End of Tenancy Cleaning in Harringay

Warham Road — one of the middle rungs on the Ladder, about 3 minutes from Harringay Green Lanes station. Standard Ladder terrace: three beds on the first and second floors, a through-reception on the ground floor, a rear kitchen extension, a bathroom, and a 25ft garden. Family of three — one child at Coleridge Primary — had been there 3 years at £2,200/month. Managed by Winkworth from their Grand Parade office on Green Lanes.

Parked on the street with a Haringey visitor permit — £4/day via RingGo. Every Ladder street is CPZ.

Kitchen first. Rear extension, about 10ft by 8ft, with a door out to the garden. A Hotpoint freestanding cooker, gas. Pulled it out — the wall behind had 3 years of grease fused to the skirting. Standard for Ladder kitchens. Scraped, degreased, came up. Both cavities sprayed, 20-minute dwell. One pass. Gas hob — four burners, caps off. Extractor: wall-mounted, filter properly clogged. Soaked it.

The thing about this kitchen was the windowsill. The rear window faces toward Green Lanes — the Turkish grills are maybe 80 metres away — and the sill had a light grease film that wasn't visible until I ran a cloth over it and the cloth came back grey. Not from the tenant's cooking. From the restaurants. We cleaned it with alkaline degreaser and it came up fine, but it's the kind of thing that would have been there the day after the tenants moved in too. Cupboards wiped, fridge cleaned, floor degreased.

The garden threshold — 3 years of a child playing in and out, standard garden debris. Crevice vacuum, damp cloth, finger-test clean. Patio swept.

Through-reception. Bay window at the front — three sash panels, tracks vacuumed. Typical Ladder dust: not excessive, just the steady accumulation of an N4 street near a busy road. Glass cleaned both sides. A tiled fireplace in the front section — brown-and-cream Victorian tiles with a cast-iron insert. pH-neutral on each tile, barely-damp on the iron. Rear section: a second fireplace, sealed, painted surround wiped. Picture rail dusted throughout. Floorboards: sanded and sealed, mopped with specialist wood product.

Upstairs. Bathroom on the first floor — bath-shower combo with a glass screen. Limescale at ~270 ppm, 3 years. Descaler on the screen, 10-minute dwell, one pass clear. Taps done individually. Bath waterline — moderate, one pass with the descaler cloth. Toilet under the rim. Floor mopped.

Three bedrooms across two floors. First floor front: bay window (same as ground floor — tracks vacuumed, glass cleaned), wardrobe wiped inside. First floor rear: smaller, overlooking the garden, straightforward. Second floor (loft conversion): Velux window cleaned (frame and seal checked — clear), sloped ceiling dusted from the apex down. The loft room had been used as a home office — desk wiped, cable area cleaned.

Every room on this house had a bay window or a Velux, and every one needed the tracks done. Six sets of window tracks in one house — that's the Ladder. It adds up.

Winkworth came the next morning. Their Ladder specialist — she does dozens of these houses a year — walked through with a clipboard. Kitchen: oven checked, sill grease film gone (she ran her own finger across it — clean), floor colour change noted. Bay tracks on every floor: finger-tested, all clean. Fireplace tiles: no residue. Floorboards: finish maintained. Bathroom: screen clear, waterline done. Loft Velux: clean, no mould. Passed.

Deposit back in 8 days. No deductions. The family were moving to a larger house on Cavendish Road — two streets over, still on the Ladder, still in catchment for Coleridge. That's the Harringay pattern: families move within the grid.

If the sill grease film or the sealed-fireplace paintwork had been disputed, our documentation would have covered it. Restaurant drift isn't the tenant's fault. Painted surrounds wear. That's fair wear and tear. Our guide on landlord cleaning charges explains the line.