Some Right Ways, & One Wrong Way 

There are multiple ways to go about getting your windows clean, and multiple levels of difficulty that could come with the task, especially when it comes to the exterior side of the window.

I do not know every possible method for cleaning a window, I know many great ones and have a few opinions about what is best. But one thing I know for sure and that is how NOT TO CLEAN a window! 

How do I know? Well I have never done it, but I have had to clean windows after that have been improperly cleaned, and it's not fun. But through lots of sweat and almost a tear or two, I know how to undo the damage done, and how to recognize if a window has been consistently washed this way. 

How not to wash a window:

 Take out your garden hose, connect it to your home's outdoor tap, and spray the dirt and grime on your windows hard enough with the pressure that that dirty filth finally comes off. Then, when it does, give it a good rinse and move on to the next window that has been bothering you all winter.

This is the easiest way to ‘clean’ a window, but unfortunately, it is not a good one.

Why is this a bad Idea? 

Surprisingly, it's in the drying of the window that the harm comes. 

You may know that essentially all water from a tap contains various types and amounts of contaminants in them, such as aluminum, copper, lead, calcium and more. These are normal things, good for drinking, washing dishes and all that jazz, however when these minerals in the water are allowed to dry on your windows, that is bad news. 

When you spray your window with tap water and let the water sit and dry, the water evaporates, but the minerals are left behind and get stuck on the glass. 

This leads to what I call “calcification”. When the minerals dry and are stuck onto the glass.

Calcification is not noticed immediately, but over time, it leads to the minerals building up enough that glass starts to look cloudy and dirty, even right after you take a fresh dose of hose water to it! The glass also begins to feel less smooth over time.

Calcification can come from other sources than hose water too. 

For example, basement windows often get dirt splashed on them from rain or sprinklers, the dirt then sits on the window and the minerals from the dirt can begin to bind to the glass. If water hits metal, especially older metal, and then runs over your window glass, you will likely experience the same kind of calcification. 

So how should I wash my windows?

The trick to washing glass with water that's got minerals in it is nice and simple. Get the minerals out of the water! Now, that is simple, but not easy or cheap.

 Many professional window cleaners do exactly this, they have a “pure-water pole” that filters the water taking all those minerals out so they can scrub a window, rinse it and move to the next one, no minerals left behind to calcify the glass. 

They have massively long poles that allow a person to stand on the ground and reach as high as 40ft up to clean a window! 

Now, that does not help you, because those systems are expensive, bulky, and you really do not need it. Not to mention, this system will not take the calcification off. It can make a window look a bit better and will not add any more minerals to bind to the glass, but it will leave the fog behind. 

The simple, easy  and inexpensive method to avoid dirty, foggy, calcified windows is to not allow the mineral filled tap water to dry on the window. This is accomplished with a Squeegee. When you think of a window cleaner, you probably see him holding a squeegee and doing all sorts of fancy techniques. However, it's a very simple tool anyone can use. A squeegee is used after the glass is all clean to take all the extra water, soap and minerals in the water off the nice clean window.

Then a dry microfiber rag should be used to dry the edges of the window too, as squeegees will leave small amounts of water around the edges of the glass, especially if you do not have a high quality squeegee or have little experience using a squeegee. 

When you use a squeegee, no water is left on the glass, so not only is it perfectly clean and looking exactly how you want, but no water, and therefore no minerals are left and it can not lead to any minerals sticking to your window. Which means your windows will stay smooth and easy to clean in the future, plus they will not get cloudy over time. 

A squeegee is the simplest, easiest and most cost effective method for a homeowner or business owner to clean their windows. The squeegee method is what we use and recommend. It requires the cleaner to get up a ladder and close to each window, but this ensures they can really clean the glass and inspect that nothing is stuck on the glass before moving to the next one. This is hard to do when using a long pole and standing 20 feet away from the window. 

 What do I do if I have calcification on my windows? 

Now, you might be thinking, great I read this too late! My windows are all calcified, they are all foggy and I did not know I was not supposed to do that. What can I do about it? 

You might not like the answer here. (Remember the tears and sweat I mentioned at the start?)

To get the serious calcification minerals unstuck from the window, you need to take a razor, (yes a razor) to the glass and scrap it off. It's not just any old razor, you need one that is meant for cleaning glass and that's new, with no rust. I know it sounds scary, putting a razor to a big, expensive glass window, but that's the best way to get it off effectively that we have found when the calcification is really bad. 

So let's assume that you have a window with all sorts of mineral dried on, it looks foggy and does not feel smooth

. First, you have to get your window soapy and wet, take your new clean razor, put it at a 5-15 degree angle on the glass, push and scrape hard!

Two notes. 

1. Never razor a dry window, this increases the chances of scratching your glass. 

2. There are cleaners that help, we have found Spray 9 to be helpful for many dirty glass scenarios, calcification included. 

This might seem scary, but glass is tough and a good razor used properly is not likely to scratch your glass. We used them on nearly every window we clean to get little specks and spots off. I have even tried to scratch an old spare window with a razor and found it quite hard to do. So don’t stress over it too much. 

This method is quite labor intensive. You need to go at it multiple times from a few different angles and directions. Then wash the window, and squeegee it dry to see where you got the calcification off and where you missed. A wet window usually looks really clean. A dry one is when you can see where you missed, so even though it might look clean, be sure to give it a thorough inspection of a dry window before moving on. 

Trust me, if you put in the time, it will look way better, and the next time you need to clean that window, it will be ten times easier. That is assuming you remember not to take that hose water to it again! 

Summary

-do not let mineral filled tap water dry on your windows

-use a squeegee to get that water off

-remember to get the edges of the window where the squeegee may leave a little bit of water

-use a glass scraper to get the calcification off

-never use a razor on a dry window

-inspection the dry window, not the wet window before moving on

-finally, do not repeat the mistakes of your past-self, do a little bit of extra work up front and avoid the long term pain of calcification!