End of Tenancy Cleaning in Heston

A 1930s semi-detached on Vicarage Farm Road — the kind of house Heston is built from. Three bedrooms upstairs, a separate living room and kitchen-diner downstairs, one family bathroom, a back garden, and a driveway. The tenants — a couple, both working at Heathrow — had been there 14 months on a fixed-term AST at £1,650/month. The landlord managed the property himself, no agent, no inventory clerk. He'd booked his own checkout for the following morning.

We parked on the driveway. No permits, no pre-booking, no concierge. Carried the kit through the front door and started.

Kitchen first. A freestanding gas cooker — Belling, probably 5 years old, used regularly. The oven cavity had 14 months of splatter. Door lifted off, glass panels unclipped, cavity and door sprayed with alkaline degreaser. First dwell: 20 minutes. While it dwelled, we pulled the hob burner caps and pan supports off and dropped them into a soak tray. The hob surface itself — enamel, cream-coloured — wiped clean. It wasn't bad; the tenants had wiped it regularly, just never done the heavy bits.

After 20 minutes, the first pass on the oven cavity. Most of the splatter came off. A second spray on the roof of the cavity and the area around the fan housing where fat collects behind the back panel. Another 15-minute dwell. Second pass: clean. Door glass cleaned between the panes. Reassembled.

The rest of the kitchen: laminate worktops wiped down. Cupboard fronts — gloss white laminate, fingermarks around every handle — wiped in one direction. Inside all cupboards and drawers. Fridge-freezer: shelves out, wiped, gasket folded back and cleaned, freezer section defrosted (small ice build-up on the back wall — 10 minutes with the door open and a towel). Sink — stainless steel, standard twin-bowl — descaled and polished. Extractor hood above the cooker: filter removed, soaked, housing wiped. Kitchen window cleaned inside. Vinyl floor mopped. The back door track — a dirt trap where garden soil meets the kitchen floor — vacuumed and wiped. Total kitchen time: 50 minutes, including the double oven dwell.

Bathroom. One family bathroom upstairs: a white suite, bath with an overhead shower and a curved shower screen, pedestal basin, close-coupled toilet, ceramic floor tiles. The bath waterline had a grey limescale ring — descaler along the full length, 10-minute dwell, one pass. The shower screen — a single curved panel on a pivot — descaled and squeegeed. Tiles wiped. Grout checked: mostly clean, a few spots of mould in the corners of the shower area treated with anti-mould spray. The silicone sealant around the base of the bath: in reasonable condition, cleaned but not replaced. Basin descaled including the overflow hole and the tap bases. Toilet: inside the bowl, under the rim, around the base, behind the cistern. Mirror and medicine cabinet wiped. Extractor fan cover removed and wiped (thick dust — these rarely get cleaned during a tenancy). Floor mopped. Total bathroom: 30 minutes.

Living room. Carpeted throughout — a mid-brown berber that showed traffic patterns from the doorway to the sofa. Vacuumed thoroughly: the entire floor area, under the radiator, edges along the skirting, behind the TV stand area. Windowsill wiped. Bay window cleaned inside (three panes plus two side returns). Radiator wiped — the fins had dust compacted between them, cleaned with a radiator brush. Light switches, door handles, skirting boards wiped round. Curtain pole dusted. 20 minutes.

Three bedrooms. All carpeted, all with radiators, all with standard double-glazed windows. Master bedroom: wardrobe wiped inside (shelves, rail, base — crumbs and dust bunnies on the base, always), window cleaned, radiator done, carpet vacuumed including under-bed and corners. Second bedroom: same process, slightly smaller. Third bedroom (box room): had been used as a dressing room — a clothes rail and some shelving wiped. Each bedroom: about 15 minutes. Stairs vacuumed — treads and risers, including the awkward turn at the half-landing where dust collects against the wall.

Hallway and entrance. Front door wiped inside and out. Door mat lifted, floor beneath vacuumed. Coat hooks and radiator wiped. Light fixture dusted. Stairs already done.

We didn't touch the garden — the tenancy agreement didn't mention it, and the landlord hadn't specified. We cleaned the back door threshold and the kitchen door track, which is the boundary.

Total time: 4.5 hours for a 3-bed semi. Straightforward — no premium finishes to navigate, no digital checkout to prepare for, no concierge to coordinate. Just a house that needed to be clean for a landlord who'd walk through it with his own eyes.

The landlord came the next morning. He went room by room with his phone camera, comparing against photos he'd taken at the start of the tenancy. Kitchen: opened the oven (torch from his phone into the cavity), checked the hob, opened the fridge. Bathroom: looked at the sealant (acceptable), checked behind the toilet, ran a finger along the shower screen. Bedrooms: opened the wardrobes, checked the window corners. Carpet: looked at the traffic path (still visible — that's wear, not dirt). He spent about 20 minutes. Satisfied.

Deposit returned in full within 8 days via the DPS. No disputes, no deductions. The tenants had already handed back the keys and moved to a flat closer to Terminal 5.

That's Heston. Not a penthouse, not a tower, not a digital checkout. A suburban semi where a good clean means the landlord nods, takes the keys, and starts looking for the next tenant.