A window washing drone replaces rope access, swing stages, boom lifts, and scaffolding on Miami commercial buildings, from four-story office parks and hotels to Brickell, Downtown, Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, and Aventura towers. Our tethered pure-water system delivers streak-free glass on every pane while the pilot stays on the ground, and most buildings finish in 1–3 days.
Before
AfterFully Insured
$2M Liability
FAA Compliant
Part 107 Certified
Commercial Projects
Up to 200 ft by drone
A real job, not a stock photo
Belmont Village Senior Living · Coral Gables, FL, a 130,000+ sq ft luxury senior living high-rise.
Belmont Village needed its entire exterior - facade, windows, floor surfaces and the parapet - cleaned without closing a single entrance or moving a resident. Lifts, scaffolding, swing stages and rope access were all off the table, and the parapet was the one element none of them could reach.
Before
AfterDrone window cleaning in Miami uses a tethered industrial drone, a window washing drone, to spray de-ionized pure water (0 TDS) and biodegradable soft-wash detergent on exterior glass. A ground-based pump feeds the drone up the tether, so the pilot stays on the ground while every pane on every elevation is cleaned streak-free. It replaces rope access, swing stages, boom lifts, and scaffolding on commercial buildings from four-story office parks to full-height condo towers, and it is priced at $0.12–$0.25 per square foot of glass, fixed after a free site survey. Most Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach buildings finish in 1–3 days without anchor inspections, rescue planning, or sidewalk closures.
Every project we price lands between $0.12–$0.25 per sq ft of facade, windows-only at the lower end, windows + facade higher, and the building's condition sets where in the band you land. Locked as a fixed quote within 24 hours.
Every project is a fixed price after a free site survey, at $0.12–$0.25 per square foot of glass, with no minimum charge. Totals below are computed at the glass area shown, and bigger jobs get lower rates: $0.12–$0.20 per sq ft at 40,000 sq ft of glass and up, and lower still on very large projects.
Mid-rise, 10,000 sq ft of glass
$1,200–$2,375
High-rise, 40,000 sq ft of glass
$4,800–$8,000
Super-tall / portfolio, 100,000 sq ft
$10,364–$20,000
Final pricing depends on glass square footage, coating type, ground-pump staging access, and frequency. Where a pane count is the better unit, such as a low-rise with small punched windows, per-pane pricing runs $0.75–$3.50. Recurring contracts, most often quarterly on oceanfront Brickell, Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, and Hallandale Beach buildings, drop the per-visit price by 20–30%. See the full drone window cleaning cost breakdown or how we price.
Does drone window cleaning work? Yes, on exterior glass, and the reason is the water more than the aircraft. A window cleaning drone is a tethered industrial drone carrying two nozzles, one for biodegradable soft-wash detergent and one for de-ionized pure water. A pump on the ground feeds both up the tether, so the water supply is continuous, while the aircraft runs on batteries that are swapped on the ground between sets. Because the rinse water has zero dissolved solids, nothing is left behind when it dries: no squeegee, no streaks, no hard-water spots.
The lower floors get a 70 ft carbon water-fed pole running the same 0 TDS water. It never leaves streaks, and it cleans the sills in the same pass as the glass. Together the pole and the drone clean the building with nobody over the edge: better, faster, and cheaper than rope access.
An FAA Part 107 remote pilot flies from the ground while a visual observer watches the airspace. Every project, from a four-story office to a forty-story tower, runs the same documented sequence:
About a week out
We walk the property, photograph every elevation, measure the glass square footage, and identify coatings (low-E, ceramic-frit, mirrored, tinted). Obstructions that shape the flight path (antennas, balconies, signage, setbacks) are logged, and the fixed price is locked to the actual glass area.
Condos and HOAs: about 30 days out
Condo and HOA buildings get a board-ready package: certificate of insurance, FAA Part 107 certificate, LAANC airspace authorization, flight plan, and a tenant notice template. Most approvals take one or two board cycles. Commercial office buildings without a board skip this step and usually schedule within a week of the survey.
3 days out
Much of urban Miami sits in controlled airspace near MIA, OPF, and TMB, with FLL and PBI covering Broward and Palm Beach. We file LAANC authorization with the FAA and send a certificate of insurance naming the owner and property manager: $2M general liability plus UAS aviation coverage.
