Post-Construction Window Cleaning North York: $800 New Build

Post-construction window cleaning on our last North York new build cost $800 for the whole house, inside and out. The glass was the fast part. The frames and tracks took the day.

That is the thing builders and buyers get wrong about this service. You are not paying somebody to wash windows. You are paying them to take months of cement dust, silicone and paint off brand-new glass without leaving a mark on it, because a scratch on a new pane is not a redo. It is a replacement.

August 26, 2026: a house nobody had moved into yet

Quick answer: A new North York build, still an active site, cleaned inside and out for $800. Expanding foam had not been trimmed around the front door, factory labels were still on the panes, the front yard was bare grade, and the frames were packed with the fine grey dust that gets into everything on a build.

The state of the entry door tells you where the project was. The expanding foam around the frame had not been trimmed back yet. The glass still had film on it. Outside there was no lawn, no driveway, no landscaping, just graded soil and the tracks of whatever had been delivered that week.

That matters for scheduling, and we say so to every builder who asks. A site at this stage is still producing dust. Clean too early and the last trades put a fresh coat on your work.

Where the hours really go

Quick answer: Glass is the quick part of a post-construction clean. The hours go into frames and tracks, where construction dust packs into every corner. On the August 26 job the client asked for the tracks done properly, so every sash was opened and each track was cleaned from both sides, because some of them cannot be reached from indoors at all.

A pane of glass has one flat surface. A modern casement has a frame, a sash, a weatherstrip channel, a drainage slot, a hinge track and an operator arm, and construction dust finds all of them. It behaves like flour and it compacts.

This client asked for the tracks done properly, so every sash was opened, the track cleaned, the sash closed, and then the same track worked from the other side, because part of it cannot be reached from indoors. That doubles the handling on every window, and it is the difference between a house that looks clean from the couch and one that is clean when you open a window.

Indoors the dust comes out with a steam cleaner rather than water, which lifts it from a channel without flooding a finished interior. One thing nobody mentions about steam: it flings the debris it loosens, so everything around the window gets covered first.

Taking construction residue off new glass

Quick answer: Outside, the first step is water and plenty of it. The dust layer on a new build is thick enough that we flood the pane with a hose before anything touches it. Concrete gets a softener and then a scraper. Silicone takes 2 passes, a scraper and then a fine pad, because a blade alone always leaves a haze of it behind.

The order matters more than the tools.

Exterior, dust: we flood the window with a hose and rinse it before a cloth or a blade goes near it. On a heavy build-up that is not a shortcut, it is the safest thing available. The industry standard for cleaning architectural glass, published by the National Glass Association, puts it plainly: "Cleaning should begin by soaking the glass surfaces with clean water and a mild, non-abrasive glass cleaning solution." The same document explains why: "The use of sufficient water will help prevent abrasive particles from being trapped between the glass and the cleaning tools being used."

Concrete and mortar: where there is enough of it to matter, we put a softening product on the deposit, let it work, and then lift it with a scraper. Going straight at hardened mortar with a blade is how glass gets ruined.

Silicone: a scraper takes the bulk off and never takes all of it. What is left is a thin film you can only see at an angle. That comes off with a fine metal pad worked over a flooded pane. Paint specks come off the same way.

The factory label is still on the pane in that photograph, top left. On a new build they are everywhere, and they come off last, once the glass around them is already clean.

The part that should decide who you hire

Quick answer: A blade is the only practical way to get hardened mortar off glass, and it is also the only tool on the job that can destroy a window. The National Glass Association allows blades for post-construction work but sets 3 conditions: a new blade, one direction only, and never on coated glass. Ontario's warranty checklist tells buyers to inspect panes for scratches at handover.

Every window cleaner who works new construction owns a scraper. The question is whether they respect it. The NGA standard keeps blades out of routine cleaning entirely and carves out post-construction as the exception, with conditions attached:

"... use of razor blades should be limited to the affected areas of the glass. Scraping should be done in one direction only with a new blade. Never scrape in a back and forth motion as this could trap particles under the blade that may cause scratches."

That is the whole mechanism in one sentence. The blade does not scratch the glass. A particle caught underneath the blade scratches the glass, and a nicked blade holds particles. So the blade gets checked before every window, and a blade with a flaw in the edge gets thrown away rather than finished with.

There is a second rule most people have never heard: heat-treated glass behaves differently. The same standard says "The use of razor blades should be the last possible option, especially on heat treated glass" and that "Razor blades should never be used on coated glass surfaces." New builds are full of both. Patio doors, sidelites and anything low to a floor are usually tempered, and modern windows are usually coated.

The standard also gives a practical instruction we follow on every job: "it is strongly recommended that window cleaners test clean a small area of one window, then stop and examine the surface carefully for any damage to the glass and/or any exposed coating." Daylight, one small patch, look before you commit.

Why the timing is a warranty question, not a tidiness one

Quick answer: In Ontario a buyer's pre-delivery inspection is the moment damage gets recorded, and there is only 1 of them. Tarion's own checklist tells buyers to check that window panes are free from scratches. A scratch found before that walkthrough is the builder's problem. The same scratch found a month after possession is an argument.

Ontario new homes are covered by a statutory warranty and the handover has a formal step: the pre-delivery inspection, or PDI. Tarion describes it this way: "The objective of this inspection is to record all items that are incomplete, damaged, missing, inaccessible or not operating properly", and the point of writing them down is "to verify that these conditions existed prior to occupancy." Ontario's builder regulator, the Home Construction Regulatory Authority, adds the instruction that decides who pays: "Be sure to document these concerns on the PDI form with your builder."

Glass is on the list. Tarion's PDI checklist gives buyers the instruction directly: "Check that window panes are free from scratches, cracks, or other damage."

So the sequence that protects everybody is: finish work ends, glass gets cleaned properly, then the walkthrough happens with glass somebody can inspect. Dirty glass at a PDI hides scratches. Clean glass reveals them while it is still the builder's problem to solve.

What post-construction window cleaning costs in North York

Quick answer: The August 26, 2026 job was $800 for a whole new build, inside and out, including tracks cleaned from both sides. The March job ran 2 full days because of French windows, and overnight rain meant part of day one was washed again on day two. Price on this work tracks the number of frame sections and the site conditions, not the number of panes.

Two things move this price more than square footage. The first is frame complexity: a house of plain casements is a different job from a house of French assemblies, and anyone quoting the second at the price of the first has not looked at it. The second is how far along the site is, because cleaning around live trades means covering, re-cleaning and lost time. Agree up front who wears a rained-out day.

An earlier North York build shows what the first one costs. Two storeys, multi-panel French windows on every level, below-grade egress windows reached from open window wells. A plain window has one frame perimeter; a full French assembly has ten or fifteen sections, and every extra edge is another place a particle can shift under a tool. It ran two days, and overnight rain put the site's dust back on glass we had already cleaned, so part of day one was washed again on day two.

Where we do this work

Quick answer: We cover North York and 22 other GTA cities from one address in Etobicoke, with 2 permanent crews and no seasonal staff. Post-construction work is booked around the site schedule rather than a route, because the clean has to land after the dirty trades and before the buyer walks through.

We serve North York, Etobicoke, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Mississauga and the rest of the GTA. We work out of one address, 7 Inverleigh Drive in Etobicoke, with two permanent crews covering the whole region.

Post-construction window cleaning questions, answered

Taking possession of a new build, or handing one over? Get the glass cleaned before the walkthrough. Call (647) 558-8411 or get a free estimate online.

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