Aluminium
Soap, water, a cloth that is not a scrubber. Abrasive cream hazes a powder coat and then you live with a cloudy black frame. Every few months is enough in a normal building. Tracks: vacuum, then wipe. Once a year a silicone spray on rollers and hinges. Not cooking oil. That turns into glue. I have smelled it.
Weep holes at the bottom — open them in May. If water sits in the track it has chosen your plaster as the exit.
If you can see the sea, rinse when you remember. Monthly is what the finish chemist wants. After a windy week is what busy people do. White salt is the coat starting to complain.
Gaskets: look once a year. Cracked rubber is a leak with a date on it. Cheap jobs corrode at screw holes and cut edges. A chalky bloom there is not “character.”
uPVC
Same cloth, milder soap, a bit more often if the road dust shows on white. Solvents can haze the plastic. Vacuum the tracks. If a guest room stays shut from Diwali to Holi, open the slider once in a while or it goes stubborn.
Weeps before and after the rains. Hardware, yearly spray. Cheap white on a bare west wall can go creamy. There are cleaners. Buying a better profile is less annoying.
It will not rust. A very cheap section in hard sun, fitted already stressed, can bow. That is not a cleaning failure. That is a specification we should have refused.
How long, if you are not theatrical about care
Aluminium frames: 30–50 years is a story I will tell if the coat and the install were honest. uPVC: 20–30 on a profile I would put in my own house. Hardware and gaskets get replaced in that time on both. That is not a scandal.
You know it is still working if the shutter moves, the lock meets, July is dry, and the frame has not gone yellow or chalky. Daylight at a corner is a repair, not “windows getting old.”
DIY is soap. If you call a man, a few hundred to a thousand rupees a window a year is the sort of money people actually spend, more when a gondola is involved. Coastal aluminium wants more washing. Rollers and gaskets are the 8–12 year parts.
The list I leave on the fridge
Before monsoon: weeps, gaskets, does it latch. After: silt out of the tracks, a spray if it feels sandy. May heat: any bow in the uPVC, any bloom on the aluminium.
Frequently asked questions
How often do we actually need to clean these? Be honest, we will not do it weekly.
Aluminium every few months. uPVC a bit more if white shows the dust. Both before monsoon, whatever the calendar says. Weekly is a fantasy I do not write on the handover.
What do we wipe aluminium with? The maid will use whatever is under the sink.
Soap, water, a soft cloth. Not a scrubber, not bathroom cream. That haze on a black powder coat does not come off.
What about uPVC — any special cleaner?
Mild soap. Skip the harsh stuff. Vacuum the tracks. If a guest room stays shut from Diwali to Holi, open it once or the slider goes stubborn.
Will the aluminium rust? We’re two streets off the sea.
It is not a gate. Salt can still ugly the finish. Rinse when you remember. That is aluminium window maintenance on the coast, not a ritual.
Our neighbour’s white uPVC went yellow. Will ours?
Cheap profile plus west sun. Wash it; do not buy the cheapest white next time. uPVC window maintenance will not save a profile we should not have sold.
Cooking oil on the rollers — a relative told us that.
Please do not. It turns into gum. Silicone spray, once a year. I have smelled the oil version.
What should we do in May, before the rains?
Open the weep holes, look at the gaskets, check the thing still latches. Five minutes. That is the one I care about.
Do we need a paid maintenance contract?
A house — no. A whole floor where you cannot even reach the glass — maybe.
How do we know something is actually wrong, not just dirty?
Gritty slide after you have cleaned the track, a drip, daylight at a corner, rubber that crumbles in your fingers.
How long before we replace the windows themselves?
Frames: decades if the spec and the fit were honest. Rollers and gaskets: think 8–12 years. That is a part, not a failure.
Can we do this ourselves or will you be offended?
Do the soap yourself. Call us if a roller has died or the lock misses. I am not offended by a cloth.
Is this the main reason to pick uPVC over aluminium?
Only if you will not rinse a sea-facing frame. Say how often you will actually wipe one. We pick from that.
Star Windows hands over a short note with the job. I would rather sell a profile that survives a busy household than one that needs a Sunday ritual.