48 hours out
Building management circulates a notice with the day and time for each elevation, so residents retract awnings, move balcony furniture, bring pets in, and close shades before the drone reaches their side.
Cleaning day
The crew stages on a single rooftop pad, parking space, or service drive. Pump, filtration to 0 TDS, tether, and drone are set up in 30–45 minutes, with no scaffold rigging and no lobby access. Spotters hold a small zone directly under the drone; pedestrian flow continues everywhere else.
Pane by pane
The drone applies biodegradable soft-wash detergent at low pressure from its first nozzle. It dwells on the glass for 30–90 seconds to break surface tension and lift the salt, pollution film, pollen, and bird residue typical of South Florida exposure.
Top to bottom
The drone switches to its de-ionized pure-water nozzle and floods each pane, sheeting dirt and detergent off the glass. With no minerals in the water, the glass air-dries clear: no squeegee, no rags, no hard-water spots.
Within 48 hours
4K aerial footage and stills of every elevation, captured during the same flights, are delivered to the property manager and board as documentation of completed maintenance.
Is there a drone that can clean windows? Yes, but not a camera drone with a spray nozzle. We fly Lucid Bots Sherpa cleaning drones on a tether, fed by reverse-osmosis and de-ionization water generation and a ground pump. We operate them as a service and do not sell them; see our equipment for the full specs, or buying vs hiring a cleaning drone if you are weighing the purchase.
Can windows be cleaned without scaffolding, lifts, or rope access? Yes. A drone applies a pure-water rinse to exterior glass on any elevation, without scaffolding, boom lifts, or rope-access technicians. A single rooftop or ground-level launch point covers the building.
Most of a rope-access or scaffold bill is not the cleaning. It is the cost of getting a person safely to the glass: anchor inspections, rigging days, rescue-plan rehearsal, engineering reviews, sidewalk permits, and falling-object protection for everyone below. Take the person off the building and the schedule, the risk, and the price fall together.
| Factor | Rope access / swing stage | Scaffolding / boom lift | Drone window cleaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup time | Multi-day rigging | 1–3 weeks with permits | Same day |
| Crew at height | Required | Required on every level | None, pilot on the ground |
| Pre-work | Anchor inspection before every drop | Engineering review and multiple permits | FAA airspace authorization |
| Tenant disruption | Blocked windows, noise | Windows blocked, noise, dust | Minimal |
| Water and finish | Squeegee runs, streaks common | Squeegee runs, streaks common | 0 TDS pure water, dries spot-free |
| Total project cost | $1.75–$3.50 per sq ft of glass | Baseline | $0.12–$0.25 per sq ft; 30–60% below scaffolding |
Wind is the one place the drone gives ground. It flies in sustained wind up to 15 mph with gusts to 25 mph, so on breezy days glass work is scheduled for the calmer morning hours, before the sea breeze builds. For the line-by-line comparisons, read rope access vs drone cleaning, scaffolding vs drone cleaning, and exterior cleaning without scaffolding in Miami.
Drone window cleaning covers most commercial glass in South Florida, from four-story office parks and hotels to Brickell, Downtown, Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, and Aventura towers. It is not the answer to every window, and the survey tells you which ones it is.
Drone window cleaning removes the single highest-risk activity in commercial window washing, a worker at elevation, and replaces it with an FAA-regulated aerial operation flown from the ground.
No rope access, no swing stage, no boom lift, no scaffold. The pilot flies from a ground station, so the highest-risk variable in window cleaning, a worker hanging over Brickell or Collins Avenue, is removed entirely. There is no one to rescue and no rescue plan to rehearse.
Our drones are registered with the FAA and Remote ID compliant, and every flight is flown by an FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot. LAANC authorizations are filed in advance for MIA, OPF, TMB, FLL, and PBI controlled airspace and carried on every job site.
We carry $2M commercial general liability plus dedicated UAS (drone) aviation liability and hull coverage. Certificates naming the owner, property manager, and HOA are issued before mobilization.
Every flight follows a documented checklist covering weather, airspace, tether and equipment, and the ground zone. Operations halt for wind above 15 mph sustained or 25 mph gusts, lightning within 10 miles, or any mechanical anomaly.
