Questions, answered

Most Gloucester County homes land between $225 and $650 for exterior windows and screens, depending on window count, and $395 to $1,050 for inside and out. National averages sit around $221 a visit. Your exact number is confirmed in writing by a person before any work starts.

Three things move the price more than anything else: how many windows you actually have, whether they are true divided-light (lots of small panes take real time), and whether ladders can be set safely. Screens are included in our full-service work rather than charged per screen.

See the full table on our pricing page.

We charge $165 to $340 for a full gutter cleanout in Gloucester County, with debris bagged and hauled away. Single-story homes sit at the lower end, two-story and steep-pitch homes at the higher end. Published NJ figures range from $100 to $500, so ask what is actually included before you compare.

What pushes a gutter price up: a second story, a steep roof pitch, long uninterrupted runs, heavy debris from years of neglect, and the number of downspouts that need clearing.

Be careful comparing quotes. Some companies price the cleanout and then charge extra to take the debris away, to clear a clogged downspout, or to lift gutter guards. Ours includes all three.

A fair market rate is roughly $8 to $16 per window for inside and out, or $4 to $8 for exterior only, with most companies applying a minimum charge of $100 to $250. Anything dramatically below that usually means no insurance, no employees, or a job that will not include screens, sills or tracks.

The honest version: the cheapest quote in your driveway is cheap because something has been taken out of it. Usually it is workers' compensation coverage, or the time it takes to remove and wash screens.

We are not the cheapest company in the county and we explain exactly why on our pricing page.

No. Photo estimates and on-site walkthroughs are both free, with no obligation and no pressure. Send two photos of your home through our quote form and you will get a starting range immediately and a written price from a person, usually the same day.

Height changes the job, not just the reach. Two-story work needs taller ladders, more setup and repositioning, a spotter on uneven ground, and a slower pace. It carries more risk, which is reflected in insurance costs. Expect roughly 30 to 60 percent more than the same work at ground level.

Hard water and well-water iron staining is quoted separately, typically $10 to $30 per affected window, because it is a restoration job rather than a cleaning job. We assess it at the quote and tell you honestly whether it will come out fully, partly, or not at all.

This matters in South Jersey. Iron in well water leaves an orange cast that ordinary washing will not lift, and if it has been baked on by sun for years it can etch the glass permanently. We will show you a test patch before you commit to the whole house.

No, and we never expect it. Our crew is paid properly whether you tip or not. If you want to, the common range is 10 to 20 percent or $10 to $20 per person. Plenty of our plan members skip tipping through the year and do something at the holidays instead. A Google review helps us more.

After the work is finished and you have walked it with us. No deposit, no card on file, no payment collected from an automated estimate. We invoice on completion and you can pay by card, check or bank transfer. Membership is the one exception — it bills monthly on a plan you already agreed to.

Twice a year for exteriors is right for most South Jersey homes — once in late spring after pollen drops, and once in fall. Interior glass is more of a monthly-to-quarterly job as it gets smudged. Homes under heavy tree cover, on well water, or near a main road benefit from a third visit.

That twice-a-year rhythm is exactly what the Seasonal Exterior Care plan is built around, which is the whole reason it exists — almost nobody remembers to book the second one.

Twice a year for most homes here: late spring after the maples and oaks drop, and late fall once the leaves are down. Fall is by far the heavier of the two. If you have pines over the house, four times a year is realistic. With no trees at all, once a year can be enough.

Gloucester County's tree cover is the deciding factor. In Mantua, Wenonah and Pitman — genuinely wooded towns — we see gutters pack solid in a single season. In newer Woolwich developments with young trees, once a year often holds.

Late spring, once the pollen has finished. Washing during the peak oak and pine pollen drop in April and May means the film is back within a week. The second best window is early fall, before the leaves come down and gutters need attention anyway.

Overcast days are actually better than bright sun. Direct sun dries cleaning solution on the glass before it can be squeegeed off, which is the single most common cause of streaks.

Yes. We work exterior glass down to roughly 35°F using cold-weather additives that stop water freezing on the pane. Below that we reschedule rather than risk a poor result or a hazard on your walkway. Winter has one real advantage: no pollen, so the clean lasts noticeably longer.

A standard residential job runs two to four hours. A small home with exteriors only might be ninety minutes; a large home inside and out with screens can take most of a day. We give you a realistic window when we confirm the quote, not an optimistic one.

Most homes take one to two hours, including bagging the debris, clearing and flow-testing the downspouts, and rinsing off any patio or walkway underneath. Larger or badly clogged homes take longer, and we will tell you that before we start rather than after.

