Greater Charleston's Trusted Service
Licensed, insured, and 600+ five-star reviews deep. From Kiawah beachfront homes to downtown storefronts — we bring the same meticulous care to every property.
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5-Star Reviews
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“I knew as soon as the trucks pulled up that this was the right decision to call Peppers. Extremely professional, and extremely quick.”
Johns Island Homeowner
Verified Google Review
Real Charleston Projects
Drag the slider on each image to see the transformation. Every project below is a real skylight cleaning job our crew completed across the Lowcountry.
BeforeAfterDrag to compareCharleston, SC
Live oak pollen and Lowcountry rain mineral residue had dropped this Charleston skylight's optical clarity by an estimated 50 percent. Soft-wash chemistry on the exterior glass plus interior frame hand-cleaning restored full daylight transmission.
Mount Pleasant, SC
Coastal salt haze had welded itself to this Mount Pleasant home's skylight glass. Deionized soft-wash with low-pressure rinse cleared the surface without forcing water past the flashing seal.
Kiawah Island, SC
Most Charleston skylight leaks blamed on age were actually caused by aggressive DIY cleaning. We used a calibrated low-pressure rinse on this Kiawah Island skylight to clear the glass without disturbing the silicone bead at the flashing.
Johns Island, SC
Spartina and oak pollen layered with rain-residue minerals are the standard summer diet for any Johns Island skylight. A single soft-wash visit reset the glass to factory clarity in under an hour on this property.
The Problem
Skylights have a problem no other glass in your house has: they're horizontal. Live oak pollen, spartina pollen, salt haze from the Atlantic, algae spores, bird droppings, and the fine dust that settles after every Charleston thunderstorm — all of it lands on your skylight glass and stays there until something physically removes it. Vertical windows shed most of this with rain. Skylights do not. Rainwater on a skylight evaporates in place, leaving behind every dissolved mineral, every grain of pollen, and every salt particle that the rain itself was carrying. Within a single pollen season the optical clarity of a typical Kiawah, Mount Pleasant, or Daniel Island skylight drops by 40 to 70 percent. The second problem is access. Skylights live on your roof. Cleaning them properly requires a ladder long enough to reach the eave, a roof walk on a pitch that's typically 6:12 or steeper, and the experience to know which spots on a Charleston shingle roof are safe to step on after twenty-plus humid summers. Falls from roofs during DIY skylight cleaning are the single most common cause of serious home-maintenance injuries in coastal Carolina — and the medical bill from one fall costs more than a decade of professional cleanings. The third problem is what most homeowners don't know about: the flashing. The watertight seal around your skylight is a strip of bent metal flashing tucked under the surrounding shingles, plus a bead of silicone sealant. Aim a pressure washer at that seam — even at low pressure — and you can hydraulically force water past the seal and create a leak that doesn't show up until the next big storm. Most skylight leaks in Charleston that homeowners blame on age were actually caused by an aggressive DIY cleaning attempt months earlier.
"Most Charleston skylight leaks blamed on age were actually caused by aggressive DIY cleaning months earlier — water forced past the flashing seal during a pressure-wash attempt."
The Peppers Solution
How It Works
No pressure, no games — just a simple, transparent process from first call to final walkthrough.
Call us or fill out the form — most quotes come back the same day. No obligation, no pressure, no surprises.
Pick a time that works. Our insured crew arrives on schedule with professional-grade equipment — ready to transform your property.
Walk the property with us when we're done. If anything isn't perfect, we come back the next business day — guaranteed.
Most quotes returned same-day · No obligation
Why Peppers
Skylight cleaning is a different job from window cleaning — and it's important you know that going in. Vertical wall windows get cleaned from the ground or from inside the home with a pole or squeegee. Skylights live on the roof. Exterior skylight cleaning requires a full roof walk with extension ladder, harness on any pitch above 3:12, and the technique to clean horizontal glass without driving water past the flashing seal. Our window cleaning service handles interior-accessible skylights as part of a window job, but anything requiring exterior roof access falls into this dedicated service.
We service every common skylight type installed in Charleston-area homes — Velux deck-mount and venting skylights (the dominant brand in the Lowcountry), Solatube and Velux sun tunnels, fixed flat-glass and curb-mount skylights, low-E coated glass, and the older acrylic and polycarbonate dome skylights still common on 1980s and 1990s Mount Pleasant and James Island homes. Each type has a slightly different cleaning profile — acrylic domes scratch easier than tempered glass and need softer hand tools; vented Velux units need extra care around the rain sensor; sun tunnels have an interior diffuser that comes down for hand cleaning then reseats.
