End of Tenancy Cleaning in Forestdale

Wates-built mid-terrace on Bardolph Avenue, in the Newlands Wood part of Forestdale. The kind of cul-de-sac where every house looks the same — brown brick, weatherboard panels above the ground-floor windows, flat-roofed integral garage on the left side. Three bedrooms upstairs, bathroom, open-plan kitchen-diner at the back, lounge at the front, garage at ground level. Family — two children, the older one just started at a Selsdon secondary — 3 years at £1,400. Webbs managing from their office in the Forestdale Centre, maybe 5 minutes' walk up Featherbed Lane.

Van on the shared parking court outside. Free. No restrictions.

Kitchen-diner. Open plan, about 14ft by 10ft. Refitted — the family had put in new units a year in, landlord approved. White gloss doors, laminate worktop, integrated Zanussi oven. Door off, glass out, spray, 15 minutes. One pass — 3 years, a family who cooked most evenings but kept the kitchen tidy. Ceramic hob done. Extractor recirculating, filter soaked. Fridge-freezer cleaned. Floor: vinyl plank, mopped. Patio door to the garden — track had the usual mud and leaves. Cleared.

Lounge. Front of the house, about 13ft by 11ft. Carpet vacuumed. Window: double-glazed, uPVC. Cleaned per section. Gas fire surround — a 1990s refit, tiled in beige. Wiped. Radiator behind cleaned.

The weatherboarded panels either side of the front door — part of the Forestdale look. Wiped with pH-neutral where they form the doorstep entrance. The boards were in fair condition for 50 years old. Noted.

Upstairs. Bathroom. Bath-shower combo, modern screen (the family had replaced the curtain rail). ~275 ppm, 3 years, family of four. Waterline: two passes. Screen: clean, newer than the suite. Taps done. Toilet done. Floor: vinyl, mopped. No mould — good fan, window opens.

Three bedrooms. All carpet. Two doubles and a single. Children's room: small sticker residue on wardrobe — removed. Box room / study: a few pen marks on the wall near the desk — cleaned.

Integral garage. Ground level. Concrete floor, some oil staining from the car (permanent — that's concrete, not cleaning). Shelving units along one wall — wiped. Cobwebs in ceiling corners. 10 minutes.

3 hours 30 minutes. Two people. Solid estate-house cleaning. The Wates build is consistent — once you know one Forestdale property, you know the proportions of all of them. The rooms are the same size. The stairs are in the same place. The garage door works the same way.

Webbs come the next morning. Their agent walks from the office. Kitchen: oven opened, worktop inspected. Weatherboard entrance: noted clean. Bathroom: waterline gone, screen clean. Sticker: removed. Pen marks: cleaned. Garage: oil staining noted as permanent, shelving clean. Patio tracks: clear. Maybe 8 minutes. She didn't need longer — she knows every house on Bardolph Avenue.

Deposit back in 6 days. Full return. Family moving to a 4-bed town house two cul-de-sacs over on Pixton Way — more space, same estate, children walking to the same school.

Forestdale is estate cleaning. Same builder, same decade, same proportions. The weatherboarding, the integral garages, and the cul-de-sac layout make it look different from suburban outer London — because it was designed as a whole, not built house by house. We clean each one to the same standard. Our guide on deposit dispute evidence covers estate-built properties and building-age documentation.