How to Start a Window Cleaning Business in South Africa

To start a window cleaning business in South Africa you need four things: equipment that suits the height of the buildings you plan to clean, a SARS tax number (plus a CIPC company if you want one), public liability cover, and a way of pricing jobs that you can quote the same way every time. A ground-floor squeegee kit costs R1,220, a pole kit that reaches a third storey from the ground costs R3,040, and a complete 9 metre pure-water system costs R17,520. Everything else on this page is about choosing the right one of those three and turning it into paid, repeat work.

What do you need to start a window cleaning business?

The short list, in the order most new window cleaners buy it:

• Cleaning equipment matched to the buildings in your area: a washer, a squeegee, a bucket, a scraper and spares at the very least, and a telescopic pole or a water-fed pole for anything above the ground floor.
• Transport that fits your longest pole. A 9 metre telescopic pole closes to 3 metres; a 6 metre pole closes to 2 metres.
• Tax registration with SARS, and a CIPC registration if you trade as a company.
• Public liability insurance, because sooner or later a sill, a frame or a pane gets damaged.
• A price list and a simple way to quote, invoice and book repeat cleans.
• A way to be found: a free Google Business Profile is the minimum.

The equipment decision matters most, because it decides which jobs you can accept, how fast you work and whether you spend your day on a ladder.

Window cleaning business equipment: three ways to start

Choose your starting level by the tallest windows you expect to clean regularly, not the tallest you might clean one day. You can move up a level later and keep everything you bought before.

Prices are pulled live from the shop.

Level 1: a traditional squeegee kit

The Basic Window Cleaning Kit is a 35cm washer and sleeve, a 35cm Pullex stainless steel squeegee and a 15 litre bucket. That is enough to clean ground-floor windows, shopfronts and inside glass properly, and it teaches you the squeegee technique you will use at every level. Add a scraper fitting for paint spots and stickers, and keep a spare washer sleeve and squeegee rubber in the vehicle: a nicked rubber leaves a line on every pane, and you cannot fix that on site without a spare.

The limit of this level is height. Anything above the ground floor means a ladder, which is slower and puts you at height.

Level 2: telescopic pole kits for double and triple storey

A telescopic pole lets you use the same washer and squeegee on upper windows while standing on the ground. The Single Storey Kit has a pole that opens from 2 to 4 metres (R2,370), the Double Storey Kit opens to 6 metres (R2,790) and the Triple Storey Kit opens to 9 metres (R3,040). Each includes the washer, squeegee and bucket, so the kit replaces Level 1 rather than adding to it. If you already own the hand tools, buy the pole on its own from the Telescopic Window Cleaning Poles range.

Pole work takes practice: the squeegee angle is harder to hold at 6 metres than at arm’s length, so expect to be slow for your first few jobs. The pay-off is that you never carry or move a ladder.

Level 3: a water-fed pole and pure water

A water-fed pole pumps purified water up the pole to a brush. You scrub the glass and frame, rinse with pure water and leave it to dry. Because the water has had its dissolved minerals removed, it dries without spots, so there is no squeegee and no ladder. It is widely used on commercial and high-level glass, and it also suits solar panels and conservatory roofs. How pure water window cleaning works explains the process in more detail.

The 6 Metre Waterfed Pole Kit (R15,320) and the 9 Metre Waterfed Pole Kit (R17,520) each include a fibreglass pole with brush, a 15 litre battery pump with charger and a 198 litre-per-day reverse osmosis plant that connects to a tap. You also need a holding tank or flow bin for the filtered water and a few 25 litre containers to carry it to the job; those are not in the kit. Add a TDS meter (R310) so you can check that your water reads zero before you leave for the day, and see the full Pure Water and Reverse Osmosis Systems range for deionising tanks and a trolley-mounted system.

If you are still deciding between levels, the guide on choosing the right window washing equipment will help you match the equipment to your work.

How much does it cost to start a window cleaning business?

Equipment is the cost you control most. The totals below are what each level costs to equip one cleaner, at today’s shop prices:

• Traditional, ground floor: R1,800
• Pole kit to a third storey: R3,620
• Pole kit plus a 6 metre pure-water system: R19,250

The costs that vary too much to price for you are the vehicle, fuel, insurance, your phone and data, and any marketing you pay for. Get two insurance quotes and work out your monthly vehicle cost before you set your prices, because those numbers decide what you have to charge.

Most new window cleaners fund the start themselves and buy one level at a time out of earnings. If you would rather spread the cost, pay-later options are offered at checkout on this store.

