End of Tenancy Cleaning in Kew

Bushwood Road is about a 4-minute walk from Kew Gardens station, which means it's also about a 4-minute walk from the entrance to the Gardens themselves. The houses on both sides are Edwardian terraces with bay windows and front gardens, and the mature trees between the road and the pavement form a canopy that turns the street into a green tunnel in summer. In March, when we were there, the trees were just beginning to leaf and the magnolia in one of the front gardens was fully out.

Three bedrooms, a front lounge, a rear kitchen-diner that had been extended with bi-fold doors to the garden, a family bathroom, an en-suite, a downstairs WC, and a garden with a lawn, a patio, and a shed. The tenants were a Norwegian family — he worked at a bank in the City, she worked part-time at a research institute near Kew. Three years, furnished corporate let at £3,200 a month. Managed by Antony Roberts Kew. Full professional inventory at both ends.

Parked on the driveway. Bushwood Road is unrestricted this far from the station.

The kitchen-diner was the biggest room. The extension had added about 15 sqm to the original footprint, and the bi-fold doors ran the full width of the rear wall. A Rangemaster Classic 110 — two oven cavities, a grill, a warming drawer, and a 5-burner gas hob. Three years of a family that cooked Nordic food from scratch most nights. The main oven had a thick, layered grease from regular roasting. Double dwell on the main cavity. The second oven was moderate. The warming drawer had crumbs and a thin grease film. Total Rangemaster time: 55 minutes.

The bi-fold door tracks. Four panels, aluminium tracks top and bottom. The bottom track had pollen, leaf fragments, dried mud from the garden, and the fine green dust that accumulates anywhere near Kew Gardens when the trees are pollinating. Crevice-vacuumed, cloth pulled through, dried. The rubber seals wiped. 8 minutes across all four panels.

The rest of the kitchen. Stone worktops wiped. Belfast sink descaled — the mixer tap had a limescale collar after 3 years. Integrated fridge-freezer cleaned and defrosted. Dishwasher interior wiped. Inside all cupboards. Floor — engineered oak — mopped with specialist product. 42 minutes for the non-oven kitchen work. Kitchen total including the Rangemaster: 1 hour 45 minutes. That's the reality of a Kew extended kitchen with a range cooker after a 3-year tenancy.

Front lounge. Carpeted, vacuumed. Bay window — 4-over-4 sash, 16 panes, cleaned. An original Edwardian fireplace with a tiled insert in green and cream, timber surround, slate hearth. Tiles wiped, insert cleaned, surround wiped, hearth vacuumed. Picture rail wiped. 18 minutes.

Three bathrooms. Family bathroom: a white suite — bath with a shower over and a glass screen, pedestal basin, toilet. Three years of hard water. The shower screen had a layered limescale haze on the lower third. Descaler, dwell, two passes. Taps descaled — thick at the bases. Toilet — calcium below the waterline, proper soak needed. Grout: some dark spots in the shower area, anti-mould spray. 28 minutes. En-suite: walk-in shower with frameless glass, wall-hung basin, toilet. The glass was lighter — this bathroom had been used less. Single pass. 18 minutes. Downstairs WC: 7 minutes. Total bathroom time: 53 minutes.

Three bedrooms. Master: carpeted, vacuumed, window cleaned. Built-in wardrobe wiped inside — the furnished let had left the wardrobe frames but the family's clothes hangers were piled on the shelf. Removed and left in a bag by the front door. 14 minutes. Second bedroom: same process. 12 minutes. Third bedroom — the smallest, used as the children's room. Carpet vacuumed. A small chocolate stain near the door. Spot-treated, came out. The windowsill had sticker residue — a row of small penguin stickers marching along the sill in a neat line. Norwegian penguins, probably from a museum gift shop. Five of them, each about 3cm tall. Peeled carefully, adhesive cleaned. No damage. 14 minutes.

Stairs, landing, hallway: vacuumed. The hallway had original Edwardian encaustic tiles — geometric pattern in terracotta, black, and cream. Mopped carefully with pH-neutral product. The front door had a brass letterbox that the family had kept polished, which meant it only needed a maintenance clean rather than a restoration. 10 minutes.

Total time: 5 hours. Two people. A 3-bed Edwardian extended terrace where the Rangemaster took 55 minutes, the three bathrooms took 53 minutes, and the bi-fold door tracks with their Kew-specific pollen and leaf debris took 8 minutes. The kitchen alone was 1 hour 45. A family house that had been properly lived in for 3 years by people who cooked, ate, bathed, played, and stuck Norwegian penguin stickers on the children's windowsill.

Antony Roberts' clerk arrived three days later. She covered the Kew and North Sheen patch and had inspected this house at the start of the tenancy. She had the check-in photos on her tablet.

Kitchen: Rangemaster opened cavity by cavity, phone torch in. Main cavity compared against the check-in photo — clean. Hob checked. The bi-fold tracks: she crouched and ran a finger along the aluminium channel. Clean. She checked the rubber seals. The pollen that accumulates in Kew tracks is her regular adversary and she knew where to look.

Bathrooms: family bathroom shower screen angle-tested. She stood where the limescale haze had been and looked at the glass in the light. Clear. Taps checked. En-suite glass checked. All three bathrooms walked through. Front lounge: fireplace tiles checked. Bay window spot-checked. Encaustic hallway tiles: she looked at them from the front door.

Children's room: she checked the penguin-sticker location on the windowsill. Felt the surface. Smooth. She looked at the check-in photo of the same sill on her tablet — bare. Matched.

Fifteen minutes. Everything passed. Her report was 12 pages with photo comparison. All cleaning items passed. The chocolate stain noted as successfully treated. The coat hangers noted for the relocation company.

Deposit returned in full within 10 days. The family moved back to Oslo. The penguins went with them. The magnolia in the front garden was still blooming when we loaded the van.