End of Tenancy Cleaning in Nine Elms

A 14th-floor apartment in Embassy Gardens — the Ballymore development next to the US Embassy, 2 minutes from Nine Elms Northern Line station. Two bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen-living room with floor-to-ceiling Thames-facing glass, two bathrooms (master en-suite plus a family bathroom), a winter garden, and a balcony. The tenant — a management consultant on a 2-year corporate let at £3,200/month — was relocating to Singapore. Managed by JOHNS&CO (on-site at Embassy Gardens, development-specific agent).

Pre-booked: concierge notified, goods lift reserved for 9am, visitor parking confirmed in the basement. We arrived at 8:50, checked in at the desk, took the lift with all equipment. No stairs, no street parking, no permits. This is how Nine Elms works.

The open-plan kitchen-living room was the main event — about 35 sqm with the kitchen along the interior wall and the living area against the full-height glass overlooking the Thames toward Pimlico. Three floor-to-ceiling panes plus a balcony door.

We started with the glass. Specialist glass cleaner sprayed onto each pane, then wiped in vertical strips top to bottom with a lint-free cloth. The river was directly behind the glass — every mark showed. We worked methodically: left pane, centre pane, right pane, balcony door. Then a squeegee pass on each to catch any remaining streaks in the lower sections where the spray runs down. The balcony: floor swept (fine grit from the riverside air — finer than park debris, more mineral than organic), railing wiped, balcony glass cleaned from the outside. Total glass time: 28 minutes for the living room alone.

The kitchen: integrated Miele oven behind a handleless cabinet door. Door glass removed, both cavities sprayed, 20-minute dwell. Induction hob — cleaned with specialist ceramic product (no abrasive sponge, no scouring pad, just the product and a microfibre cloth in circular motions). Flush-ceiling extractor — filter panel released and soaked. Granite worktops (antique-finished, slightly textured surface) — pH-neutral product, wiped dry. We checked: no acidic descaler anywhere near the granite. Dishwasher: door opened, interior wiped, seal checked. Fridge: cleaned including gasket fold-back. Handleless cabinet surfaces: microfibre, one direction, no fingermarks on the satin finish.

The parquet floor — real oak herringbone throughout the living and kitchen area. Mopped with specialist wood product and a barely-damp mop. We work with the grain direction on herringbone: diagonal strokes following the block pattern rather than straight across, which pushes dirt into the joints rather than lifting it out. The floor had a light traffic path from the entrance to the kitchen island — 2 years of a single occupant. It blended after mopping.

The master en-suite: walk-in shower with frameless glass on two sides, wall-hung basin, wall-hung toilet, rainfall shower head. Phosphoric acid descaler at ~260 ppm — sprayed onto both glass panels, 10-minute dwell. While the glass dwelled: rainfall head wrapped in a descaler-soaked cloth, basin and toilet cleaned underneath (wall-hung means visible floor — agents always check), heated towel rail wiped bar by bar. Back to the glass: vertical strips, top to bottom, one pass clear. Chrome polished dry. Porcelain floor mopped with pH-neutral.

The family bathroom was similar but with a bath-shower combo instead of a walk-in. Bath waterline descaled with a cloth along the tide mark. Shower screen (single panel) — one pass after 10-minute dwell.

Two bedrooms. The master: engineered oak flooring (not parquet — different product), built-in wardrobes with sliding doors (tracks vacuumed, interior wiped), full-height window cleaned. The second bedroom: same flooring, same window treatment, a desk area wiped.

The winter garden — an enclosed glass space off the living room, half-indoor half-outdoor. Glass cleaned on all sides. Floor (porcelain tile) mopped. Plants had been removed by the tenant; we cleaned the shelf marks where the pots had stood.

JOHNS&CO inspected that afternoon — same-day digital checkout. Their negotiator walked through with a tablet, photographing every room and comparing against the check-in images. The glass was first: she held her phone torch against each pane in sequence (river-facing, then balcony, then bedrooms). Clear. The parquet: she checked the traffic path area (blended, specialist product maintained the finish). The granite: dry, no etch marks, no product residue. The oven: door glass between panes, both cavities. The en-suite shower glass: torch-tested, clear. The wall-hung fixtures: she crouched and checked underneath the basin and toilet. Everything passed. Photos uploaded to the management portal. Deposit processed within 6 days.

The consultant was already on a flight to Singapore by the time the checkout was confirmed. He'd hired us specifically so he didn't have to be there — corporate tenants at Nine Elms rents can't afford a failed checkout, and they definitely can't come back from Singapore to argue about a streak on the glass. Our clean meant he didn't have to. That's the value proposition at this price point: certainty.