How to start a window cleaning business in 2026

Homes or storefronts first? Homes pay more per visit and book twice a year at best, so the work comes in spring and fall rushes; storefronts pay little per stop but come back every two or four weeks, and the money is in density — a block of shops you can walk between. Most owners do both: storefronts on fixed weekday mornings, homes in the afternoons and on the busy weeks. Storefronts are also quick to win: you can walk in and ask the manager.

How to price: per window, per pane, per visit. Homes are quoted by the window or by the pane — a pane is one sheet of glass, so a two-pane window counts twice — with a minimum charge and add-ons. HomeAdvisor's add-on prices are $5 a window for inside as well as outside, $1 a window for tracks and sills, $5 a screen and $15 a pane for removing calcium and lime deposits — hard-water stains (HomeAdvisor). Housecall Pro's guide prices screens at $2 to $5, tracks at $3 to $6 a window and hard-water removal at $20 to $75 or more, with minimums of $100 to $150 or more, and, for commercial properties and large buildings, pricing by the square foot at $0.10 to $0.35 (Housecall Pro). Storefronts get a flat price per visit for the glass you can reach — inside and out, or outside only. Whatever you charge, write it down before the first job, and raise it before it's too late: owners who started low say so in the next section.

The traditional kit. Every window cleaner starts with a squeegee, a scrubber or T-bar and sleeve to wet the glass, a bucket, a tool belt, scrapers and towels. At abc Window Cleaning Supply, a US store for the trade, the Jeff Klass basic kit — an 18-inch channel and swivel handle, a T-bar and sleeve, a bucket and a hip bucket, a belt and holster, spare rubbers, glass cleaner and towels — lists at $288.42 (on sale at $253.22 when we checked), and the deluxe kit at $593.67 (abc Window Cleaning Supply). A complete squeegee runs $14.29 to $18.20 from Ettore (abc) and $26.63 to $34.28 for Unger's ErgoTec (abc). Fixr notes that kits start at $75 (Fixr). Take care scraping tempered glass — it scratches, and the scratch becomes your claim (owners explain in the next section).

The water-fed pole. A water-fed pole is a long, light pole with a brush at the top that sprays purified water: you scrub the glass from the ground and leave it to dry, and because the water has no minerals in it, it dries without spots. The water comes from a deionizing (DI) tank, which is cheap to buy and suits soft water, or a reverse-osmosis-and-DI (RO/DI) system, which filters the water through more stages and costs more. XERO, a US maker, sells a half-cubic-foot DI tank with a 21-foot pole for $937.99 — "Works best in Soft Water areas" (XERO) — and its three-stage Pure RO/DI system for $1,899 (XERO), or $2,428 packaged with a 21-foot pole (XERO); its carbon-fiber Pro Basic pole alone is $749 to $1,149 complete (XERO). abc lists a complete starter package with a 35-foot pole at $2,250, and says the system makes pure water "at a cost of $.02 per gallon" (abc). Resin is the running cost: XERO recommends changing it once the water reads over 10 parts per million on a meter (XERO), and sells a quarter cubic foot for $89 (XERO). A pole keeps you off the ladder on second-story glass and speeds up storefronts — owners in the next section say to buy one sooner rather than later.

Ladders, and the safety rules. For second-story glass you need a fiberglass extension ladder, typically 24 to 28 feet. Fixr notes extension ladders start around $110 (Fixr); our plan budgets $400 to $600 for a fiberglass one that long — a planning range, because the big retailers' pages refused our checks. A pair of ladder levelers lists at $117 to $214 at abc (abc; abc). Federal safety law doesn't cover the self-employed — OSHA lists "self-employed workers" among those the OSH Act doesn't cover (OSHA) — but it covers you from your first employee: portable ladders inspected before each shift, and side rails extending at least 3 feet above an upper landing (29 CFR 1910.23). OSHA's ladder card calls falls from portable ladders "one of the leading causes of occupational fatalities and injuries", sets the base a quarter of the working length from the wall, and says never to stand on the top three rungs (OSHA QuickCard). Fall protection is required for work 4 feet or more above a lower level on an unprotected side or edge — a roof, a balcony — though the rule doesn't apply to portable ladders (29 CFR 1910.28). States can go further: California's window-cleaning orders for employers require someone to stand at the foot of any ladder over 18 feet and hold it with both hands, and rule out cleaning a window that needs a fully extended ladder over 40 feet (Cal/OSHA §3287). If you'll work from a roof anchor, a full-body harness lists from $90 at abc (abc). Follow the same rules alone — a fall is the trade's biggest risk, and the pole is the cheapest way to avoid one.

