Cleaning Services Near You in Cricklewood

The zip in a sheet of polythene is not a dust barrier. Families living through a loft conversion or a side-return extension discover this in the second week, when a bedroom two floors from the work has a fine grey bloom on the windowsill and the inside of the wardrobe smells of plaster. Dust from cutting, chasing and sanding is fine enough to travel on warm air alone, and a 1930s semi with a straight staircase and a heated hallway gives it a clear run from the ground floor to the top of the house.

How far it travels in an occupied house

Airborne fines ride convection currents upwards, settle on landings, get walked into bedroom carpets, and coat the inside of any wardrobe left ajar. Running the heating during works pushes the same load through every radiator and vent in the building. That is why a clean that stops at the new room is half a job, and why a survey after building work should walk the whole house - including the rooms the household insists were sealed off, because they were not.

Cleaning in stages rather than at the end

On a project running several months it is worth splitting the work. A clean-down after first fix and plastering removes the bulk before the decorator starts, so finish coats are not laid over grit, and it makes the house habitable in the meantime. The final pass then deals only with what the last trades leave: caulk smears, sanding dust on new skirting, footprints on newly laid floors, and labels on glass. More visits, less redecoration - and a family that has not spent four months living in it.

Dry before wet, on new surfaces especially

Plaster and board dust is alkaline, and wetting it before it has been removed dry turns it into a slurry that drives into pores and dries as a grey bloom. New plaster, bare timber, unsealed stone and fresh emulsion are all porous enough for that to be permanent. The order that avoids it is dry removal with soft brushes and filtered extraction, then small volumes of water with cloths rinsed constantly. Vacuum filters are changed part way through, because a loaded filter simply puts the fines back into the room.

The parts of a semi that catch it

These houses have a predictable set of dust traps: picture rails, the tops of internal doors and frames, the ledges of panelled doors, cast-iron radiator sections in the older rooms, the staircase string and the underside of the handrail, and the deep reveals of bay windows. Fitted carpet on the stairs holds fines in the angle of every tread and releases them for weeks under footfall. Curtains and blinds in the rooms nearest the work hold more than anything else and are usually best taken down and laundered.

Furniture, storage and getting the house back

Most households move what they can out of the affected rooms and stack the rest under sheeting, which protects against debris but not against fines. Anything upholstered that spent the works under a sheet still needs vacuuming with an upholstery tool afterwards. Where furniture went out to storage for the duration, bringing it back is a job in its own right and is arranged as removals specialists in Swiss Cottage; smaller loads coming or going during the works are handled under man and van for flats in Cricklewood.

Timing the clean and what it needs

The final clean is booked after snagging and touch-up decorating are finished, not before, or it will be done twice. Trade waste should be gone, protective coverings still down, and water and power available. A team brings its own filtered equipment and consumables. Duration follows the number of rooms actually affected - which is more than the number worked on - and how much of the house is furnished. Ongoing help once the house is back in use is arranged through the team covering Cricklewood, comparable coverage on trusted domestic cleaning in Camden, and the full range is on fully insured domestic cleaning.