An inventory clerk forms a view of a property before the front door opens. The path, the bin area, the front steps and the state of a side return are all photographed, and across the older parts of south west London they are also the surfaces least likely to have been touched during a tenancy. Rented flats in converted terraces share a frontage and a bin store; family houses have a patio, a path down the side and a back gate. All of it appears on the report, and none of it is cleaned by a mop.
Why hard surfaces outdoors need a different method
Paving, brick and render are porous and they grow things. Algae takes hold on any surface that stays damp, black spot lichen bonds into concrete and stone, and moss colonises the joints between slabs. None of that lifts with a brush and a bucket. Controlled water pressure with the right fan of spray removes the growth without cutting into the surface, and the choice of nozzle matters: too tight a jet stripes soft sandstone, erodes lime mortar and lifts the top layer off old concrete. Where a treatment is used, it goes on first and the rinse follows.
Patios, decking and the back of the house
A rear patio at the end of a tenancy usually carries a summer of barbecue grease and a winter of leaf fall, and the two combine into a black film that is slippery as well as ugly. Timber decking needs less pressure than stone and benefits more from a treatment left to work, since forcing water into softwood raises the grain and leaves it rough. Where a garden forms part of the demise, what the visit includes is the practical way to reset it before a check-out rather than scrubbing at it by hand.
Front elevations, steps and the shared entrance
Terraces here mostly present a tiled path, a short flight of steps and a low wall. Steps collect a greasy black deposit from traffic film that makes them dangerous in the wet, and the underside of a bay window and the wall below a leaking gutter carry green staining. Managing agents for converted houses often treat this as a communal item, and Clapham pressure washing specialists is the sort of instruction that covers a shared frontage rather than a single flat.
Brickwork, render and things that should not be jetted
Not every external surface should meet a machine. Soft London stock brick, lime pointing, painted render in poor condition and anything on a listed or locally listed building need either a much gentler setting or hand cleaning with a chemical treatment. A jet held close enough to remove a stain from soft brick will also remove the fired face of it, and that damage is permanent. An operator who steps the pressure down and works slowly, as on professional decking cleaning in Barnes, produces a better result than one trying to finish quickly, and conservation areas along the western edge of the region, including around the end of tenancy cleaning team in Twickenham, make that judgement routine rather than exceptional.
Bin stores, side returns and what gets left behind
The narrow strip beside a terraced house is where everything ends up: bikes, broken furniture, bags that missed a collection. It has to be cleared before anything else can happen there, and clearing it properly means a licensed carrier and a transfer note rather than a trip to the nearest layby. For most households the sensible order is to empty the property and the outside space together through South West London removals specialists, then clean, then deal with the external surfaces last.
Fitting it around the indoor work
External work is assessed by area and surface type rather than by the hour, and it needs a water supply and somewhere to stand a machine. It is scheduled ahead of the indoor clean wherever possible, since overspray and foot traffic undo finished floors, and soft flooring is left until the very end - Balham deep carpet cleaning is a separate appointment for that reason. Access to an outside tap, a clear path to the rear and somewhere to stand a vehicle are the practical requirements. The indoor specification is the one published with the service in detail, and it is worth reading before a check-out rather than after one.