Once a year is right for most South Jersey homes, usually between March and November. Walls that face north or sit in shade grow algae faster and sometimes need it more often. Left alone, organic growth holds moisture against the siding and eventually stains permanently.

Water overflows where it should not. In order of expense: fascia and soffit rot, then water pooling against the foundation, then basement seepage, then ice dams in winter that push water back under the shingles. A $200 cleanout is meaningfully cheaper than any one of those repairs.

The South Jersey version of this problem is winter. A packed gutter holds water, that water freezes, and the ice dam forces meltwater up under the roof edge. It is the single best argument for the fall cleanout.

Pressure washing runs at 1,300 to 2,800 PSI. Soft washing runs at 150 to 300 PSI and uses a cleaning solution to kill the organic growth instead of blasting it off. Siding, soffits, trim and roofs get soft washed. Concrete — driveways, walkways, patios — is where pressure is the correct tool.

High pressure on siding drives water behind the panels, scars vinyl, strips paint and blows out failing caulk. It looks impressive for an afternoon and costs you later. If a company offers to power wash your siding, ask what PSI they run at the wall.

More on our soft wash page.

Exterior glass hand-washed or pure-water cleaned frame to frame, screens removed, washed, dried and re-set in the opening they came from, sills and tracks wiped, and spider webs knocked down around every frame. Interior glass is available on request, with booties on and drop cloths down.

Screens are included in full-service window cleaning rather than sold as a per-screen extra. Clean glass behind a dirty screen is not clean glass, so charging separately for it never made sense to us.

Yes, both, as part of full-service window cleaning. Tracks get vacuumed and wiped, and sills are cleaned rather than left with the dirt line you notice a week later. Many companies charge $1 to $5 per window for this. We do not treat it as an extra.

Yes. Interior glass is an option on any job, and we quote it separately so you can choose. Inside work means booties on every floor, drop cloths under every window, and furniture moved and put back. Plenty of customers do exteriors twice a year and interiors once.

Water run through a filter that strips out every dissolved mineral, then fed up a carbon-fibre pole to a brush head. Because the water is pure, it dries with no spots and no residue — nothing is left behind to dry on the glass. It also lets us reach second-story windows safely from the ground.

Almost always one of three things: the glass was cleaned in direct sun so the solution dried before it could be squeegeed, tap water was used and left mineral spots, or the cloth was already dirty. A fourth cause is not streaking at all — it is hard-water etching, which is permanent.

If it is our work and it is streaky, that is what the 48-hour promise is for. Call us and we come back.

Gutters cleared by hand, not blown out onto your landscaping. Downspouts checked, cleared and flow-tested with water. All debris bagged and removed from the property. Patios, walkways, decks and planting beds protected and rinsed clean. Before-and-after photos taken from the gutter line.

We do not leave the leaf mess behind. That sounds like a small thing until you have had a company blow two years of wet leaves onto your beds and drive away.

Yes — less often, not never. Guards keep leaves out but let shingle grit, pine needles and roof sand through, and that sludge sets in the bottom of the trough. Plan on every other year for most homes, or annually if you have pines. Lifting and re-setting guards is included in our price.

No, when it is done correctly. The protocol is simple and non-negotiable: pre-soak every bed and shrub before any solution goes on the wall, tarp what needs tarping, and rinse everything again when we finish. Damage happens when a crew skips the pre-soak to save fifteen minutes.

That is Gloeocapsa magma, an algae that feeds on the limestone filler in asphalt shingles. It is removable with a proper roof soft wash — never with pressure, which strips the granules and voids most shingle warranties. Expect it to keep dying off and washing away over four to six weeks after treatment.

Then the first visit is restoration, not maintenance, and we price and describe it that way. Years of build-up, mineral spotting and oxidation on the frames take significantly longer than an annual clean. We will tell you at the quote which one you are buying, and what the realistic result looks like.

Yes, as a quoted add-on. Dirty panels measurably reduce output, and they are cleaned with pure water and a soft brush — never detergents or anything abrasive, which damage the anti-reflective coating. We do not walk on arrays; if it cannot be reached safely from a pole or ladder, we will say so.

Yes. We carry general liability and workers' compensation covering everyone who sets foot on your property. Right now the crew is the two of us — Adam and David — so you always know who is pulling into your driveway. Ask for the certificate and we will email it before you book.

Workers' compensation is the part most homeowners never think to check. If an uninsured worker is hurt on a ladder at your house, that can become your problem. Ask every contractor for a certificate that names both general liability and workers' comp.

As we hire, anyone who works on your home is background-checked first, and shows up in a Sightline shirt in our truck. We do not subcontract.

