Screened Lanai & Balcony Cleaning
Avellino Isles

The coach homes at Avellino Isles were built in the mid-2000s as the final neighborhood in The Vineyards, in two- and three-story Mediterranean buildings set among lakes and the golf course. Each owner’s outdoor space is a screened lanai, an upper-floor balcony, a courtyard entry, or some combination. They are smaller than a single-family pool cage, but they are tucked against shared walls and over a neighbor’s space, which changes how they need to be cleaned. The lanais here look out over lakes and fairways, which is the view owners paid for and the source of most of the grime.

Lakes keep the air here humid. On a lanai that faces water, mildew grows on the screen frame, the ceiling and the corners of the floor tile within months, and spiders love the gap between screen and stucco. Balconies on the upper floors catch rain blowing in from the lake side, and the tile or coated floor holds a thin film of algae that turns slick. Courtyard entries, shaded by walls and plantings, grow green on pavers and on the lower stucco around the door. Lake mist and course irrigation keep the screen panels damp, pollen sticks to them, and the shaded upper corners of the aluminum frame turn green quickly. A lanai floor in a coach home collects grit tracked in from the courtyard and garage, and where it stays shaded it grows a thin, slippery film of algae that rinse water alone just moves around; it takes a cleaning solution and a surface cleaner to lift it evenly.

Most Avellino Isles screens are the standard vinyl-coated fiberglass used across Naples. It is durable, but it stretches and tears under a narrow, high-pressure jet. We wash screens with a mild solution, brush lightly where mildew is set in, and rinse at no more than 300 PSI with a wide fan tip, working from inside the lanai so dirt pushes outward through the mesh rather than being driven into it.

Water management matters more here than on a detached home. A balcony rinse that runs over the edge lands on the lanai or entry below. We clean upper balconies with a minimum of water, direct runoff to the drains or scuppers, and coordinate with the owner below so their furniture is covered or moved. When several owners in the same building book together, we start at the top floor and work down, so nobody’s freshly cleaned space gets dripped on. Before washing, furniture is moved, TVs, fans and outlets are covered, and the floor is swept so grit is not ground into it.

Floors are usually tile or pavers. Tile gets a scrub and low-pressure rinse with a pH-appropriate cleaner so grout isn’t washed out. Pavers in courtyards can be surface-cleaned at controlled pressure, but joint sand washes out easily, so we keep pressure down along the joints and can re-sand afterward. Any orange staining near sprinkler heads is treated as a rust stain with the right chemistry, not scrubbed harder.

Aluminum frames on screened lanais oxidize over time and leave a chalky residue on your hand. On buildings from the mid-2000s, many frames are at the age where this shows. An aluminum-safe brightener at low pressure removes the chalk and makes the frame look new again; it’s an add-on, and we’ll tell you if your frame needs it before we start.

Avellino Isles is a gated condominium inside the gated Vineyards. The association, through its manager, sets rules for contractors such as working hours, parking and how notice is given. Because the lanai and balcony are often limited common elements, check with the manager whether owner-booked cleaning needs any notice. We pre-register with both gates and keep our equipment compact so we don’t block shared parking or entry paths.

How often to clean depends on which way your unit faces. Lake-facing and north-facing lanais usually need it every 6 to 12 months. Sunny, south-facing balconies may go a year or longer. Seasonal owners often book a cleaning a week or two before they arrive in the fall, so they come back to a clean space rather than a summer’s worth of mildew.

What sets the price. For an Avellino Isles unit, the quote depends on how much screen and floor you have, whether there’s an upper balcony as well as a ground-floor lanai, how heavy the mildew is, and whether the frames need oxidation treatment. Access matters too: a third-floor balcony reached through the unit takes more care than a ground-floor lanai with a door to the courtyard. When neighbors book together, setup is shared and each unit costs less.

What to ask before you hire. Ask the company how they’ll keep water off the unit below, what pressure they use on screens, whether they’re registered or willing to register with both gates, and whether they carry insurance that the association will accept. A cleaner who plans to hose a third-floor balcony straight over the rail is the wrong fit for a stacked coach-home building.

Before we arrive, bring in small items, cushions and anything fragile, turn off ceiling fans, and let us know if a neighbor’s space sits directly below yours. If you’re away, the manager or a neighbor can let us in, and we’ll send photos when we finish. If the association is cleaning the building’s roofs, it is worth booking your lanai after that work, since roof runoff can splash onto screens.