Pure water plus biodegradable soft-wash detergent is safe for low-E, ceramic-frit, tinted, mirrored, and laminated glass. Pressure stays in the soft-wash range: no high-PSI impact, no coating-stripping chemicals, no abrasive brushes.
Soft-wash pressure and the pure-water rinse stay low enough not to force water past failed sealants or curtain-wall gasket beads, so cleaning does not push water behind the cladding.
Documented, client-approved projects. Every figure comes from the case study, not a brochure.
Coral Gables, FL
Belmont Village Senior Living, a 130,000+ sq ft luxury senior living high-rise.
Miramar, FL
Workspace Property Trust, a four-story Class A office building in Miramar Centre Corporate Park.
A close pass on the airframe itself: the tethered Lucid Bots Sherpa, nozzle forward, water line trailing.
The tether carries water, not power. The aircraft runs on batteries at roughly 19 minutes per set and is hot-swapped on the ground, so the water supply is continuous while battery sets rotate.
Watch all 14 clips from this projectSalt mist off Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic films commercial glass faster on the coast than inland. We clean it streak-free on high-rises and commercial buildings throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach with the same tethered pure-water system. Each county has its own salt exposure, building stock, and access pattern, and drone cleaning adapts to all three.
Brickell, Edgewater, and Miami Beach high-rises see relentless salt mist and tropical rain spotting; inland Class A office glass in Doral and Coral Gables runs cleanly on a 6-month cycle. Pure-water drone window cleaning removes the haze on every floor without rope crews working over Biscayne Boulevard or Collins Avenue.
Broward's beachfront condo towers and downtown Fort Lauderdale glass facades stain quickly from salt and afternoon storms. Drones clean the entire elevation in a single visit, without renting swing stages or closing parking.
From Boca Raton corporate campuses and country-club clubhouses to oceanfront Palm Beach towers, our pure-water drone system delivers a streak-free, mineral-free finish on tinted, low-E, and coated glass, no anchor inspections, no rescue plans, and 4K documentation for the property file.
Direct answers for property managers, condo boards, and asset managers comparing drone window cleaning with rope access, swing stages, and scaffolding.
Drone window cleaning in Miami runs $0.12–$0.25 per square foot of glass, fixed-price after a free site survey. Totals follow glass area rather than storey count: $1,200–$2,375 at 10,000 sq ft of glass, $4,800–$8,000 at 40,000 sq ft, and $10,364–$20,000 at 100,000 sq ft. That is 30–60% less than scaffolding or a boom lift on equivalent scope, and a fraction of rope-access rates, because there is no rigging, no anchor inspection, and no per-drop crew time. Quarterly maintenance contracts drop per-visit cost by 20–30%.
Yes, on exterior glass. The result comes from the water: the drone rinses each pane with de-ionized pure water (0 TDS), which leaves nothing behind when it dries, so the glass ends up streak-free without a squeegee. At Belmont Village in Coral Gables we cleaned more than 130,000 sq ft of exterior, windows included, in 7 days with no lifts, scaffolding, swing stages, rope access or closures. The limits are real too: the drone cleans exteriors only, works within 200 ft per staging position, and does not fly above its wind limit.
Yes. A window cleaning drone is a tethered industrial drone, not a camera drone: it is fed water and cleaning solution through a tether from the ground, carries detergent and pure-water nozzles, and is built for sustained flight close to glass. We fly Lucid Bots Sherpa cleaning drones. We do not sell drones. An industrial cleaning drone and its ground rig are a six-figure purchase that also needs a Part 107 pilot, pure-water filtration, and aviation insurance before the first job, which is why most building owners hire the service instead.
It's the modern method for it. Commercial window cleaning in Miami traditionally meant rope-access crews, swing stages, or boom lifts. Our drone window cleaning service delivers the same result (clean, streak-free commercial glass on Miami office buildings, condos, and hotels) using a tethered window washing drone instead of workers at height. Same outcome, a lower bill, no rigging, and no lane or lobby closures.
Yes, on exterior glass within reach of a staging position. Drones eliminate roof anchor use, IRATA/SPRAT rescue planning, and per-drop labor costs. A drone handles several floors per day versus one drop at a time per crew for rope access, while the operator stays safely on the ground.
