End of Tenancy Cleaning in South Croydon

Birdhurst Road is one of those South Croydon streets where the houses were built to impress the neighbours and 120 years later they're still doing it. Edwardian semis with big bay windows, decorative brickwork, tiled front paths, and gardens deep enough that the children can run without hitting a fence within three strides. They're wider than the Victorian terraces closer to the station and taller than the 1930s semis further south. This one had kept most of its original character — the bay windows still had the original sashes, the hallway still had the Minton-effect floor tiles, and the fireplace in the front room still had the tiled surround with the cast-iron insert. What it also had, after 3 years of family life, was two bathrooms full of limescale, an oven that needed serious attention, and a back garden that had been slowly migrating into the house through the kitchen door.

Three bedrooms, a front reception room, a dining room, a kitchen with a utility area, a family bathroom, and a ground-floor shower room that had been added at some point as part of a side-return extension. Front and back gardens, a driveway. The family had been there 3 years — two parents, two children aged 10 and 7. He commuted to London Bridge from South Croydon station. She worked locally. £2,100 a month. Managed by Streets Ahead South Croydon.

Parked on the driveway. Unrestricted street. Carried the kit in through the front door, stepping over the Minton tiles carefully because they were cold and slightly uneven and the kind of thing you don't want to chip with a vacuum.

Kitchen first. The kitchen was the rear room plus the utility extension — about 14 sqm total, which is big for a rental clean. A freestanding gas range cooker — a Rangemaster Classic 90, double oven, five burners. Three years of a family that cooked properly and often. The main oven was heavy — the layered grease of someone who roasted a joint most Sundays and baked with the children at weekends. The secondary oven was lighter, used for warming and overflow. Main oven: double dwell, two passes on the roof, one pass on everything else. Secondary oven: single dwell, one pass. The grill was moderate. Hob cleaned — five burner caps soaked. One had a baked-on spill that needed individual soaking.

Worktops — granite — wiped. Sink descaled. The tap had a thick collar after 3 years. Double descaler application. Fridge-freezer cleaned — the American-style fridge had a water dispenser that had a limescale collar of its own. Descaled. Inside all the cupboards. Utility area: washing machine cleaned on the drum and the door seal. Floor — slate tiles — mopped with specialist stone product. Behind the range: pulled out, the wall degreased. A wooden spoon and a bottle cap. Kitchen total: 52 minutes. Longest kitchen in a while.

The back door to the garden. A timber-framed door with glazed panels. The threshold had dried mud, grass, and what looked like fragments of gravel from a primary-school art project that had been brought home in a pocket. Track cleaned, threshold wiped. 3 minutes.

Front reception room. The original bay window — 4-over-4 sashes, three sides, 48 panes. Each pane cleaned, glazing bars wiped. An original fireplace — tiled surround in a dark green glaze with a cast-iron insert. Tiles wiped individually. Iron dry-cleaned. Timber mantel — painted cream — wiped. Hearth — slate — vacuumed and wiped. The chimney breast had a faint circular mark about 30cm across, about 1.5 metres up — the outline of a mirror or a clock that had been hanging there for the full tenancy. The wall around it had aged slightly while the patch behind was protected. Not damage. Not cleaning. Time. Documented. 20 minutes.

Dining room. Carpeted, vacuumed. A casement window — UPVC replacement, quick. Radiator wiped. 7 minutes.

Family bathroom. A white suite — bath with a thermostatic shower over and a glass screen, pedestal basin, close-coupled toilet. Three years of hard water and a family of four. The shower screen had a heavy limescale haze on the lower half. Triple descaler application — first two passes reduced it, third cleared it. Taps — thick crusts. Bath waterline — thick, combined soap-limescale layer. Double descaler plus manual work. Toilet — heavy calcium below the waterline. Proper soak, 12 minutes, manual scrubbing. Grout mostly clean. One section of mould at the sealant near the shower tray. Anti-mould spray, scrubbed, came off. 30 minutes.

