End of Tenancy Cleaning in Petts Wood

A 1930s semi on Birchwood Road — one of the core streets of the original Petts Wood estate, running parallel to the railway line toward Orpington. The house was textbook Petts Wood: tile-hung gable at the front, curved bay window with leaded-light panels on the ground floor, a tiled porch, a parquet hallway, two reception rooms, a galley kitchen with a side-return extension, three bedrooms, one family bathroom, and a 70-foot rear garden with a patio and a shed. The tenants — a couple, he commuted to Canary Wharf, she worked from home — had been there 22 months on a fixed-term AST at £1,950/month. Managed by Mann Petts Wood. Inventory checkout booked with an independent clerk for two days later.

Parked on the driveway — a concrete hardstanding beside the house. No restrictions on Birchwood Road, no permits, no meter. Unloaded and in through the porch.

The hallway. Original wood-block parquet in a herringbone pattern — 90-year-old oak blocks, waxed rather than lacquered, running from the front door to the foot of the stairs and into the front reception room. This is the floor that sets the tone for the entire checkout. The blocks had gaps — they always do on original 1930s parquet, the timber has moved over decades — and the gaps had 22 months of grit, dust, and hair ground into them from every entry and exit through the front door. Crevice vacuum attachment along every gap, working the full length of the hallway. Then the surface vacuumed. Then mopped with specialist wood product — barely damp, a wrung-out mop head with just enough moisture to lift the surface dirt without penetrating the wax. We worked with the herringbone pattern, not against it. The blocks had a worn traffic path from the front door to the kitchen — the wax was thinner there, the colour slightly different. That's 90 years of use on top of 22 months of tenancy; we documented it as existing wear. The parquet in the front room was in better condition — less foot traffic, a rug had protected the central area. Same vacuuming and mopping process. Total parquet time: 25 minutes.

Front reception room. The curved bay window with its leaded-light panels — three sections of glass, each with diamond-pattern leading. Twelve individual glass diamonds per section, 36 in total, each cleaned with glass cleaner on a small cloth, working between the lead cames. The cames themselves wiped dry — they had a dull grey patina, which is normal for lead; we didn't try to brighten them. The runners on the casement sections vacuumed and wiped. The sill: wiped, a dead fly removed from behind the curtain hook. 20 minutes for the bay window.

An Art Deco tiled fireplace — geometric tiles in green, cream, and brown forming a stepped pattern around a cast-iron insert. Each tile wiped individually with a damp cloth. The cast-iron insert: dry cloth. The timber mantel: dusted and wiped (painted white, in good condition). The hearth — a single slate slab — vacuumed and mopped with pH-neutral. The chimney breast wall above: dusted. Alcove shelving on both sides (fitted during the tenancy or earlier — painted MDF, 3 shelves each): every shelf wiped. Picture rail around the room: the ledge wiped its full length. Radiator: wiped between the fins. Skirting boards: wiped. The parquet floor already done. 15 minutes for the fireplace, alcoves, and remaining surfaces.

Rear reception room — used as a dining room. A standard 1930s rear room: square, a single window to the garden, a radiator, a picture rail. Carpeted (mid-grey, relatively new — the landlord had replaced it between tenancies). Vacuumed throughout: edges, under the radiator, the corner behind the door. Window cleaned — a standard casement, not leaded. French doors to the garden: glass cleaned both sides from the interior, handles wiped, the threshold and door track vacuumed. 15 minutes.

Kitchen. A galley layout along the side return, extended at some point in the 1980s — narrow but functional, about 10 sqm. A freestanding gas cooker — Cannon, single oven, separate grill, 4-burner hob. The oven had 22 months of regular use from a household where one person worked from home — that means lunch as well as dinner, every weekday. The cavity was moderate-to-heavy: steady daily grease rather than weekend-only splatter. Door off, glass out (two panes), cavity sprayed. First dwell: 20 minutes. First pass: the sides and floor came clean, the roof and fan area needed more. Second spray on the roof, another 10 minutes. Second pass: done. Grill cavity: single dwell, one pass. Hob: 4 burner caps and supports soaked, enamel surface wiped. A burn mark on the enamel near the front-right burner — permanent, documented.

Worktops — dark laminate, the kind that shows every water mark and crumb. Wiped and dried. The splashback tiles: ceramic, degreased — the section behind the hob had a film similar to the Nunhead galley-kitchen problem, though this kitchen had a proper canopy hood rather than a wall fan. The hood and filter: filter removed and soaked (18 months of grease — the tenants clearly hadn't cleaned it during the tenancy), housing wiped and degreased. Sink — stainless steel, single bowl — descaled. The taps had heavy limescale around the bases and in the aerator — Bromley hard water doing its work over 22 months. Descaler, 10-minute dwell, cotton buds around the base. Cupboard fronts wiped. Inside all cupboards and drawers. Fridge-freezer (freestanding, tucked at the end): shelves, drawers, gaskets. No ice build-up — the freezer was in good condition. Floor — vinyl — mopped, including behind the cooker (pulled out: dust, a teaspoon, crumbs). The side door to the garden: threshold cleaned, track vacuumed. 45 minutes for the kitchen.

