End of Tenancy Cleaning in Stoke Newington

Ground-floor garden flat in a Victorian terrace on one of the streets between Church Street and Clissold Park. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, a reception room with a bay window, a separate kitchen, and a rear garden of about 20ft accessed through French doors. A couple — both in publishing, both cycling to work in Bloomsbury — 3 years at £2,100/month. Felicity J Lord managing from 69 Church Street, the office that's been there longer than most of the cafés.

Hackney permit, £4. Parked on a metered bay one street over.

Reception room first. A front bay window with a ceiling rose above and original floorboards below. The floorboards were sealed and had the worn-in colour of a well-used room — darker on the traffic lines, lighter under where the sofa sat. Specialist product, barely damp. Cornicing: a rope-twist pattern, dusted with the extension brush. A tiled fireplace — dusty green Victorians with a cast-iron insert. pH-neutral on each tile, barely-damp on the iron, surround polished. Sash window: tracks vacuumed, glass cleaned.

Kitchen. Separate rear room, about 10ft by 8ft. A Bosch freestanding cooker, electric. Pulled it forward — 3 years of grease on the wall behind, heavier at skirting level. Scraped, then degreased. Oven sprayed, 20-minute dwell, one pass sufficient. Hob done, four zones wiped with glass product. Extractor: small wall-mounted unit, filter soaked. Worktop: butcher-block oak — wiped with wood product, not degreaser. Cupboards wiped inside. Fridge cleaned. Floor: Victorian quarry tiles, pH-neutral mop. The quarry tiles were original — unglazed, slightly porous. Product goes on carefully, mopped in one direction.

The French doors to the garden. The track had 3 years of leaf debris — plane tree from the garden, Clissold Park is three streets away but the planes are everywhere — plus a fine line of garden soil at the threshold edge. Crevice vacuum, damp cloth. The threshold itself had a faint damp line where water pools against the frame during heavy rain. Not mould — just the watermark of being ground-floor with a garden. Cleaned and photographed.

Bathroom. Internal, no window, ceiling-mounted extractor. Mould on the ceiling in one corner — anti-mould spray, 10-minute dwell, one pass. Sealant around the bath was clean — the couple had kept on top of it. Limescale at ~275 ppm, 3 years. Bath-shower combo with a glass screen: screen descaled, waterline treated, one pass each. Taps, toilet, floor — all done.

Two bedrooms. Both with original floorboards (same product), both with built-in wardrobes (wiped inside). The master at the rear overlooked the garden and had the best morning light. The front bedroom had a picture rail — wiped along the full length, top edge dusted.

Communal hallway on the way out. Front door both sides, shared landing swept, letterbox wiped.

3 hours 20 minutes. Straightforward conversion, well-maintained by tenants who cared about the flat.

Felicity J Lord came the next morning. Their Church Street lettings negotiator — she walks past this terrace every day on the way to the office. Fireplace: each tile finger-tested. Cornicing: checked from the bay angle. Floorboards: walked. Kitchen: oven opened, quarry tiles inspected (she knew they were original). Butcher-block checked for product marks — clean, no residue. Garden threshold: damp line noted, accepted as structural. Bathroom: ceiling mould treated, screen clear. Wardrobes: opened. Picture rail: finger-tested. 12 minutes. Passed.

Deposit back in 7 days. Full return. The couple were moving to a 3-bed maisonette two streets over — upgrading within N16, staying in the Church Street orbit.

That's Stoke Newington. Conversions with character, tenants who stay, and agents who walk past the building every morning. The quarry tiles and the butcher-block were the detail — wrong product on either and you'd see the mark at checkout. Our guide on deposit dispute evidence covers how we match every surface to the right product.