Rope access on Miami high-rises is commonly quoted at $1.75–$3.50 per square foot of glass, against our $0.12–$0.25, so the gap is wide; against scaffolding and boom lifts the comparison we publish is 30–60% lower total project cost. The savings come from what disappears, not from cheaper cleaning: multi-day anchor inspections, rigging setup, rescue-plan rehearsal, swing-stage rental, and the per-day rope-tech labor stack. On the lower floors our water-fed pole does a rope drop's job better: pure water never streaks, and it cleans the sills in the same pass as the glass.
Traditional exterior window washing relies on squeegees, rope access, or boom lifts, all of which require staging, anchor points, or ground clearance. Drone window cleaning applies a pure-water rinse directly to the glass from a hovering position, reaching every pane on every elevation without anyone touching the building. It is the same 0 TDS water our 70 ft water-fed pole uses on the lower floors; the drone carries it to floors a pole can never reach.
A ground-based pump pushes de-ionized pure water and a separate soft-wash detergent line up the tether to the drone's twin nozzles, so the water never runs out mid-elevation; the aircraft itself runs on batteries that are hot-swapped on the ground. Detergent goes on first, then the pure-water rinse sheets the dirt off the glass while the pilot flies from the ground. No rigging, no anchor inspection, no crew at height.
Yes, by staging strategically. The drone works a 200 ft envelope (about 18 stories) from each staging position; the tether handles water delivery, and FAA Part 107 rules govern airspace, not the drone's reach. On taller towers we stage from parking podiums, upper setbacks, or the roof and work down elevation by elevation. That approach lets us clean Brickell, Edgewater, Sunny Isles, and downtown Miami towers floor-by-floor without ropes, swing stages, or scaffolding.
Yes. De-ionized water (0 TDS) plus biodegradable soft-wash detergent is safe for low-E coatings, ceramic-frit, tinted, mirrored, and laminated glass: the glass types common on Brickell, Sunny Isles, and Boca Raton Class A buildings and on most new construction in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Operating pressure stays in the soft-wash range, no high-PSI impact, no coating-stripping chemicals, no abrasive brushes.
No. The cleaning is done by low-pressure soft-wash chemistry and a 0-TDS pure-water rinse, not by force, so there is no impact and no abrasion that could lift the edges of exterior window film, vinyl signage and decals, painted aluminum railings, or fabric balcony screens. Anything fragile or already peeling is noted at the site survey.
No. Miami-Dade and Broward municipal water carries 100–250 ppm dissolved solids, which is exactly why pure-water cleaning matters. We push every drop of rinse water through reverse osmosis and de-ionization beds down to 0 TDS before it hits the glass. With zero minerals in the water, there's nothing to leave behind when it evaporates. Glass dries streak-free and spot-free across every elevation.
No. Because the rinse is 0-TDS pure water with no dissolved minerals, there's nothing left on the glass to spot. Even Miami rain won't create the hard-water spotting you'd get after a tap-water or squeegee clean. The glass stays clear between visits.
Most 20–40 story Miami high-rises finish in 1–3 days. The drone covers several floors per day depending on glass square footage, frit pattern, and wind conditions off Biscayne Bay, where a rope crew works one drop at a time. A four-to-ten story commercial building is usually a single day.
Yes. There's no swing stage outside windows, no rope crew over the sidewalk, no boom lift in the porte-cochère. The ground crew sets up in a single parking space or service drive, spotters hold a small zone only directly under the active flight, and pedestrian flow continues. Tenants get a brief notice, the drone flies one elevation at a time, and no interior access is needed, so a tenant who is away does not hold up the job. Pre-dawn or post-hours flights are available for Brickell and Downtown office towers.
Our industrial drones fly in sustained wind up to 15 mph, with gusts up to 25 mph, and in light rain only (the manufacturer's limits). Miami's sea breeze usually builds after midday, so we schedule glass work for the calmer morning hours, monitor NOAA marine and aviation forecasts, and plan around afternoon thunderstorms and any tropical system. Operations halt above those wind limits or with lightning within 10 miles. Humidity does not affect cleaning quality; pure water still dries streak-free.
Yes, it is legal. Our drones are FAA-registered and Remote ID compliant, and every flight is flown by an FAA Part 107 certified remote pilot. In controlled airspace near MIA, FLL, OPF, TMB, and PBI we file LAANC authorizations before each operation. Most South Florida municipalities don't require special permits for Part 107 operations on private commercial property; we handle building-management approvals and certificates of insurance before mobilization.
