End of Tenancy Cleaning in Norbury

Pulled up outside a mid-terrace on one of the streets off Norbury Crescent — about 7 minutes from Norbury station, a couple of roads back from London Road. Classic Edwardian bay-front. Three beds upstairs, bathroom, through-lounge on the ground floor, separate kitchen at the back with a door out to a 35ft garden that backed onto fences and then the edge of Norbury Park. Family of four had been in it for 4 years. Two primary-school-age kids. Managed by James Alexander on London Road — they've been here since the mid-90s and they know every house on these streets.

Parked right outside on the street. No permit. Norbury is good like that.

Went in through the front door. Hallway with original Edwardian tiles — cream and brown geometric pattern. Swept first, then mopped with pH-neutral. There was a scuff on one tile near the doormat where something heavy had been dragged — it came up with careful spot-cleaning. The tiles were in decent shape for 4 years with kids.

Straight to the kitchen. Separate rear room, about 10ft by 8ft. A Belling freestanding cooker — gas, double oven. Pulled it out from the wall. The gap behind was grim — 4 years of grease had run down the back of the cooker and fused to the skirting board. We scraped the worst of it with a plastic scraper (metal would gouge the paint), then alkaline degreaser on the skirting and the wall section. The wall came up fine. The skirting had a shadow where the grease had soaked into the paint — we cleaned it as far as it would go and photographed the rest. That's a repaint job, not a cleaning job.

Both oven cavities sprayed. 20-minute dwell on the first pass. Lower oven was worse — the family clearly used it more. A second coat on the lower corners and another 10 minutes. Door glass soaked separately. Gas hob — five burners, each cap off, pan supports into a soak bag. The extractor was a basic wall-mounted unit. Cover off, fan blades wiped (caked in grease — the filter hadn't been cleaned in years). Cupboards wiped, fridge cleaned including the gasket fold-back. The vinyl floor got a proper alkaline degrease — the colour change was obvious. What looked like a brownish floor turned out to be cream vinyl under 4 years of kitchen traffic.

The garden door threshold — this was the Norbury Park special. Dark organic soil, decomposed leaves from the park's mature oaks and beeches, and the general garden debris that tracks in when kids run in and out all day. Thicker than typical garden mess because the park boundary was so close. Crevice vacuum, then a damp cloth until the finger-test came back clean.

Through-lounge. Bay window at the front — sash, tracks vacuumed (proper ridge of compacted dust), glass cleaned both sides. A tiled fireplace in the front section — dark green Edwardian tiles with a cast-iron insert. pH-neutral on each tile, barely-damp cloth on the iron. The rear section had a sealed fireplace with a painted surround — wiped down. Picture rail dusted throughout. The original timber floorboards had been sanded and sealed at some point — mopped with specialist wood product. A traffic path from the door to the sofa was visible but faint. It blended after mopping.

Upstairs. Bathroom — separate room, bath-shower combo with a plastic curtain. Limescale at ~265 ppm after 4 years from a family of four. We laid a descaler-soaked cloth along the bath waterline and left it for the dwell time. The waterline was heavy — kids' baths every night for 4 years leaves a genuine tide mark. One pass wasn't enough. Second cloth, another dwell. It came up. Shower head descaled. Taps done individually. Toilet under the rim — torch check, descaler, brush. Floor mopped including behind the toilet. The extractor fan grille was thick with dust — removed, washed under the tap, dried, replaced.

Three bedrooms. Master at the front — bay window cleaned, sash tracks vacuumed, wardrobe wiped inside, radiator between the fins. The kids' room — two sticker marks on the wardrobe door (adhesive remover, came off clean), a crayon mark on the skirting (specialist remover on gloss paint), and a small area on the wall where Blu-Tack had been and taken a fleck of paint with it. We cleaned the Blu-Tack residue but the paint fleck was gone — photographed it. That's a touch-up, not a clean. James Alexander would either accept it or the landlord would repaint the room between tenancies. The back bedroom — smaller, used as a study. Straightforward.

The garden — 35ft, half patio half lawn. Patio swept. The patio slabs near the back fence had moss in the joints — we scrubbed the worst of it but some green remained in the mortar (documented as exterior weathering, same as our Plumstead garden-step approach). A plastic water table and a small football net had been left — noted for the agent as tenant items.

James Alexander came round the next afternoon. Ken — one of the partners, been doing this for 25 years — walked through with a clipboard. Hallway tiles: clean, scuff resolved. Kitchen: oven done (he opened both doors and checked the corners with a torch), wall behind the cooker (clean, skirting shadow noted and accepted), floor (he actually noticed the colour change — said it happens on every long tenancy). Bathroom: waterline gone, taps done, fan grille clean. Kids' marks: stickers and crayon resolved, Blu-Tack paint fleck photographed and accepted. Bay window tracks: finger-tested, clean. Garden: swept, moss documented. Passed.

Deposit back in 10 days. No deductions. The family were relieved — they'd been stressed about the oven and the kids' marks. Neither turned out to be a problem once it was cleaned properly.

That's a typical Norbury job. No luxury finishes, no digital checkout, no overseas landlord review. Just a family house that needed cleaning by people who know what they're doing, documented properly so the deposit comes back fair. If any of those items had been disputed — the skirting grease shadow, the paint fleck, the patio moss — our photos would have been the tenant's deposit dispute evidence. For more on what landlords can reasonably charge, see our guide on landlord cleaning charges.