End of Tenancy Cleaning in Feltham

A mid-terrace on one of the streets off Sparrow Farm Drive — about 8 minutes from Feltham station, 10 from the High Street. Three beds upstairs, a bathroom, a through-lounge on the ground floor, a rear kitchen with a door to a 25ft garden, a downstairs WC, and a driveway. Family of four — one parent working shifts at Heathrow, the other at an office in Staines — had been there 3 years at £1,600/month. Managed by Sherwoods on the High Street.

Van on the driveway. Free. Standard for TW13.

Kitchen first. Rear room, about 9ft by 7ft. No extractor hood — just a top-hung window with a trickle vent. Three years of a family cooking in a room with no mechanical extraction. The grease didn't just sit on the cooker — it was on the ceiling directly above the hob, on the windowsill, and on the top edges of the cupboard doors. A Beko freestanding cooker, gas. Pulled it forward. Wall behind: 3 years of grease baked onto the skirting. Scraped, degreased. Both cavities sprayed, 20-minute dwell. The lower oven needed a second pass. Gas hob, four burners, caps off. Ceiling above the hob: alkaline degreaser on a cloth, wiped in sections, then dried. It came up, but the effort was triple what a kitchen with a proper ducted hood would need. Windowsill degreased. Cupboard-top edges wiped. Fridge cleaned — gasket had early mould. Floor: vinyl, degreased, colour change from brownish to cream.

The acoustic glazing was noticeable in the kitchen. The window was thicker than standard double glazing — a sealed unit with a wider frame and an integrated trickle vent. The interior glass cleaned normally. The frame had a fine dark particulate along the bottom edge — aircraft emissions settling on the sill over years. We wiped the interior surface and photographed the exterior soiling. That's Heathrow, not the tenant.

Through-lounge. No period features — post-war build, simple plastered ceiling, carpet throughout. Vacuumed. Radiators cleaned. The front window had the same acoustic glazing as the kitchen. Glass cleaned, frame wiped.

Upstairs. Bathroom — bath-shower combo with a plastic curtain rail. Limescale at ~270 ppm, 3 years. Waterline needed two passes. Taps done. Toilet done. Floor mopped. An extractor fan on a timer — running fine, no mould. Downstairs WC: straightforward.

Three bedrooms. All straightforward — carpet vacuumed, windows cleaned (acoustic glazing in all three), wardrobes wiped inside. The older child's room had a poster adhesive mark on the wall — removed cleanly. The younger child's room had a small scuff on the doorframe — wiped off.

Sherwoods came the next afternoon. Their TW13 negotiator — won the British Property Award for the area, takes the checkouts seriously. Kitchen: oven opened and checked (both cavities), ceiling above hob inspected (clean), no-hood situation noted. Acoustic glazing: interior clean, exterior soiling acknowledged. Bathroom: waterline gone, taps done. Kids' marks: resolved. Passed.

Deposit back in 8 days. No deductions. The family were relocating closer to the airport — a different Feltham road, shorter commute. Heathrow workers do that. The airport is the anchor, and the housing moves around it.

If the kitchen ceiling grease or the acoustic-glazing particulate had been disputed, our documentation would have covered both. A kitchen with no hood accumulates grease on the ceiling — that's the property's limitation, not the tenant's cooking. And aircraft soot on a window frame is the flight path, not the tenant. Our guide on deposit dispute evidence explains how we document these situations.