We carry $2M commercial general liability plus dedicated UAS (drone) aviation liability and hull coverage. Certificates of insurance naming the building owner, property manager, and HOA are issued before mobilization on every project.
For residential condos and HOA-managed properties: yes. Every building requires board or PM approval before exterior work. We provide a board-ready package (COI, FAA Part 107 cert, LAANC authorization, flight plan, tenant notice template). Most approvals take 1–2 board cycles; some PMs approve administratively within a week. Commercial office buildings without a board skip this step and typically schedule within a week of the site survey.
Site survey, flight plan, LAANC airspace coordination, tenant notification template, soft-wash + pure-water rinse on every pane, 4K aerial proof-of-clean footage, and COIs for the owner and property manager. Pricing is fixed after the survey, no surprise add-ons.
Yes. Every drone window cleaning project includes 4K aerial footage and photo documentation of every elevation, delivered to the property manager as proof of clean, the record condo boards and insurers ask for when exterior maintenance is questioned.
Properties directly on the ocean (Miami Beach, Sunny Isles, Hallandale Beach) build up salt haze within weeks, so quarterly cleaning is the practical minimum for a tour-ready finish. One block back from the water, every 4–6 months; inland Brickell, downtown, Doral, and Coral Gables glass runs cleanly on a 6-month schedule. Quarterly, semi-annual, and annual contracts are available, and recurring service drops the per-visit price by 20–30% versus one-time cleans.
We pre-coordinate with building management to publish exact flight times per elevation. The 48-hour tenant notice instructs residents to retract awnings, move balcony furniture, and bring pets inside during their elevation's scheduled window, usually 45–90 minutes. Amenity decks (pool, rooftop lounge, sky terrace) are closed only for the 30–45 minutes the drone is actively over them and reopened immediately after.
Yes. Construction debris, mortar splatter, sealant residue, and adhesive films can be removed before the final punch-list walk, so the GC and owner inspect actual glass condition rather than construction soiling. We also coordinate with curtain-wall installers for pre-handover documentation.
Drone window cleaning is exterior-only: that's where the salt haze, pollution film, pollen, and bird residue live on a Miami building, and exterior grime is usually the larger contributor to a dirty appearance. Interior glass is cleaned by hand and is rarely the maintenance problem on a commercial building. We recommend pairing the exterior drone service with your janitorial team's interior schedule, or we can refer an interior crew for a turnkey package.
In most cases, yes. The tethered drone repositions in three dimensions and can angle into setbacks, light wells, and recessed curtain-wall sections that boom lifts can't reach from the street. Deeply enclosed atrium glass is assessed during the site survey. We tell you up front what the drone can and can't reach.
Soft-wash uses a fraction of the water of pressure washing, and the rinse is 0-TDS pure water with a biodegradable detergent. Runoff is minimal and non-toxic, and we pre-wet landscaping below the work zone so the diluted rinse causes no plant stress. No storm-drain permits are required for this volume.
Yes, and bundling almost always saves money because mobilization is the single largest cost on a small job. While the drone and ground pump are already staged, we can extend the same visit to glass balcony railings, spandrel glass, lobby and entry curtain wall, porte-cochère glass and soffits, building signage, adjacent solar arrays, and rooftop equipment. One mobilization, one COI, one documentation package.
Fixed-asset robotic systems require building-specific rail or track installation, weather-restricted operation, and significant capex per installation. They make sense for purpose-built new construction with the geometry to accommodate them. Drone window cleaning is a flexible service with zero capex, works on existing Miami buildings regardless of facade geometry or anchor availability, and adapts to weather and tenant scheduling on demand. For existing portfolios, drones almost always pencil out better.
All three counties. In Miami-Dade: Brickell, Downtown Miami, Edgewater, Aventura, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Sunny Isles, Coral Gables, and Doral. In Broward: Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach, Hollywood, Pompano Beach, Plantation, and Sunrise. In Palm Beach: Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Boynton Beach, Jupiter, and Palm Beach Gardens. Same-week scheduling is standard for commercial buildings once the survey is done.
More answers in our full drone cleaning FAQ.
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