Next-day shipping across the entire UK, including islands, started 3rd August!!
Next-day shipping across the entire UK, including islands, started 3rd August!!
If you’re asking how long a water fed pole you need, you’re probably standing in your garden looking up at your gutters trying to work it out with a tape measure and a bit of guesswork. That’s normal. There’s no single answer because it depends on your property’s height, but there is a simple way to work it out without buying the wrong pole twice.
The short version: measure from the ground to your gutter line, then add roughly 1.5 to 2 metres so you can angle the brush and control it properly. Get this wrong in either direction and the job gets harder, not easier.
Too short, and you can’t reach the top windows without stretching, standing on something you shouldn’t, or giving up halfway. Too long, and you’re fighting a pole that’s heavy, floppy at full extension, and hard to keep steady on the glass. Neither gets your windows clean.
Most people default to “buy the longest one, just in case.” That’s usually a mistake. A pole far longer than you need is harder to control, tires your arms faster, and makes fine adjustments, like keeping the brush flat against the glass, much trickier. The goal isn’t maximum length. It’s the right length for the job in front of you. That’s why a storey-based selector is more useful than a vague spec sheet.
Think of storey height as your starting point, not the final figure. Ground-to-gutter height varies between properties, but UK housing stock is consistent enough that you can work to sensible ranges.
These are working ranges, not exact science. A dormer window, a raised gutter line, or an unusually tall ground floor will all shift the numbers slightly.
For a typical three-storey property, most people land somewhere between 6 and 7 metres of pole. That covers the extra height while still leaving enough spare length to angle the brush properly at the top, rather than poking it straight up at full stretch.
If your three-storey property also has a longer garden, or you’re cleaning from a driveway set back from the house, you may need a bit more length again to reach at a workable angle rather than straight overhead.
Roughly speaking, each additional storey on a UK home adds about 2.5 to 3 metres of height. That’s why pole reach per floor scales fairly predictably:
It’s a useful rule of thumb rather than a guarantee. Bay windows, sloped plots and taller-than-average builds can all push you toward the upper end of a bracket. When in doubt, measure your actual gutter height rather than relying purely on storey count.
A telescopic pole doesn’t lock you into one fixed height. It extends across a range, so a single pole can often cover a ground-floor conservatory and a second-floor bedroom window without swapping equipment. That’s the main appeal: one pole, several jobs.
The trade-off is weight and control at full extension. Every telescopic pole gets heavier to handle the further you extend it, and the top few sections flex more than the base. A pole rated to 10 metres will feel noticeably different fully extended than it does collapsed down to 4. That’s not a fault, it’s physics, but it’s worth knowing before you buy so you’re not surprised when the top section needs a steadier hand.
For anyone wanting to see how a telescopic pole pairs with the actual cleaning head, it’s worth looking at telescopic pole with brush options to understand how the two work together in practice.
A fixed-length pole is lighter, stiffer, and generally cheaper for the height it covers. It suits you if every job is roughly the same height, say, a single-storey bungalow or a consistent row of two-storey terraces.
A telescopic pole suits mixed-height work: houses with different storey counts, extensions with lower rooflines next to taller main buildings, or anyone who doesn’t want to own three separate poles. If you’re only ever cleaning one property, at one height, a fixed-length pole is often the simpler and lighter option. If you need flexibility, telescopic wins.
Storey height gets you most of the way there, but it isn’t the whole picture. A few other things shift the number up or down.
Domestic users generally clean one property, so a single pole matched to that property’s height is enough. There’s little benefit in buying extra length “just in case” if you’re only ever working on your own house.
Professional window cleaners face a different problem: no two properties are the same. That’s why many carry two pole lengths, a shorter one for everyday two-storey work and a longer telescopic pole for occasional three-storey or commercial jobs, rather than one oversized pole trying to do everything. It’s more efficient day-to-day, and it saves the arms on the jobs that don’t need the extra reach.
If you’re comparing whether a pole setup even beats ladder work for your situation, it’s worth reading up on comparing water fed poles with traditional methods before committing to a length.
Standard vertical windows are the easy case. Conservatories, solar panels and other angled or elevated surfaces change the geometry, because you’re often working at an angle rather than straight up.
A conservatory roof might sit lower than your upstairs windows but require a longer reach because you’re working over an obstruction, like a lean-to structure, rather than approaching flat-on. It’s worth looking at the specifics in cleaning conservatory roofs with a pole if that’s part of your job.
Solar panels raise a similar issue. Roof-mounted panels can sit higher than your gutter line and at an angle that needs extra pole length to get proper brush contact. Check the solar panel cleaning height requirements separately from your standard window measurements, because panel height and pitch vary a lot between roof types.
Is a longer pole always better for window cleaning? No. Extra length you don’t need adds weight and reduces control, which makes accurate cleaning harder rather than easier. The right approach is matching length to the actual task, not maximising it.
Before you buy, run through this:
Paul’s Poles stocks telescopic poles across the common domestic and trade ranges, so you can match pole length to your property rather than guessing or over-buying. If you want the bigger picture on brushes, hoses and water systems that pair with your pole, the full water fed pole system guide covers that ground. And if ladders are still part of your routine, it’s worth reading about cleaning upstairs windows without a ladder before you decide what length, and what method, actually suits your home.