Rope work is a different business. Above what a ladder or a pole can reach, one way to clean high-rise windows is a rope descent system — a seat on a line from a roof anchor. OSHA requires the building owner to tell the employer in writing that each anchor was tested and certified to hold at least 5,000 pounds per worker, based on a yearly inspection and certified at least every 10 years, with a separate fall-arrest line and prompt rescue, and no rope descent above 300 feet unless other access is infeasible or more hazardous (29 CFR 1910.27). Rope access has its own certifications: SPRAT has three levels, each with a written and a practical test (SPRAT), and IRATA has trained more than 130,000 technicians worldwide (IRATA). New York puts a duty on the owners and contractors of public buildings to provide safe means for cleaning their windows, with exemptions for smaller buildings (N.Y. Labor Law §202). Start on homes and storefronts; train and buy into rope work only once you're sure you want it.

Do you need a license? For window cleaning itself, mostly no — check your state and city. In the US, "generally, there are no occupational window washer licenses or certificates you'll need," as one insurer puts it; you register the business and pay the taxes that apply (NEXT Insurance, June 2025). Some examples of the exceptions and edges:

• Washington exempts window washing from its contractor registration (Washington L&I, 2024).
• Saint Paul, Minnesota licenses cleaning outside windows above the first floor with ladders, scaffolding or lifts — though not on one- or two-family homes — and asks for a certificate of insurance (City of Saint Paul).
• California licenses construction clean-up — including removing paint and adhesive from windows after a build — as a contractor trade (CSLB D-63).
• City business licenses are set city by city: Seattle's is $73 a year for a business with under $20,000 of revenue in the city and $147 from $20,000 to $499,999 in 2026 (City of Seattle).

Sales tax varies too. Texas taxes "washing windows" as building cleaning, homes included (Texas Comptroller); Connecticut taxes window cleaning services on any real property (Connecticut regulation); Ohio taxes building cleaning, windows included, once you sell $5,000 or more of it in a calendar year, with a $25 vendor's license (Ohio Department of Taxation); and New York keeps window cleaning taxable even under a regular cleaning contract (20 NYCRR §527.7). Check your state's revenue department and ask an accountant before you set your prices.

Insurance. General liability pays if you break a window, damage a house or injure someone; storefronts and property managers ask for the certificate before you start. Insureon's medians are $78 a month ($931 a year) for window cleaners' general liability and, across its cleaning customers, window cleaners among them, $81 for a business owner's policy, $250 a month ($3,001 a year) for commercial auto, $9 for a janitorial bond and $114 for workers' compensation (Insureon, September 2026); outside New Hampshire, almost every state requires commercial auto insurance for company-owned vehicles (Insureon). NEXT Insurance says 45% of its window-cleaning customers pay $38 to $51 a month for general liability (NEXT, October 2026) — get quotes from more than one. Ask your agent whether damage to the glass you're working on is covered: an owner quoted in the next section doesn't think theirs is. Workers' comp: California requires it even for one employee (California DIR), while Texas leaves it optional for most private employers (Texas Department of Insurance).

Add-ons: gutters, solar panels and pressure washing. The ladder and the customer are already there. HomeAdvisor puts gutter cleaning at $119 to $234, averaging $168 (HomeAdvisor, June 2026), and solar panel cleaning at $200 to $500 a system — adding that panels "are often covered by warranties, which can specify the required frequency of maintenance and inspections and who must perform said maintenance" (HomeAdvisor, June 2026); Fixr says $15 to $35 a panel (Fixr, January 2025). Read the panel maker's cleaning rules first: one maker's guidelines for its commercial modules prefer RO water (deionized or low-mineral water may be used), rule out abrasive cleaners, and allow no more than 500 psi at the nozzle (First Solar, 2017). House washing is the biggest ticket: Fixr puts pressure washing a house at $500 to $900, averaging $700 (Fixr, January 2025) — read our guide to starting a pressure washing business before you buy the rig.

The business, and the route. Form the business — an LLC is $40 in Kentucky (Kentucky SOS), $300 in Texas (Texas SOS) and $70 in California (California SOS), where every LLC also owes an $800 yearly tax (California FTB) — and get the free EIN (IRS). Then build the route: storefronts on the same streets on fixed days, homes grouped by neighborhood, and every home's next clean booked before you leave. For one owner on ladders and a water-fed pole, our free window cleaning business plan puts the start at $3,395–$12,882: a squeegee kit, an extension ladder and levelers, a water-fed pole and pure-water system, a year of general liability and — for a business-owned vehicle — commercial auto and a janitorial bond, registration, the website, and two months of running costs. Your own living costs, and any vehicle, come on top. The window cleaning website templates show what a good window cleaner's site looks like, and Zarla's window cleaning website builder is how homeowners searching for window cleaning near them find yours. If you'd rather clean whole homes, read our guide to starting a cleaning business.