here.
Not all white haze is the same, and the difference decides whether this is worth your money. Wet the glass down and look at it while it's still soaking. If the haze disappears under the water and comes back as it dries, the mineral is sitting on top of the surface and we can take it off. If you can still see the cloud, the outline of the spray pattern, or a chalky ring while the glass is wet, the minerals have eaten into the silica and that is permanent damage, not a deposit. That's not something any chemical brings back. We'll show you which one you have before we quote, and we'd rather tell you it's etched than take your money for a result we can't deliver.
This is the part most companies skip. Restoration on a badly spotted set of windows is real work and it's priced accordingly, and if the same head keeps hitting the same pane, the haze is visibly back within one irrigation season. Before we schedule, walk out and run your zones in daylight. You're looking for water actually touching glass or siding, a head that has settled and now shoots high, or a nozzle rotated off its arc. Most of the time it's one head and a five-minute adjustment. If you're in an apartment or condo, that's a note to the property manager, not something you can fix from your patio, and we're happy to point at the specific head in a photo so it's an easy ask.
Hard water stain removal is quoted by severity, because a light seasonal film and four years of baked-on scale are not the same job. On our Monthly membership it's included, which suits the homes where the sprinkler problem hasn't been solved yet and the spotting keeps returning. One thing to be clear about: our normal window cleaning runs 100% pure deionized water, and that's exactly why it doesn't leave new spots, but it also won't strip scale that's already bonded to the glass. Removal is a separate process with its own products and time. If you're booking a first cleaning and you already know you have spotting, tell us up front so we schedule enough time. No contract, and same-day or next-day slots when the calendar allows.
Free, no-obligation estimate in under 60 seconds.
Get My Free EstimateStill wondering about something? Call or text us at (208) 453-6760.
That split is the signature of sprinkler overspray, not dirt. A head in the front planting is throwing water up onto the lower sash, the water evaporates in the Boise sun, and the dissolved minerals stay behind and build up layer on layer. Rain doesn't reach the sheltered lower panes hard enough to rinse it. It's the most common thing we see on the older low-sill houses in this neighborhood.
On the older Lusk District homes we work by hand around the glazing and keep product off the wood and painted frame, which means it takes longer than the same job on a vinyl or aluminum window and gets quoted that way. If the putty is already cracked or the paint is failing, we'll tell you before we start rather than after, because a restoration shouldn't be what finally opens up a marginal sash.
No, and that's an important distinction. Pure deionized water has no minerals in it, so it dries without leaving anything behind and won't create new spotting. But it isn't a solvent for scale that has already bonded to the glass. Removing existing stains is a separate service with different products and more time on each pane. Regular cleaning after that keeps it from rebuilding.
Yes, and it usually should be. Ground-floor units on a property-managed irrigation system almost always have the same damage on the same elevation, because one timer has been watering that same lawn strip for years. We quote the building rather than the unit, work directly with the manager or HOA, and can flag the specific sprinkler heads causing it so the fix happens once instead of unit by unit.
Sometimes yes, sometimes no, and we'll be straight with you on site. Several years of untouched buildup is often still surface deposit and comes off well. But long-term exposure on a south-facing window with hot afternoon sun is the case most likely to have crossed into true etching, where the glass itself is pitted. Run the wet test described above and you'll have a good idea before we ever show up.
That depends entirely on whether the sprinkler still hits the glass. Correct the head and cleaned glass stays clear for years with normal maintenance cleaning. Leave it aimed the same way and you'll see the haze returning by the end of the next watering season. That's why we push the sprinkler adjustment before booking rather than selling you the same restoration every year.
Free estimate in 60 seconds. Same-day and next-day slots available.
Get Free Estimate Now