Most window cleaning pricing guides online hedge so heavily they're useless. “It depends on many factors.” “Contact us for a quote.” That's not a guide — that's a stall.
This page does the opposite. Real fixed prices, real ranges, based on the 200+ residential cleans I've done across Bayside, Glen Eira and Stonnington in the past 12 months. If you want a price right now without reading further, the instant quote calculator on the homepage will give you a fixed number in 60 seconds.
If you want to understand what you're actually paying for and why prices vary, read on.
Quick Answer: What Window Cleaning Costs in Melbourne
For a standard residential job in Melbourne's inner south-east, here's the realistic range:
- Single storey, 3-bedroom: from $300 (interior + exterior)
- Single storey, 4–5 bedroom: $350–$400
- Double storey, 3-bedroom: from $450
- Double storey, 4–5 bedroom: $500–$550
- Larger or premium homes: $600–$1,000+ depending on glass volume, fly screens, pool fencing and access
Exterior-only cleans cost less. Add-ons like fly screen cleaning ($5 per screen), full detail clean (+50% on the base) and track and sill detail (+25% on the base) sit on top of the base price.
The rest of this guide explains where those numbers come from, what makes a quote go up or down, and how to tell whether a cheaper quote is genuinely cheaper or just leaving things out.
Why Window Cleaning Prices Vary So Much
Two homes that look similar from the street can have wildly different window cleaning costs. The reason almost always comes down to one thing: the number of individual panes of glass.
Most people count a window assembly as one window. They walk through the house, count seven, tell the cleaner “we've got about seven windows.” In reality, each of those assemblies often has 4–10 individual panes. A standard 4-bedroom single-storey home in Melbourne can have upwards of 50 individual panes. I've cleaned homes with 350 panes in a single property.
Every pane gets cleaned individually, on both sides. So a home the customer thinks has “12 windows” is often a 60-to-120-pane job, and each one needs the same care.
That's the single biggest reason prices vary. Beyond pane count, the other factors that move the price:
- Number of storeys — second-storey work needs the water-fed pole system, which adds setup time and equipment
- Fly screens — most homes have 8–20+ screens; each one is removed, washed, rinsed and re-fitted
- Glass condition — paint marks, builder's residue, salt etching and hard water spotting need a full detail upgrade
- Access — narrow side returns, balconies, tight courtyards add time
- Frame and sill type — colonial windows, deep tracks and detailed sills take longer
- Property type — modern mansions and architect-designed homes often have floor-to-ceiling glass, which significantly increases the pane count
This is exactly why the instant quote calculator asks about property type, storeys and bedrooms — those three together give a strong estimate of pane count without the customer needing to count anything.
Single Storey Window Cleaning Costs
Single storey is the most common Melbourne residential clean. Here's what it costs:
- 3-bedroom: starts from $300 (interior + exterior)
- 4-bedroom: $325–$375
- 5-bedroom: $375–$400
- Larger or premium single storey: $400–$600
For about 1% of single-storey homes, the quote calculator can't capture the full scope — typically homes with excessive glass, architect-designed builds, or unusual access. In those cases I adjust the quote on site after walking the property with you. If your home falls into this category, the calculator will still give you a useful baseline.
For a deeper breakdown including the $139 exterior-only deal and what's included, see the single storey window cleaning cost guide.
Double Storey Window Cleaning Costs
Double storey is where the equipment matters. Cheap operators use ladders against the render, which damages walls, takes longer and produces a worse result. The proper method is a water-fed pole system using purified (mineral-free) water, which reaches up to three storeys safely from the ground.
- 3-bedroom double storey: from $450
- 4–5 bedroom: $500–$550
- Larger double storey with more fly screens or pool fencing: $650–$700
- Modern mansions, colonial windows or homes with extensive feature glass: $1,000+
Triple storey homes typically price the same as equivalent double storey. The water-fed pole is already extended; an extra few metres doesn't fundamentally change the job. Full breakdown in the double storey window cleaning cost guide, including the $249 exterior-only double storey deal.
Units, Apartments and Townhouses
Priced the same as houses by bedroom and storey count. The one variation: for non-ground-floor apartments, interior-only cleans are common since the exterior is typically maintained by the building's strata.
Strata and body corporate window cleaning for apartment blocks is quoted differently — based on the number of residences and building access. See the commercial page or call directly for those.
Fly Screen Cleaning Cost
Flat rate of $5 per screen, regardless of size or type.
Fly screens are honestly one of the hardest parts of the job. They get filthier than the windows themselves, they're awkward to remove without damaging the surrounding paintwork, and a surprising number of homes have screens that were installed behind blinds — meaning the only way to remove them is to take the blinds down and remove the brackets first.
