How to hire
Match the cleaner to the job first. A regular round suits everyday glass, frames and sills every few weeks, and most Telford firms offer it by traditional squeegee or by water-fed pole using purified water that dries spot-free. Interiors are still done by hand, so say whether you want inside and out. When the brief runs wider, to mossy render, roofs, driveways, gutter clearing, fascias or solar panels, pick an exterior specialist instead, and for workplaces, schools or clinical sites pick a contract cleaner used to planned work. Tell the firm which you have: an open driveway, a terrace with a shared alley, or a cottage with parking streets away.
Window cleaning needs no licence, so there is no mandatory register to check the way there is for gas or electrics. The voluntary body is the Federation of Window Cleaners, the trade association established in 1947, whose members carry liability insurance and work to a code of practice; ask for the membership and check it with the Federation directly before you book [1]. None of this round's ten claims membership, which is common for small rounds, and the table records that as Can't be sourced.
Ask how upper windows are reached. Ladders are not banned, but the safety executive says they should not be the automatic first choice, and much domestic work can be done from the ground with a pole [4]. For genuinely high work from platforms, the operator should hold a powered-access licence earned through training and a test at one of its training centres, so ask to see the card [8]. Whatever the method, ask to see the public-liability policy and check its dates cover your job, since most firms in this table state no insurance on their sites [5].
Telford and Wrekin adds a few local wrinkles. The borough holds eight conservation areas, including the Severn Gorge, Wellington and Newport, where permission can be needed for works that would be straightforward elsewhere [9]. Much of the Gorge is also a World Heritage Site, with extra planning policies and controls that remove some household permitted development rights [11]. Window cleaning itself rarely troubles the planners, but height and heritage can combine: scaffolding over a pavement needs a council licence applied for in advance [10], and Gorge cottages, terraces in Wellington and Dawley and town-centre flats above shops all reward settling parking and access before the quote.
Expect the job to run in a clear order. First contact is a message or call with your address, the window count, what else is wanted and how access looks; firms that quote from photos will want every elevation, including the rear. The reply should be a written quote with the scope, the first-clean price against the regular price, the frequency and the payment terms. Booking fixes the weekday and the arrival arrangement. On the day, have gates unlocked and the outside tap reachable, then walk the glass with the cleaner before they leave and fix the next date there and then.
First contact is usually a call, message or quote form with your address, window count and photos. Get two or three written quotes on the same written brief, since a quote is a promise to do the work at an agreed price and having it in writing is what lets you prove it later [5]. Each quote should name every window, frame, sill and door, whether the clean is inside, outside or both, how often the round calls, what a first clean costs against the regular price, how access and parking are handled, whether VAT is added and how you pay. Treat an outlier far above or below the rest as a question rather than a bargain.
Make access easy on the day. Say where the outside tap is if poles need filling, where the van can park on your street, what moves out of the way in the garden and around the conservatory, and how pets and alarms are handled. Several firms in this table send a text the night before, so keep your phone on and reply if the date no longer suits. Agree how skipped or paused visits work before the round starts, so a holiday never becomes a missed-payment row.
Finish with paperwork, however small the job. Keep the invoice showing what was cleaned and when, the date of the next visit and any guarantee the firm offers on treatments such as soft-washed render. For a workplace or school, hold the contract, the named contacts, the insurance papers and any background checks the site needs on file. If the firm claims a scheme or association anywhere, check the membership on that body's own site rather than taking a logo at face value [6]. Photograph any problem area on the day, while the kit is still on site to put it right. Keep every quote, invoice and message thread together, so a later question has the full trail behind it.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, a regular exterior clean of a three-bed semi typically runs £15 to £40 a visit in modelled national guides, averaging around £25, with one-off cleans dearer than round prices [7]. Other 2026 guides put a three-bed regular round at £35 to £50 and starting prices for smaller homes from £30 [2] [3]. Telford usually sits below London and South East prices, which run well above the average [7].
Add-ons lift the bill but cost less booked together. Clearing the gutters of a standard house runs £40 to £120 depending on length and blockage, with downpipes sometimes extra [3] [7]. Fascias and soffits run £45 to £150, conservatory roofs anywhere from £30 for a wash-over to £250 for a deep algae clean, and solar panels £25 to £50 [3] [7]. A neglected first clean typically adds £10 to £30 on top of the round price [3].
Two job types price differently from the round. A first clean after building work, a long gap or heavy algae usually carries a one-off uplift on top of the round price, since neglected frames, sills and conservatory roofs take far longer than maintained ones [3]. Interiors are close to a second job: an inside-and-out clean of the same house can run roughly double the exterior-only figure, because every room means access, moving items and hand finishing [7]. Gutter-only visits have their own rhythm, with late autumn the busiest booking point once leaves have fallen [12]. Price each as its own quote line.
Height and access move the price most: top-floor glass over a conservatory, limited rear access and town-centre parking all add time, as does heavy soiling and moss [2] [3]. Frequency pulls the other way, with regular customers often paying less than one-off prices [3]. Interiors add the inside half of the job, so an inside-and-out clean of the same house can run roughly double the exterior-only figure [7].
Published ranges exclude VAT unless stated, so ask whether it is added on top [2]. None of the ten firms in this table publishes example rates, offering free quotes or quote forms instead, so treat any single fixed figure for a large job with no breakdown as a question, not an answer. Get the scope, the first-clean price, the regular price and the VAT position in writing before work starts, and keep every quote and invoice together [5].
Red flags
Quotes a gutter, roof or render job without visiting or asking for photos of the work.
Cannot show a current public-liability policy when you ask, or its dates do not cover your job [5].
Reaches every awkward top window by ladder with no pole system and no discussion of safer access [4].
Gives one fixed figure for a large first clean with no breakdown of labour, materials and VAT.
Asks for full payment in cash before starting, with no written quote or terms [5].
Raises the agreed price on the day with no reason beyond its own costs going up [5].
Will not put the scope, the price and the next-visit date in writing before starting.
Leaves ladders, poles or dirty water across paths and neighbouring drives without clearing up before leaving.
Cannot say which windows were skipped when access beat them on the day, or when they will be caught up.