How to become a window cleaner

Official title: Window cleaner

Also called: Window washer

Window cleaner washes and polishes windows and other glass fittings. He/she uses cleaning tools such as sponges and detergents to clean and polish windows, mirrors and other glass surfaces of buildings, both on the interior and exterior. He/she uses specific ladders to clean taller buildings with safety belts for support.

Main tasks

• Washing windows or other glass surfaces with water or various solutions, drying and polishing them
• Using ladders, swinging scaffolds, bosun’s chairs, hydraulic bucket trucks and other equipment to reach and clean windows in multi-storey buildings
• Selecting appropriate cleaning or polishing implements

Pay · Outlook · AI and this job

• Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Related jobs

• Hand launderer/presser (non-household)
• Motor vehicle cleaner/polisher
• Ship/Ship tank cleaner
• Aircraft cleaner
• Railway carriage cleaner

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Questions people ask

Will AI change the work of a window cleaner?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

• International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Updated 4 October 2026