diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index a159b6c..2d3d4ce 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### Fixed
+- `fd.clean` on a Spark DataFrame no longer raises
+  `TypeError: cannot materialize source of type DataFrame`. Under the default
+  `strategy="balanced"` the pandas fallback now materializes a Spark source
+  through its `toPandas()` method, alongside the existing polars and DuckDB
+  paths.
 - `fd.evaluate_quality_debt` no longer scores a dimension a clean 0.0 when it
   was never measured. `type_instability` when profiling fails, `pii_risk` when
   the PII scan is unavailable or fails, and `schema_drift` and `category_churn`
diff --git a/src/freshdata/execution/backends/_pandas.py b/src/freshdata/execution/backends/_pandas.py
index f9af056..f36da1a 100644
--- a/src/freshdata/execution/backends/_pandas.py
+++ b/src/freshdata/execution/backends/_pandas.py
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ def materialize_to_pandas(source: Any) -> pd.DataFrame:
     to_df = getattr(source, "df", None)
     if callable(to_df):
         return to_df()
+    # Spark DataFrame (collects to the driver, matching the balanced-strategy
+    # pandas fallback for a Spark source).
+    to_pandas_spark = getattr(source, "toPandas", None)
+    if callable(to_pandas_spark):
+        return to_pandas_spark()
     raise TypeError(f"cannot materialize source of type {type(source).__name__}")
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_execution/test_dispatch_and_config.py b/tests/test_execution/test_dispatch_and_config.py
index db83805..cadf192 100644
--- a/tests/test_execution/test_dispatch_and_config.py
+++ b/tests/test_execution/test_dispatch_and_config.py
@@ -61,3 +61,20 @@ def test_engine_config_spark_options():
                        spark_shuffle_partitions=4)
     assert cfg.spark_shuffle_partitions == 4
     assert cfg.output_format == "spark"
+
+
+def test_materialize_to_pandas_accepts_spark_style_frame():
+    """A Spark DataFrame exposes ``toPandas`` (not ``to_pandas``/``df``); the
+    balanced-strategy pandas fallback must materialize it, not raise TypeError."""
+    import pandas as pd
+
+    from freshdata.execution.backends._pandas import materialize_to_pandas
+
+    expected = pd.DataFrame({"a": [1, 2, 3], "b": ["x", "y", "z"]})
+
+    class _FakeSparkFrame:
+        def toPandas(self) -> pd.DataFrame:  # noqa: N802 - matches pyspark's API
+            return expected.copy()
+
+    out = materialize_to_pandas(_FakeSparkFrame())
+    pd.testing.assert_frame_equal(out, expected)