End of Tenancy Cleaning in Plumstead

An Edwardian mid-terrace on one of the streets between Plumstead High Street and Plumstead Common — a 5-minute walk from Plumstead station (Southeastern to London Bridge in 25 minutes), 3 minutes from the Common. Three bedrooms upstairs, a front reception, a rear kitchen-diner extension with doors to a 30ft garden, a first-floor bathroom (in a rear extension above the kitchen), and a downstairs WC under the stairs. The family — a teaching assistant and a bus driver — had rented for 3 years at £1,650/month, with one child starting secondary school. Managed by Beaumont Gibbs (High Street office, been in Plumstead since 2005).

Parked directly outside. No permit, no meter, no restriction. Plumstead parking is genuinely stress-free.

The kitchen-diner extension was the biggest room in the house — a full-width rear addition with French doors to the garden, a breakfast bar, and tile flooring (different from the original house's pine floorboards). A freestanding Hotpoint cooker — 3 years of daily family cooking. Pulled it forward: the wall behind had the usual grease-and-dust layer that builds up when a cooker sits untouched for years. Both cavities sprayed, left 20 minutes. The inner door glass was removed and soaked (moderate film — regular cooking but not heavy-duty). Gas hob — four burners, each cap lifted. Extractor — a basic wall-mounted fan unit, cover off, blades wiped, cover washed.

The breakfast bar had laminate worktops — non-abrasive cream, no scouring. The main worktop along the rear wall was also laminate. Cupboards opened and wiped. Fridge-freezer cleaned. The French door tracks had 3 years of garden traffic — soil, leaf debris from Plumstead Common (the garden backed toward the Common boundary), and small stones. Crevice vacuum, then wiped.

The tile floor in the extension was degreased with alkaline product rather than just mopped — 3 years of daily foot traffic from the garden plus cooking grease. The pine floorboards in the hallway and front reception were mopped with standard product (these were painted over rather than sealed — same as our Woolwich Powis Street case where the paint wear was documented rather than charged).

The front reception had a bay window — three Edwardian sash panels. Glass cleaned, tracks vacuumed with the crevice tool. The timber frames were in reasonable condition for their age but one section of putty had cracked on the middle panel — we photographed it. If the agent flagged this as a checkout issue, the photo shows it's a fair wear and tear maintenance item, not tenant damage. A cast-iron fireplace with a simple wooden surround — cast iron wiped with a barely-damp cloth, surround dusted. Picture rail dusted. Cornicing (simple Edwardian, less ornate than Victorian) dusted with the extension brush.

The first-floor bathroom — in the rear extension above the kitchen, with a sloped ceiling on one side (the pitch of the extension roof). Bath-shower combo with a glass screen. Limescale at ~270 ppm after 3 years — a decent buildup. Phosphoric acid applied, 10-minute dwell, scrubbed. One pass got it clear. Taps descaled. Bath waterline treated. Toilet under the rim. The sloped ceiling was checked for mould — clear (the extension had a ceiling extractor fan that actually worked, unlike the post-war estate blocks). Floor mopped including the awkward angled section under the slope. Downstairs WC: basin, toilet, floor.

Three bedrooms. The master (front, above the bay) had a sash window — tracks vacuumed, glass cleaned. Carpet vacuumed including edges and under the bed area. Built-in wardrobe wiped inside. The second bedroom (middle room, smaller) was the child's room — a poster adhesive mark on the wall (removed cleanly with specialist product) and a small sticker on the window frame (adhesive remover). The third bedroom (rear, smallest, overlooking the garden) was used as a combined guest room and storage space — straightforward clean.

The garden — 30ft, mostly patio with a strip of lawn. The patio had the Plumstead Common signature: leaf debris from the boundary trees plus the fine organic matter that drifts from the mature trees on the Common edge. Swept. French door threshold cleared. A plastic storage box in the corner of the garden — tenant's item, noted for the agent.

Beaumont Gibbs inspected two days later. David and his team do proper clipboard checkouts — they walk through with a form and check every room. The oven was their first item (door glass clean between panes, cavities degreased). The bathroom — shower screen clear, waterline treated, toilet rim done. The bay window — glass clean, tracks finger-tested, putty crack photographed (accepted as maintenance, not charged). The child's bedroom marks — resolved. The French door tracks — clean. The garden — swept, threshold done. Passed. Deposit returned within 9 days. No deductions.

Plumstead doesn't get the attention that Woolwich or Blackheath does. But the terraces are good houses, the agents are straightforward, and the cleaning is solid, practical work. This is what most of our SE18 jobs actually look like — not a riverside penthouse, but a family home cleaned properly so the deposit comes back. If the checkout had gone wrong and the landlord tried charging for things like the putty crack or the painted floorboard wear, our documentation would have been the tenant's protection — see our guide on landlord cleaning charges for what agents can and can't reasonably deduct.