Window Cleaning at Grande Dominica at The Dunes. Your view, restored.

Grande Dominica, at 295 Grande Way, opened the Grande Preserve section of The Dunes in 2003. Naples Condo Boutique describes a 17-story building of 87 residences, with three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath floor plans from about 2,600 to just under 3,000 square feet, private elevators, large lanais and a saltwater pool and spa. As the oldest of the four Grande towers, it is also the one where the age and condition of each unit’s glass varies most.

Telling dirty glass from tired glass

After more than two decades of salt air and summer heat, some original windows and sliders in a building like this will show wear that no amount of cleaning removes. We see three common cases in older Gulf-coast condos. Mineral spotting and salt haze sit on the surface and come off with the right cleaner and pad. Etching is damage in the glass itself, left by deposits that sat for months; it can be improved but not fully erased. Fogging or a milky band between the two layers of an insulated pane means the seal has failed, and the fix is a new glass unit, not a cleaning. On a first visit we point out which panes fall into which group, so you know what to expect before you pay for anything.

Units that have been upgraded

Many Dominica owners have renovated since 2003, and new doors or windows may have different coatings, frames and hardware from the originals. We have not seen a published window specification for the building, so we read the label on each pane and match the method to it. Newer impact sliders are heavier and run on sealed rollers that dislike grit; original doors may need gentler handling at the latch. Either way, tracks get vacuumed before a door is moved.

Turkey Bay, the Gulf and the low floors

Residents here look toward Turkey Bay and the Gulf. Higher floors take steady wind and salt, which builds as a light, even film. Lower floors and townhome-level units sit closer to the landscaping and the pool deck, where irrigation spray and splash leave hard-water dots and chlorine or salt residue on the glass. Those dots harden quickly in the sun, so ground-level and second-floor glass often needs attention more frequently than the view floors above.

Lanais that are used every day

Dominica’s lanais are large enough for dining, so they collect the things that come with outdoor meals: grill smoke, sunscreen hand marks on the rail glass and the slider handle, and splashes from planters. We clean rail glass on both faces where it can be reached safely from the deck, wipe down frames and handles, and leave the lanai floor dry.

Where our work stops

Everything reachable from inside your home and from your lanai is ours: interior faces of every window, both sides of each slider, rail glass, tracks, sills and, on request, screens. The outside face of fixed windows on a 17-story tower is cleaned by the association’s contractor, typically with rope access or a suspended platform, on a schedule set for the whole building. A water-fed pole run from the ground only reaches the lowest levels. We do not work over the lanai edge or rig from the roof.

Association and access

Dominica has a concierge and professional management. Before the first visit we send our certificate of insurance to the management office and ask about contractor hours, parking for our vehicle and the preferred entrance. The private elevator brings us into your foyer, which we cover with runners before unloading. If you are traveling, the concierge or your home watch company can give us access.

When to book

Owners usually plan around their own calendar: a visit before arrival in the fall, one before family or guests come for the holidays, and one at departure in spring. Units leased under the building’s four-leases-a-year rule do well with a visit between tenants. If you are planning window or door replacement, we can do a final cleaning after the installers finish to remove labels, adhesive and construction dust.

For owners between visits

Wipe handprints on rail glass with a damp microfiber and dry it right away, keep sprinklers and pool hoses off the glass, and do not try to scrape spots with a blade. If you notice fogging inside a pane, let your association know and get a glazing quote; it is a seal problem, not a cleaning problem.