The short answer
Exterior window cleaning removes the weather load — pollen, storm spatter, road film, hard-water spotting — from the outside of the glass, usually with a squeegee at ground level and a water-fed pole higher up. Interior cleaning is a gentler, more careful job: softer film, more corners, and a room to protect. Booking both on one visit is the only way to judge the result honestly, since a smear could be on either side.
Exterior: removing the weather
The outside of the glass carries everything the window keeps out. In Charlotte that's a spring pollen crust, summer storm spatter, road film through winter, and hard-water spotting anywhere a sprinkler or downspout hits the glass.
Reachable panes are cleaned by hand with a squeegee and a scrim cloth. Upper floors are reached from the ground with a carbon-fibre pole and filtered water that carries no minerals, so it dries clear with nothing left behind.
Interior: a careful job in your space
Inside glass has a lighter film — cooking residue, dust, hand prints, pet noses — but more of the work is care: floor protection, moving what needs moving, handling blinds and furnishings, and cleaning the muntin bars and corners, not just a wipe across the middle.
It's quieter, slower work, and the room goes back exactly as it was found.
Why do both together
When only one side is done, any remaining mark is ambiguous — inside or out? Cleaning both sides on the same visit removes that doubt, and the second side of a pane is always faster than the first, so it's the most efficient way to buy a genuinely clear window.
Last reviewed September 2026. Written by the Aloe Cleaning team.