The $5 covers removal, washing, rinsing and re-fitting — done properly. It's not “wipe over with a wet cloth,” which is what cheap operators often do.
A typical 4-bedroom home has 8–20 fly screens, so most jobs add $40–$100 in screen cleaning. Larger homes with screens on every window can hit $150+. Worth it — the difference in light and airflow once they're properly washed is immediately noticeable.
Full guide: fly screen cleaning cost Melbourne.
Full Detail Premium Clean Cost
Adds 50% to the base price (the base price being your property type + bedrooms + storeys total).
So if your standard double-storey 4-bedroom clean is $500, the full detail upgrade brings it to $750.
What it adds: razor-blade and steel wool treatment on interior glass on both floors and exterior glass on the ground floor. This removes paint specks, salt etching, builder's residue, mineral build-up, smudges and bug residue that a standard squeegee clean can't fully shift.
Why it matters: a standard clean removes dirt, grime and water marks. It does not remove things bonded to the glass. After a standard clean, those bonded marks become more visible against the now-clean surrounding glass — it's the contrast effect. The full detail catches them in the same visit.
Strongly recommended for first-time cleans, post-renovation cleans, and any property within 1km of the bay where salt etching is likely. Detailed pricing in the full detail clean cost guide.
Track and Sill Cleaning Cost
Adds 25% to the base price.
For a single-storey 4-bedroom home with a base of $375, that's roughly $94 extra. For a double-storey 5-bedroom at $550 base, around $138.
Tracks accumulate years of dirt, mud, leaves, dead insects and general grime. Some tracks have four or more channels, all of which need to be cleared, scrubbed and detailed. Sills are wiped as standard on every clean, but the deep track-and-sill add-on is the difference between “clean glass” and “the whole window assembly looks new.”
Recurring Cleans and Loyalty Discounts
Most of my customers set up a recurring schedule. The discount structure rewards frequency:
- Every 3 months: 20% off all future cleans
- Every 6 months: 10% off
- Every 12 months: 5% off
For a larger home, the 3-month plan can save over $100 per clean. The discount is locked in — no requoting every time, no chasing for a new price each visit.
Recurring customers also get priority access through the busy spring and pre-Christmas booking periods, which is when the calendar fills hardest.
The frequency that's right for your home depends on where you live. Bayside foreshore properties pick up salt residue within 4–8 weeks, so 3-monthly exterior-only cleans are common. Stonnington and Glen Eira homes typically run on a 6-monthly schedule. For more on this, see how often to clean windows in Melbourne.
Interior vs Exterior — Which to Book
The most common booking pattern: customers book exterior-only thinking the inside doesn't need it. Then I clean the outside, and the contrast between the now-clean exterior glass and the still-dirty interior makes the inside impossible to ignore. About a third of my exterior-only customers end up rebooking interior within a few months.
If you haven't cleaned the inside yourself in the last 6 months — and “cleaning” here means more than a wipe with Windex — book both. The cost difference is meaningful but not huge, and you avoid paying me to come back twice.
The exception: non-ground-floor apartments where the building handles the exterior. In those cases, interior-only is the right call.
Full comparison in interior vs exterior window cleaning cost.
What Makes Some Quotes Way Cheaper
If you've been getting quotes and one comes in dramatically cheaper, there's almost always a reason. The cheap end of the Melbourne market — Airtasker operators, dodgy one-man jobs, anyone quoting under $150 for a full house clean — usually cuts corners that aren't obvious until after the job:
- Skipping the sills entirely or brushing dust onto the floor instead of wiping
- Not removing fly screens — just running a wet cloth over them in place, which doesn't actually clean them
- Spot cleaning — only doing the panes that look visibly dirty, especially on second storey where you can't see from the ground
- No insurance, ABN or public liability — fine until something breaks, and then you're paying for it
- Ladders against render on second storey instead of a water-fed pole — damages render, slower, less safe, worse finish
- Hourly pricing that drifts — no fixed quote, the bill at the end is whatever they say it is
- Showing up under-equipped — a bucket and a single squeegee, no mop, no detailing tools, no purified water
- Cleaning in direct sun — water dries before it can be squeegeed off, leaves streaks
- Leaving paint marks, bug spots and bonded debris without recommending a full detail upgrade
The hidden cost: you can't fix streaks. You either live with them or pay another cleaner to redo the whole job. I see this often — customers who went cheap, weren't happy, and end up booking me to clean the same windows again. They've now paid twice.
Detailed comparison in cheap vs quality window cleaning Melbourne.