Ground-floor shower room. Walk-in shower with a tiled enclosure, wall-hung basin, wall-hung toilet. Newer than the main bathroom, modern fixtures, easier to clean. Descaler on the shower glass, taps, and toilet. Light limescale — 3 years but a single person's usage since the children used the bath upstairs. Single pass on everything. 14 minutes.

Three bedrooms. Master: carpeted, vacuumed. Bay window at the front — sash, not as many panes as the downstairs bay, 6-over-6 pattern, 24 panes. Each cleaned. Wardrobe — freestanding, wiped. 14 minutes. Second bedroom: carpeted, vacuumed, UPVC window, wardrobe wiped inside. 8 minutes. Children's room: the larger of the two rear bedrooms, shared by a 10-year-old and a 7-year-old. Carpet vacuumed. Window — UPVC casement, quick. The wall between the two beds had a pencil line running horizontally at about a metre — not a drawing, a literal line, the kind that happens when a child does homework in bed and the pencil catches the wall. About 40cm long. Cleaned with an eraser, then a damp cloth. The pencil came off. A faint impression remained in the paint. Documented as cosmetic. 10 minutes.

Hallway: the Minton-effect floor tiles — original, encaustic, in a geometric pattern of black, terracotta, and cream. Swept, mopped with pH-neutral stone product. These tiles look best when they're slightly matte. Using the wrong product makes them look wet and cheap. The right product makes them look like someone cares. 6 minutes.

Stairs: carpeted, vacuumed — every tread, every riser, the edges against the spindles. 6 minutes.

Total time: 4 hours. Two people. A 3-bed Edwardian semi where the kitchen took 52 minutes because a Rangemaster Classic 90 with double ovens is not a 12-minute single-dwell job. Two bathrooms took 44 minutes between them. Two sets of bay windows took 34 minutes across two rooms. A house built to impress the neighbours that needed cleaning to impress the inventory clerk.

Streets Ahead's clerk arrived two days later. She had a tablet with a digital inventory and a printed floor plan with room numbers that matched her template. She'd done the original check-in inventory three years earlier and had the check-in photos on her tablet for comparison.

Hallway: she looked at the Minton tiles. Knelt down and looked along the surface at an angle, checking for product residue or streaking. Clean, even, matte. She stood up.

Kitchen: range cooker opened — main oven first, phone torch in. Roof checked. Clean. Secondary oven: opened, checked. Clean. The granite worktop: she ran her hand across near the hob. No residue. The American fridge dispenser: she pressed it, looked at the collar where the limescale had been. Clean. Behind the range: she didn't pull it out. She asked if we'd pulled it out. We said yes. She made a note.

Family bathroom: shower screen — she stood at an angle and looked at the lower section. Clear. Compared it to her check-in photo on the tablet. At check-in, the screen had been new. Three years later, after a triple descaler application, it looked like a screen that had been used and cleaned, not a new one. She was fine with that. Toilet torched. Clean.

Reception: the fireplace tiles — she finger-tested two of them. Clean. The wall mark from the mirror or clock: she compared it to her check-in photo. The check-in photo showed a mirror hanging in that exact spot. She noted it as 'outline from tenant's mirror, cosmetic, not damage.' That's a clerk who does her job properly.

Children's room: the pencil-line impression. She looked at it. Photographed. Compared to check-in. The wall had been freshly painted at check-in. The impression was faint enough that she noted it as wear.

Thirteen minutes. Everything passed on the cleaning. The mirror outline, the pencil impression, and the baked burner cap spill were noted separately. None charged.

Deposit returned in full within 10 days. The family moved to a 4-bed detached on Selsdon Road — the next step south, still CR2, bigger house, bigger garden, the children getting bigger too. The wooden spoon from behind the Rangemaster went with them. The pencil probably went with them too, headed for homework in a new bed with a new wall to mark.