Every skylight has two glass surfaces that get dirty for different reasons. The exterior collects pollen, salt, algae, bird droppings, and storm debris — the same Lowcountry environmental load that hits your roof. The interior collects condensation residue, mineral deposits from indoor humidity meeting cool glass, and in bathroom or kitchen skylights, mold staining around the frame from steam exposure. Both need different cleaning techniques and chemistry, and a proper skylight cleaning addresses both on the same visit.
Most cheap skylight cleaning services in the Charleston area only do the exterior, leaving you to clean the interior yourself. The interior is actually where most homeowners notice the difference first — that haze on the inside of your kitchen skylight that looks like the glass needs replacement is almost always condensation residue and pollen that blew in through ventilation. A proper hand-clean restores the optical clarity completely.
Three Lowcountry factors make skylight cleaning more frequent and more involved here than in most of the country. First, live oak pollen season (April–May) deposits an extraordinary amount of yellow-green pollen on every horizontal surface — including skylights. Unlike vertical glass, skylights cannot shed it. Second, salt air from the Atlantic deposits a fine corrosive haze on every horizontal surface within ten miles of the coast — that includes Kiawah, Sullivan's Island, Isle of Palms, and most of Mount Pleasant. Third, oak canopy on Johns Island and Old Mount Pleasant drops a constant load of small leaves, twigs, sap, and spider webs on rooftop glass that bakes on in the summer heat.
If you live in a luxury coastal home, your skylight cleaning interval is shorter than the national norm. We typically recommend twice yearly as the baseline (spring after pollen, fall before hurricane season) for inland Charleston homes, and quarterly for any home within five miles of the ocean. After any tropical storm we'll do a debris-only post-storm visit at a discount if the property is on a maintenance plan.
Most homeowners try to clean their own skylights at least once. The math usually goes: extension ladder, garden hose, soft brush, maybe a squeegee. The result is one of three problems. First, tap water mineral deposits dry on the glass within an hour and leave the skylight cloudier than before — same problem as DIY solar panel cleaning. Second, the homeowner aims water at the gap between the glass frame and the surrounding shingles to flush out debris, and forces water past the flashing seal. The leak shows up two weeks later during the next big rain and gets blamed on the skylight aging. Third — and the worst case — someone falls off the roof. ER visits from skylight-related ladder falls in coastal Carolina spike every spring as homeowners discover how dirty their skylights got over the winter.
Professional cleaning avoids all three. We use deionized water (no minerals to dry on the glass), low-pressure soft-wash application angled away from the flashing (no water forced past the seal), and we have the harnesses and ladder rigging to work safely on Charleston roof pitches. The cost of one professional visit is typically less than the deductible on a roof leak repair.
Skylight cleaning in the Charleston area typically runs $150 to $350 per skylight depending on size, roof pitch, and whether the unit is fixed glass, venting, or a sun tunnel. Per-unit pricing breaks down approximately as: fixed single-pane $150–$250, venting or large-format $200–$350, sun tunnel exterior dome only $100–$175, sun tunnel exterior plus interior diffuser $150–$225. Most Charleston homes have one to four skylights, which puts a typical full-service visit in the $300–$800 range. Steep-pitch homes on Kiawah and Sullivan's Island that require harness work fall at the higher end of the range.
Bundle pricing applies when skylight cleaning is combined with roof soft washing, gutter cleaning, or solar panel cleaning on the same visit — typically saving $50 to $150 on the combined invoice because the roof-access mobilization is shared. Most of our skylight clients are on an annual or biannual schedule that bundles the rooftop services into one or two visits per year.
We service residential and commercial skylights across the entire Greater Charleston area — luxury coastal homes on Kiawah, Sullivan's Island, Isle of Palms, and Seabrook; high-end neighborhoods in Mount Pleasant (I'On, Old Village, Snee Farm), Daniel Island, and downtown South of Broad; planned-community subdivisions in West Ashley, Summerville, and Goose Creek; and historic downtown homes with retrofit skylights where flashing care matters more than anywhere. For new clients we typically quote from satellite imagery within 24 hours and schedule the first cleaning within the same week.
The Peppers Difference
Every surface gets the right PSI — no blown-out wood, etched concrete, or stripped paint.
