For many Keys homeowners, the view of the water is everything. It’s mostly why they live here. That is, until salt spray and summer storms leave a hazy film on the glass. This everyday problem has now been solved by Sea Clear, a window cleaning company launched just over a month ago by co-owners Chris Faber and Chris Gleadall.
Faber, who also works at Dolphin Research Center and with Keys Media Studio, said the idea grew out of what he and Gleagall were seeing on photo and video shoots across the area.
“We noticed how at a lot of these house shoots, and when we’re at a lot of friends’ houses, that a lot of the windows with great views are very salty and pretty dirty, just from the salty environment and the rains and storms that we can get,” Faber said. “We figured that this would be a great problem to try and solve, so people can kind of enjoy their great views with no blemishes.”
Their new business, Sea Clear, focuses primarily on residential window cleaning, but is open to a wide range of jobs.
“We do commercial jobs as well, and we’re not really limited to anything,” Gleadall said. “If it has a window, we’ll clean it.”
To tackle the salt, sand and streaks, Sea Clear uses both traditional and specialized equipment. Crews rely on classic squeegees alongside a water-fed pole system that uses deionized water.
“We have our traditional squeegees, so when we use those, we bring our own water,” Faber said. “We have six-gallon buckets, so it’s very easy to transport.”
The water-fed pole system, he added, is especially effective for tough coastal buildup.
“A water-fed pole uses deionized water, which is great for removing salts and other debris and keeping it off,” Faber said. “When it dries, it dries streak-free because it’s soluble and removes everything.”
Right now, Sea Clear hooks up to the homeowner’s water supply, but the owners are already planning for growth.
“We’re in the process of getting a 60-gallon tank with some pumps, though, so we can be more mobile,” Gleadall said.
An online system for price quotes and booking, along with more precise in-person options, is intended to make the experience easy. Once scheduled, most standard jobs can be completed in a single visit.
“For a normal house, it takes between one and two hours for us to clean the windows,” Gleadall said. “If we do just the exterior, probably an hour. Interior, probably two.”
The company operates with flexible scheduling seven days a week. More information is at seaclearkeys.com or 561-405-5030.