Bathroom. One family bathroom upstairs — a white suite, probably refitted in the early 2010s. Acrylic bath with a thermostatic shower mixer and a single glass screen. The shower screen was the main event: 22 months of Bromley hard water had left a layered limescale deposit across the entire panel. Not spots — a sheet. Phosphoric acid descaler applied generously, 12-minute dwell. First wipe in vertical strips, top to bottom. The top half cleared. The bottom third — where the spray hits most and the water sits before draining — needed a second application. Another 10-minute dwell. Second pass: clear. Squeegeed dry. The bath waterline: a thick ring, descaler along the full length, 10-minute dwell, one pass. Shower head: moderate limescale on the face plate, descaler and a toothbrush into the nozzles, 5 minutes. Basin — a semi-recessed unit on a vanity — descaled around the taps, the overflow, the bowl. Toilet: inside the bowl had a calcium line below the waterline. Descaler, 15-minute dwell, pumice stone on the stubborn section. Above the waterline: cleaned normally. Behind the toilet: wiped. Floor — ceramic tiles — mopped. Heated towel rail: each bar. Mirror and vanity cabinet: wiped. Extractor fan: cover removed, wiped. 35 minutes — the limescale pushed it to the top of the range.

Three bedrooms. The master: carpeted, a built-in wardrobe suite (three doors, hanging space and shelves — every section wiped, the base vacuumed). Window: a casement, cleaned. Radiator wiped. Skirting done. 18 minutes. Second bedroom: carpeted, a freestanding wardrobe (not built-in — we cleaned behind it and wiped the interior). Window cleaned. 14 minutes. Third bedroom — the box room, used as a home office. A desk had left indentations in the carpet (documented as normal furniture marks). The desk surface had been removed but the area behind where the monitor sat had a rectangle of less-faded carpet against a more-faded surround — sun bleaching from the window. Documented. Window cleaned, radiator done. 12 minutes.

Stairs and landing. Carpet vacuumed — treads, risers, the landing. The stair carpet was a different colour from the upstairs landing carpet (two carpets meeting at the top of the stairs — a common 1930s-house feature where the landlord replaced them at different times). Both vacuumed to the same standard. Bannister wiped — the handrail and each spindle. Airing cupboard on the landing: shelves wiped, hot-water cylinder dusted. The loft hatch: dusted (agents sometimes check this). 12 minutes.

Hallway already done (the parquet was our first task). Front door wiped inside and out. The tiled porch floor: mopped. The doorbell surround: wiped. Coat hooks: wiped. Shoe rack area: wiped. 5 minutes for the entrance details.

Total time: 4.5 hours. Two people. The limescale in the bathroom and kitchen added genuine time — the shower screen alone took 25 minutes including the double application. The parquet hallway added time. The leaded lights added time. A modern house of the same bedroom count in a soft-water area would have taken 3.5 hours. Petts Wood's 1930s stock and Bromley's chalk water add an hour between them.

The Mann inventory clerk arrived two days later. She worked from a detailed schedule — 10 pages, room by room, each fixture and surface itemised. Hallway: she crouched and looked along the parquet at floor level (checking for streaks or missed areas — a technique we've seen from experienced clerks who know wood floors). Clear. The traffic-path wear: noted as pre-existing. Front room: she checked each leaded-light panel individually (phone torch at an angle), examined the fireplace tiles, wiped a finger along the picture rail. Kitchen: opened the oven (torch), checked the hob enamel (noted the burn mark as pre-existing), held the extractor filter up to the light (clean). Bathroom: the shower screen was her focus — she held the screen at three different angles to the window light, checking for residual limescale. Clear. She checked the toilet bowl below the waterline with a torch. Clean. Bedrooms: wardrobes opened, windows checked, carpet furniture marks and sun bleaching noted.

Her report was 7 pages of photographs with annotations. Everything passed. The pre-existing items — parquet traffic wear, hob burn mark, carpet sun bleaching — were documented as existing condition, not cleaning failures. No flags. She confirmed by email that afternoon.

Deposit returned via the DPS within 9 days. No deductions. The couple had moved to a 4-bed detached two streets over — the classic Petts Wood upgrade where the commute stays the same and the house gets bigger. They'd hired us because they were painting the new place at the weekends and didn't have the time or the descaler to deal with 22 months of Bromley limescale on top of a move. That's the calculation most of our Petts Wood clients make: the cost of the clean is less than the cost of losing a day, and considerably less than the cost of a failed checkout on a £1,950/month deposit.