Window Cleaning Safety & Insurance: What Every Facility Manager Must Verify

Window cleaning looks low-risk until something goes wrong. A fall from a lift, a dropped tool striking a pedestrian, or an uninsured injury on your property can turn a routine service into a serious liability event — and if your vendor isn't properly covered, that liability can flow to you. Here's what to verify before any crew starts work.

Insurance: the non-negotiables

• General liability of at least $2M to cover property damage and third-party injury.
• Workers' compensation so that if a technician is injured on your property, their medical costs don't become your problem.
• Commercial auto for the crews traveling to your sites.

Always request current certificates of insurance, and for higher-risk work ask to be named as additional insured. A vendor who hesitates on this is telling you something important.

Safety certifications that matter

For any elevated work, look for OSHA compliance and technicians trained in fall protection. Membership and certification through the IWCA (International Window Cleaning Association) signals a vendor that takes industry safety standards seriously. For high-rise and multi-story work, ask about their rope-descent and lift protocols, anchor-point assessments, and pedestrian-safety measures.

The site assessment

Professional crews don't just show up and start spraying. Elevated jobs should begin with a documented site assessment: anchor points, wind conditions, pedestrian traffic, and access logistics. If a vendor skips this, they're cutting corners you can't see — until you can.

Why this matters at scale

Across a national footprint, verifying insurance and safety credentials for dozens of local vendors is a full-time job — and one lapse creates exposure. Consolidating to a single national partner means one set of credentials to verify, maintained to a consistent standard across every location. It's one of the underrated benefits of vendor consolidation: your risk-management surface shrinks dramatically.

Every crew in our network carries comprehensive coverage and follows OSHA-compliant protocols, with certificates available on request. If you're not sure your current vendors measure up, we're happy to show you what a properly credentialed program looks like.

Frequently Asked Questions