No. Everyone who works on your home is a Sightline employee on our payroll, in our uniform, covered by our insurance, trained to our standard. Not a rotating sub crew, not day labour hired for the week. If that ever changes we will tell you before we send anyone.

No. Most of our customers are at work. We need access to the areas being cleaned and an outdoor water spigot, and we will text you before we arrive and again when we are done. If you want interior work, we do need someone to let us in — booties on, drop cloths down.

If you are not home for the final walkthrough, we send the after photos the same day and hold the invoice until you have had a chance to look.

Call or text within 48 hours and we come back and fix it. No argument, no second invoice, no making you feel awkward for asking. And you never pay a dollar until the work is finished and you have walked it with us — so nothing is settled before you have seen it.

The full terms, including what the promise does not cover, are on the guarantee page. We would rather write down the edges than surprise you with them later.

We tell you the same day, before we leave if possible. We photograph it, put it in writing, and then repair it, replace it, or run it through our liability insurance. What we will not do is quietly knock a few dollars off the invoice and hope you do not notice.

For exteriors, usually yes. Three reasons: ladder falls are the most common serious home-maintenance injury; hard-water and mineral etching becomes permanent if it is left, so early removal protects the glass; and pure-water exterior results are genuinely hard to match with a bucket and a squeegee.

Interior glass is a different question. Plenty of people do their own insides and hire out the outsides, and we think that is a perfectly sensible way to spend your money.

Clean glass does not spot from clean rain — rainwater on properly cleaned glass usually dries clear. What causes spotting is rain running off a dirty roof or dirty gutters onto the pane. If your glass genuinely spots within 48 hours of our visit, that is a callback, not a new booking.

Six questions: can I see your certificate of insurance including workers' comp; are your workers employees or subcontractors; what happens if you break something; can I have the price in writing before you start; what do you do to protect my plants and patio; and who do I call if I am unhappy, and by when?

Ask us all six. If any company gets awkward at any of them, that is your answer.

It is not a problem, but it does change the job. Iron in well water leaves an orange cast on glass and siding that ordinary washing will not lift, and it needs a specific treatment. We identify it at the quote rather than discovering it halfway through, so the price and the expected result are honest from the start.

Well water is common on the larger properties in Harrison Township, South Harrison, Elk Township and Franklin Township. If your outside spigot runs off the well, tell us at the quote — we bring filtered water for the final rinse.

Yes, for most jobs we use your outdoor spigot, which typically costs a couple of dollars' worth of water. For pure-water window cleaning we run it through our own filtration first. If you are on a well with heavy iron, or your spigot is not working, we bring our own tank.

Yes. The green film on the north and shaded sides of South Jersey homes is algae, and it comes off with a low-pressure soft wash and the right cleaning solution. It is one of the most satisfying jobs we do, and it generally holds for one to three years depending on shade and tree cover.

We are based in Mullica Hill and work sixteen towns across Gloucester County — Harrison and South Harrison, Woolwich, Swedesboro, East Greenwich, Mantua, Washington Township, Glassboro, Pitman, Wenonah, Woodbury, Deptford, Logan, Williamstown, Franklinville and Monroeville.

We keep the radius deliberately tight so response times stay real and travel time stays out of your invoice. See the full service area. If your address is not listed, send it anyway and we will tell you honestly.

Slightly, and mostly in winter. A heavy film of grime on south-facing glass cuts the solar gain that helps warm a room on a cold clear day. The bigger issue is not efficiency — it is that dirt holds moisture against the seal and the frame, which shortens the life of the window.

It is worth it if you would otherwise forget. Members get exterior windows twice a year, screens once, a full gutter cleanout, priority scheduling and member pricing on everything quoted — from $62 a month. The real saving is the gutter cleanout most people skip until something overflows.

If you would rather book job by job, that is a completely legitimate choice and we quote it the same way and do it to the same standard. The plan is not a trap, it is a calendar.

There is no long-term contract. Membership bills monthly and you can cancel with 30 days' notice, with no cancellation fee and no clawback of visits you already had. Some companies in this market charge $250 to leave a maintenance plan. We think that tells you something.

By window count band — up to 15 windows, 16 to 25, or 26 to 40. We confirm your band at the first quote with a person looking at your actual home, never from a photo alone. Homes with more than 40 windows are quoted individually. Once set, your price does not drift.

We move it at no charge, and you go to the front of the rescheduling queue rather than the back of it. Priority on the calendar is a large part of what membership actually buys you, and weather is exactly when it matters most.

The first fifty members lock their price for 24 months, whatever happens to our rates. They also get one complimentary standard screen repair a year. It is how we thank the people who book us first.