Biodegradable solutions that kill algae and mold without harming your plants, pets, or landscaping.
Most jobs scheduled within 3-5 days. Need it faster? Emergency cleanings available.
Comprehensive liability coverage and workers' comp — you're protected on every job.
Not satisfied? We come back and make it right — no questions, no extra charge.
Locally owned and run — we answer the phone, show up ourselves, and stand behind every job.
Serving the Lowcountry
We offer pressure washing, gutter cleaning, concrete cleaning, and window cleaning across Charleston County, Berkeley County, and Dorchester County.
You're looking at it. Peppers serves every city across Greater Charleston — Mount Pleasant, Kiawah, Johns Island, Summerville, Daniel Island, and 29 more — with the same owner-operator standard on most properties. Same-week scheduling across the metro.
Trusted by Hundreds
Our neighbor scheduled Peppers about 6 months ago and we were very impressed with their results so we scheduled them ourselves. We got our entire house cleaned as well as power washing the driveway. The results were AMAZING! Peppers far exceeded our expectations. The house is cleaner than it has ever been.
Eric Birt
Pressure Washing
Crew was incredibly polite, professional and helpful. Answered all of my questions and were very careful. I highly recommend!
Gabriella Andrews
Pressure Washing
Our neighbor scheduled Peppers about 6 months ago and we were very impressed with their results so we scheduled them ourselves. We got our entire house cleaned as well as power washing the driveway. The results were AMAZING! Peppers far exceeded our expectations. The house is cleaner than it has ever been.
Eric Birt
Pressure Washing
Crew was incredibly polite, professional and helpful. Answered all of my questions and were very careful. I highly recommend!
Gabriella Andrews
Pressure Washing
Kevin and his team were excellent. They arrived as scheduled and Hunter walked the property confirming details regarding areas that needed special attention. They were courteous and thoughtful as they worked around landscaping and the house and property looks pristine!
Katherine O'Hara
Pressure Washing
They are seriously so thorough. First time working with them and I couldn't be more impressed! I called about 10 places to do the work and this place was about $200 cheaper than everywhere else. Well worth it!
Alex Miller
Pressure Washing
Kevin and his team were excellent. They arrived as scheduled and Hunter walked the property confirming details regarding areas that needed special attention. They were courteous and thoughtful as they worked around landscaping and the house and property looks pristine!
Katherine O'Hara
Pressure Washing
They are seriously so thorough. First time working with them and I couldn't be more impressed! I called about 10 places to do the work and this place was about $200 cheaper than everywhere else. Well worth it!
Alex Miller
Pressure Washing
Phenomenal job. Showed up on time, worked efficiently and I don't think my house has ever been so clean. Great work at a fair price and highly recommended.
Patrick
Pressure Washing
The guys did a GREAT job on our soft wash this morning! They also covered our cameras and outlets to make sure those were not exposed. We'll have them back next year for sure!
Brian Rutledge
Roof Soft Washing
Phenomenal job. Showed up on time, worked efficiently and I don't think my house has ever been so clean. Great work at a fair price and highly recommended.
Patrick
Pressure Washing
The guys did a GREAT job on our soft wash this morning! They also covered our cameras and outlets to make sure those were not exposed. We'll have them back next year for sure!
Brian Rutledge
Roof Soft Washing
Questions
Straight answers to the questions Charleston homeowners ask most.
In coastal South Carolina, skylights should be cleaned at least twice a year — spring after live oak pollen season and fall before hurricane-season debris. Homes on barrier islands (Sullivan's, IOP, Kiawah) or under heavy oak canopy benefit from three cleanings annually. Salt air and horizontal glass orientation cause debris to bake on faster than vertical windows, making twice-yearly professional cleaning the Lowcountry standard. Quarterly inspection is recommended for any home within five miles of the Atlantic.
Skylight cleaning in Charleston typically runs $150 to $350 per skylight depending on size, roof pitch, and whether interior cleaning is included. Sun tunnels (Velux, Solatube) run $100 to $200 for exterior only, $150 to $225 if the interior diffuser is included. Most Charleston homes have one to four skylights, putting a full service in the $300 to $800 range. Steep-pitch homes on Kiawah or Sullivan's Island that require harness access price at the higher end. Bundling with roof soft washing or gutter cleaning saves $50 to $150 on the combined invoice.
