Owner Lanai & Window Cleaning
St. Croix at Pelican Marsh

St. Croix is a 360-unit condominium completed around 1999 in the northeast corner of Pelican Marsh, close to where Immokalee and Livingston Roads meet. The buildings wrap around a large lake, and units run from roughly 900 square feet for a two-bedroom to about 1,314 for the largest three-bedroom plans. That makes the typical lanai here compact, which keeps the job quick and the price at the low end of our range.

Lake-side units at St. Croix catch spray and mist, and shaded lanai floors grow algae that makes them slick. Screens, where a lanai has them, collect pollen and film.

Water is the main reason these lanais get dirty. A lake that size keeps the air humid on calm mornings, and the lake-facing walls stay damp longer than the ones facing the parking areas. Green and black growth starts in the corners of the floor, along the base of the wall and on the underside of any ceiling fan blades, then spreads toward the sliding door track.

Windows pick up lake spray and irrigation spots. Left to dry repeatedly, those spots bond to the glass and are harder to remove.

Lawn care is part of the condo package here, which means the association runs the sprinklers on a schedule owners do not control. Heads near the buildings can throw water against first-floor lanai screens and glass several times a week. Over a season, that leaves a hard ring of mineral spots that ordinary glass cleaner smears instead of lifting. We remove it with a mild mineral treatment and a pure-water rinse.

Tenant turnover is the right moment to clean. A fresh lanai and clear windows make the unit show well to the next tenant and help it rent faster.

Turnover visits work best when they are booked against real dates. Send us the day the old tenant leaves and the day the new one arrives, and we fit the lanai and windows into that gap, usually in a single morning. If a cleaning crew is also inside the unit that day, we start outside first so the floors indoors are not tracked over after they are done.

Up to two pets are allowed per unit, which means lanai floors and entries may need an extra rinse and a biodegradable cleaner to lift pet traffic.

Upper-floor lanais sit over a neighbor, so how the rinse water leaves matters as much as how clean the floor gets. We check the lanai drain or scupper before we start, clear any leaves or grit that would slow it, and use a low-volume rinse. Where a lanai has no drain, we squeegee and towel the water out instead of letting it run over the edge.

Ground-floor lanais have their own problems. They sit closest to the mulch beds and the lake edge, so they collect soil splash, ant trails, frog and lizard spots and the odd wasp nest under the ceiling. We clear nests and webs by hand before any water goes on, then wash the floor and the lower part of the walls where splash marks build up.

If your lanai has screens, we rinse them from the inside at 100 to 300 PSI with a wide fan tip, which pushes dirt out through the mesh without stretching it. Torn panels and loose spline get noted in the photos we send, since a small tear is cheap to fix now and expensive after a summer storm. Aluminum frames that leave a white chalk on your hand can take an oxidation treatment.

Many owners also use the lanai for storage between tenants: patio chairs, a folded table, a bicycle or a stack of beach gear. We move what we can, clean under it and put it back, and we tell you about anything that has started to mildew or rust. Cushions left out all summer are a common source of the dark spotting that keeps coming back on a lanai floor.

The amenities owners share, the heated pool, spa, cabana, clubhouse and fitness center, are association property and are cleaned under the association’s program, not on an owner booking. If you sit on the board or a committee and want a quote for the pool deck or walkways, the link in the questions below goes to that page.

Price depends on size and condition, not on the time of year. Most St. Croix lanais fall under 800 square feet and start at $249. Larger end-unit lanais start at $299. A combined lanai and deep floor clean for heavy algae or pet traffic starts at $399. We give you the price before we start and do not add charges on the day.

How often to book depends on where the unit faces. Lake-side lanais in partial shade usually need a cleaning every six to nine months to stay safe underfoot, while units facing the parking lot or open lawn can go closer to a year. If the unit is rented year-round, tying the visit to each lease change is the easiest way to keep it on schedule.