About a third of customers who book exterior-only end up rebooking me for the interior within a few months. That's not a sales pitch — it's a pattern I've watched repeat across 200+ jobs. Most people genuinely don't realise how dirty the inside of their windows is until the outside is clean.
This guide isn't about pricing. It's about helping you decide what your home actually needs so you don't end up paying for two visits when one would have done.
For pricing specifics, see the interior vs exterior cost guide or the complete Melbourne pricing guide.
The Default: Both, In One Visit
For most Melbourne homes, the right answer is to book interior and exterior together. The cost difference between the two is meaningful but not dramatic, and doing both in a single visit avoids the most common booking mistake — paying for a second visit a few months later because the contrast between clean exterior and dirty interior becomes impossible to ignore.
The decision tree below covers the genuine exceptions where exterior-only or interior-only makes sense. If your situation isn't on the list, default to both.
When Exterior-Only Is the Right Call
Recurring 3-monthly maintenance on Bayside foreshore homes. Coastal properties pick up salt residue within 4–8 weeks. The interior, however, doesn't load up at the same rate — once it's clean, a 6-monthly schedule is usually enough. The pattern most coastal customers settle into is twice-yearly full cleans with quarterly exterior-only top-ups in between to handle salt build-up.
Mid-cycle top-ups between full cleans. For homes with significant west-facing glass that gets weather-beaten, an exterior-only refresh halfway between full cleans makes sense. Particularly for properties under tree cover where pollen and bird droppings build up faster than they should.
Pre-inspection final touch-ups. If your interior was professionally cleaned a few weeks before an open inspection, an exterior-only refresh the day before the inspection makes sense. The interior is still presentation-ready and only the outside needs a touch-up.
Apartments above ground floor. For non-ground-floor apartments where the building strata or owners corporation handles the exterior glass, interior-only is the right booking. This flips the question entirely — see the interior-only section below.
Genuinely meticulous DIY interior cleaners. This is rare but it exists. If you actively maintain your interior glass with proper tools (mop, squeegee, detergent — not Windex and a cloth), and your interior glass looks good in side light without streaks, exterior-only is fair. The honest test isn't whether you've wiped them recently — it's whether they look genuinely clean when sun streams through them at a low angle.
Recently cleaned interiors. If a professional cleaned the inside in the last 6 months, exterior-only is fine. After 6 months you're back into the default of booking both.
When to Always Book Both
Your first professional clean on a home. If windows haven't been done in 12+ months, both sides have years of build-up. Exterior-only on a first clean almost always exposes how dirty the interior is and triggers a rebook within weeks. Just do both.
Pre-sale and rental inspection cleans. Buyers and prospective tenants see both sides of glass. Both need to be perfect. Pre-sale presentation is the wrong context to skimp.
Post-renovation or post-construction cleans. Building work leaves residue on both sides of glass — paint specks, plaster dust, sealant smears, render splashes. The interior gets dirtier than people realise during construction even when rooms are sealed off, because dust travels.
Homes with significant cooking, kids, pets or indoor smoke. Interior glass picks up cooking vapour film, fingerprints, nose marks and smoke residue faster than people expect. The threshold isn't whether you cook a lot — it's whether you cook with oil regularly. Frying and roasting both throw vapour into the air that settles on cool surfaces like glass.
Annual maintenance, regardless of suburb. At least once a year, the interior should be done thoroughly. The cost of skipping it is the contrast effect — interior glass that looks fine on its own starts looking dim and grimy once the exterior is clean.
Interior-Only Cleans
Less common but available on request. The genuine use cases:
Apartments above ground floor. The building handles exterior, you handle interior. Interior-only makes complete sense here — there's no point booking exterior on a glass surface someone else maintains.
Mid-year touch-ups between full cleans. Particularly for kitchens after entertaining season or windows in high-traffic areas where kids and pets leave marks.
Post-event cleans. After dinner parties, big cooking events, smoke incidents from a fireplace, or anything that's left visible interior film.
Post-renovation when only interior was affected. If you've had interior painting, plastering or floor sanding, the interior glass picks up residue but the exterior is fine.
Interior-only quotes typically run 60–70% of a full interior+exterior price, depending on the home. Call directly for interior-only quotes — they're not in the standard online calculator.
Why DIY Interior Cleaning Usually Backfires
A lot of customers try the inside themselves with Windex and a microfibre cloth before calling me. It almost never works, and the reason is specific: streaks.
In the right light — particularly low afternoon sun coming through a window — every streak, smudge and missed spot on glass shows up. Windex and a cloth can clean most of the dirt off glass, but it leaves a residue and almost always leaves streaks. The result is windows that look fine from one angle and visibly streaky from another.
The proper interior method is a mop and squeegee with a controlled detergent solution, and the technique to use them properly. None of those tools are expensive, but the technique takes practice to get right.
The other DIY problem is time. A professional spends 2–4 hours on a single-storey 4-bedroom interior. A homeowner trying to do the same job typically spreads it across multiple weekends, gets bored, and finishes 60% of it before giving up. The half-finished interior then looks worse than before they started — clean panes next to dirty ones make the dirty ones look dramatically worse.
For a 4-bedroom Melbourne home, paying a professional costs less than the time it'll take you to do a worse job.
What Each Service Actually Includes
Interior + exterior (standard) — Every pane on both sides, all sills wiped, walk-through with you before starting, fixed pricing, streak-free guarantee. Add-ons available: fly screens, full detail upgrade, track and sill detail.
Exterior only via the $139 single storey deal — Exterior glass on a single-storey home up to 20 windows, fly screens removed and reinstalled but not cleaned, no add-ons. Designed as a value option for top-ups.
Exterior only via the $249 double storey deal — Exterior glass on a double-storey home up to 30 windows, ground-floor fly screens removed and reinstalled, second-storey fly screens cleaned over with the purified water from the pole.
Interior only — Quoted on request. Typical for apartments above ground floor or post-event touch-ups.
How to Pick Right the First Time
Three questions to ask yourself:
- When was the inside last cleaned thoroughly with proper tools? If the answer is "more than 6 months ago" or "I don't know," book both.
- Is the property coastal? If yes, the long-term pattern is twice-yearly full cleans plus quarterly exterior-only top-ups. Don't book exterior-only for your first clean — book both, then settle into the maintenance pattern.
- Is this for inspection or sale? If yes, book both with the full detail upgrade. Presentation isn't where you save.
Get Your Quote
Instant quote calculator — fixed price for interior+exterior in 60 seconds.
For exterior-only on a smaller home, the $139 single storey deal. For double storey, the $249 deal. For interior-only, call Justin on 0490 813 290.
For pricing breakdowns specifically, see the interior vs exterior cost guide or the complete pricing guide.