Interior skylight cleaning is generally safe for homeowners if the skylight is reachable from a step ladder inside. Exterior cleaning is not — it requires roof access, proper ladder angles, and harness equipment on any pitch above 3:12. Most Charleston skylights sit on roofs with 6:12 or steeper pitches. Falls from roofs during DIY cleaning are the most common cause of serious home-maintenance injuries in coastal Carolina. Exterior skylight cleaning should always be handled by an insured professional with the right roof-access equipment.
Rain does not clean skylights effectively — it often makes them cloudier. Rainwater carries dissolved minerals that leave white haze when the water evaporates. In Charleston, this is compounded by airborne salt, live oak pollen, and algae spores that land on horizontal glass and bond to the surface as water evaporates. A professional cleaning with soft-wash chemistry and a deionized-water rinse is the only way to restore optical clarity to cloudy skylight glass. Once mineral film has bonded to the surface, no amount of rain will remove it.
Yes — high-pressure water aimed at skylight flashing seams is one of the most common causes of skylight leaks after DIY cleaning. Even moderate pressure directed into the gap between the skylight frame and roof surface can hydraulically force water past the sealant layer and into the wall cavity. The leak typically shows up two to four weeks later during the next major storm and gets blamed on the skylight aging. Professional skylight cleaning uses low-pressure application angled away from the frame and a post-clean visual inspection of visible flashing.
Mold around interior skylight frames in Charleston is almost always caused by condensation, not leaks. Warm, humid indoor air rises to ceiling level, meets the cooler glass surface, and deposits moisture on the frame and surrounding drywall. Bathroom and kitchen skylights are especially prone because steam amplifies the effect. Professional interior cleaning removes existing mold residue and mineral deposits using gentle hypochlorite-free chemistry that is safe for painted frames. Long-term management requires improving ventilation in the affected room.
Sun tunnel cleaning involves two components: the exterior dome on the roof and the interior diffuser lens at the ceiling. The exterior dome accumulates the same pollen, algae, and salt residue as a standard skylight and requires professional roof access to clean properly. The interior diffuser usually unclips from inside with a step ladder, gets hand-cleaned with mild soap and a deionized-water rinse, then reseats. Many homeowners book both at the same professional visit — we drop the diffuser, clean both surfaces, and reseat in 30 minutes inside.
A professional skylight cleaning typically takes 30 to 60 minutes per skylight including setup, roof access, exterior cleaning, descent, and interior cleaning from inside. Most Charleston homes with one to three skylights are done in 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Homes with steep pitch, multiple skylights, or sun tunnels requiring interior lens removal take longer. Sun tunnel exterior dome cleaning runs 20 to 40 minutes per unit if the roof walk is already set up for an adjacent skylight or rooftop service.
The fundamental difference is access and surface orientation. Windows are vertical glass cleaned from the ground or from inside the home with standard pole equipment. Skylights are horizontal or angled glass installed on the roof — exterior cleaning requires a full roof walk with ladder, harness, and safety equipment. The cleaning chemistry also differs: horizontal glass bakes debris differently than vertical glass and often requires a longer dwell time with soft-wash solutions before rinsing. Our window cleaning service handles interior-accessible skylights; anything requiring roof access is this skylight service.
Routine cleaning does not require resealing. However, a professional skylight cleaning visit is an ideal time to inspect the visible sealant bead around the flashing for cracking, shrinkage, or gaps. If inspection reveals sealant deterioration, applying a compatible silicone bead to the perimeter is a minor maintenance step that prevents future leaks. We flag any flashing or sealant concerns during every skylight cleaning and provide a written note with the invoice if we find anything that warrants further attention from a roofer.
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From the Blog
Tips, case studies, and seasonal guides on skylight cleaning and exterior care from our Charleston team.
April 30, 2026
Pressure washing solar panels voids manufacturer warranties from LG, SunPower, REC, Panasonic, Canadian Solar, and Q CELLS. It damages anti-reflective coatings, cracks cell encapsulants, and forces water past junction box seals. Use soft wash only.
Read more
April 29, 2026
In Charleston and coastal SC, twice a year is the baseline — with a spring clean after pollen and a fall clean before winter. Oceanfront arrays need quarterly service. Here is why.
Read more
April 28, 2026
Pressure washing siding can drive water behind the panels, strip paint, and etch stucco. Here is why soft washing is the right call for almost every Charleston home — and how to know for sure.
Read more
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