How to register a window cleaning business in South Africa

You can start trading as a sole proprietor in your own name. It costs nothing to set up: you register with SARS as a taxpayer if you are not already, and you declare the business income on your own return as a provisional taxpayer. The trade-off is that you are personally liable for the business’s debts.

A private company ((Pty) Ltd) is registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC), online through CIPC or the BizPortal website. It separates the business from you, looks more established to commercial clients, and is registered for income tax with SARS as part of the process. New close corporations can no longer be registered; that option ended when the Companies Act of 2008 came into force in 2011.

Three tax rules matter to a small window cleaning business, as they stand from 1 April 2026:

• VAT registration becomes compulsory once your turnover goes over, or is likely to go over, R2.3 million in 12 months. You can register voluntarily from R120,000.
• Turnover tax is a simpler tax for micro businesses with a turnover of up to R2.3 million, worth asking your accountant about in your first year.
• If you employ people, register as an employer with SARS for PAYE, register them for UIF, and register with the Compensation Fund under COIDA.

Open a separate business bank account from day one, whichever structure you choose. It makes your tax return and your pricing far easier to check.

How to price window cleaning jobs

Window cleaners charge in one of three ways:

• Per window or pane: easy for clients to understand and easy to quote over the phone. Decide what counts as one window (a standard pane, both sides) and charge more for French panes, skylights and glass you can only reach with the pole.
• Per hour: suits jobs you cannot count in advance, such as post-construction cleans with paint and cement on the glass.
• Per job: a fixed price for a house, a shopfront or an office floor. This is what most repeat clients prefer, and it rewards you for getting faster.

Whichever you use, work the number out from your costs rather than copying a competitor. Add up your monthly costs (vehicle, fuel, insurance, phone, equipment replacement) and the income you need to take home, then divide by the hours you can realistically bill in a month after travel and quoting time. That is your minimum hourly rate. Time a few real jobs and convert it into per-window or per-job prices.

Three habits protect your margin: a minimum call-out charge so small jobs are worth the drive, a higher price for the first clean (it always takes longer), and a lower price for clients who book every month or every quarter, because repeat work on a fixed route is where the profit is.

Is a window cleaning business profitable?

It can be, mainly because the equipment is cheap compared with the work it produces and because clean windows get dirty again. A double-storey pole kit costs R2,790: at R400 a house (an example figure, not a market rate), it pays for itself within ten cleans. What decides profit is not the equipment but how many paying jobs you fit into a day, which comes down to two things:

• Route density. Ten clients in one suburb are worth far more than ten clients spread across the city, because driving time is unpaid time.
• Repeat bookings. A shopfront cleaned every two weeks or an office cleaned every month pays again without you having to find a new client.

The work is also weather-dependent and physical, so plan for slower weeks in heavy rain and keep a small cash buffer for them.

How to find your first window cleaning clients

• Google Business Profile. Free, and it is where people searching for a window cleaner near them will find you. Add real photos of your work and ask every happy client for a review.
• Shopfronts. Walk a shopping strip and offer a regular fortnightly clean. Shops need clean glass to trade, and a strip of neighbouring shops is a dense route.
• Complexes and estates. Managing agents and body corporates book common-area glass, and one complex puts many owners in one place to offer private cleans to.
• Offices and commercial buildings. These usually ask for proof of insurance and company registration first, which is one reason to register properly from the start. A pure-water system lets you quote for higher glass than a squeegee crew can safely reach.
• Add-on services. The same water-fed pole cleans solar panels, fascias and conservatory roofs, so you can offer more to clients you already have.

Leave a card or a leaflet with neighbours every time you clean a house. It costs very little and builds density in the streets you already work.

Safety and insurance

The biggest risk in window cleaning is a fall from height. Working from the ground with a telescopic or water-fed pole removes most ladder work, which is safer and usually faster. When you do use a ladder, use one in good condition, set it on firm, level ground and have someone foot it. If you employ staff, the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 85 of 1993) makes you responsible for giving them safe equipment and safe ways of working.

Public liability insurance covers damage you cause to a client’s property, such as a cracked pane or a scratched frame. Commercial clients often ask to see it before they book you.

Window cleaning business start-up checklist

• Equipment for your starting level, plus a spare washer sleeve and squeegee rubber
• A vehicle that carries your longest pole
• SARS registration, and CIPC registration if you trade as a company
• A separate business bank account
• Public liability insurance
• A price list with a minimum call-out charge
• Quoting, invoicing and booking software, or a simple spreadsheet to begin with
• A Google Business Profile and a business card or leaflet
• Uniform or branded shirts, so clients and security guards know who you are

You can browse every tool mentioned here in our window cleaning equipment range, delivered nationwide.