DIY vs Professional — Honest Take
A lot of customers try the inside themselves with Windex and a microfibre cloth before calling me. It almost never works. In the right light, every smudge mark shows up against clean exterior glass and the interior looks visibly worse than before they started.
The result: time wasted on a job that needed to be redone anyway, plus the rebooking cost. If you're going to do the inside, you need a proper mop, squeegee and detergent solution — and the technique that goes with them. For occasional single-storey exterior on a small home, DIY is reasonable. For everything else, a professional clean costs less than the time it'll take you to do a worse job.
What's Always Included in My Quotes
Every standard residential quote from me includes:
- All windows cleaned interior and exterior (or exterior only if booked that way)
- All sills wiped
- All glass walked through with you before I start
- All equipment, water and consumables — nothing extra to supply
- Fixed price quoted upfront — no on-the-day surprises
- $10M public liability insurance
- Same-day invoicing, no chasing
What's not included as standard but offered as add-ons: fly screen cleaning, full detail upgrade, track and sill detail, glass pool fence cleaning, shower screens, mirrors.
How My Online Quotes Work
The instant quote tool on the homepage uses property type, number of storeys and number of bedrooms to estimate pane count and time required. For roughly 99% of Melbourne homes, this produces an accurate fixed quote.
For the remaining ~1% — typically architect-designed homes with floor-to-ceiling glazing, mansions, or properties with unusual access — the calculator gives a baseline and I adjust on site after walking the property with you. The base quote is always honoured; on-site adjustments only apply when scope is genuinely larger than a standard property of that type.
More on the methodology: how online window cleaning quotes work.
How Long a Window Clean Takes
This affects the price because labour time is most of what you're paying for. Realistic times:
- Single storey 3–5 bedroom: 2–4 hours
- Double storey 4 bedroom: around 4 hours
- Larger homes with full detail, pool fencing or excessive glass: 6+ hours
- Triple storey or colonial windows: longer again
A standard 3-hour job can become a 6-hour job purely from glass volume. This is why pricing by pane count or property scope makes sense — it captures what's actually being done.
Pre-Sale and Real Estate Window Cleaning
Pre-sale presentation cleans are typically the full detail upgrade plus fly screens — the goal is for every window to look brand new for inspection day. Pricing follows the same structure as a standard clean but with the full detail premium added by default. For a 4-bedroom double storey, expect $750–$900 for a presentation-grade clean.
Real estate agents in Bayside, Glen Eira and Stonnington book this regularly ahead of auction campaigns. Detailed breakdown: pre-sale window cleaning cost Melbourne.
What I Charge Compared to the Market
Honestly, my prices aren't on the high end of the Melbourne market. They're roughly mid-range — fair for the level of detail and the fact that the same person quotes, cleans and stands behind every job.
I sometimes get pushback that prices feel high, but it's almost always because the customer is comparing against memory from 10–20 years ago. Window cleaning, like every trade, has moved with cost of living, equipment costs, insurance, and fuel.
For premium presentation homes, established Melbourne operators typically charge more for equivalent work. For genuinely budget jobs, the cheap-end operators charge less but with the corner-cutting outlined above. I sit in the middle: thorough work, honest pricing, fixed quotes.
The Justin Difference
- Sole operator — I do every job. No subcontractors, no rotating teams, no apprentices learning on your home.
- 45+ five-star Google reviews across Bayside, Glen Eira and Stonnington
- $10M public liability insurance
- 200+ residential jobs in the past 12 months across the inner south-east
- Fixed online quotes — no phone games, no on-the-day surprises
- Streak-free guarantee — if it's not right, I come back
FAQs: Melbourne Window Cleaning Costs
What's the cheapest window clean you offer?
The $139 single-storey exterior deal — exterior only, up to 20 windows, no add-ons. For double storey it's the $249 deal covering up to 30 windows.
Do you charge per window or per house?
Per house, based on property type, storeys and bedrooms. This is fairer than per-window pricing because most customers significantly under-count their panes.
Is the online quote really the final price?
Yes for ~99% of Melbourne homes. For the small fraction of properties with unusual scope, I'll adjust after walking the property with you on the day. The base quote is always honoured.
Do you do triple storey?
Yes, but rarely for residential. Pricing follows the same logic as double storey — the water-fed pole system handles it without requiring scaffolding in most cases.
What happens if I'm not happy with the clean?
I come back and fix it. Streak-free guarantee. The benefit of being a sole operator is there's one person accountable — you're not chasing a head office.
Do you service my suburb?
Established service across Bayside, Glen Eira and Stonnington — see the full list of suburbs. Surrounding suburbs are often covered too; call to confirm.