End of Tenancy Cleaning in Tolworth

Kingsmead Avenue is one of those Tolworth streets where the houses come in pairs. Hipped-roof 1930s semis, each pair a mirror image of the other, with bay windows and front gardens that have been paved for parking so gradually that you barely notice the original garden underneath. The gaps between the pairs are wide enough to see through to the back gardens, and if you stand at the right angle you can see Tolworth Tower above the rooflines to the east. It's not a view anyone photographs. It's just the landmark that tells you where you are.

Three bedrooms, a front lounge, a rear kitchen-diner with a conservatory off the back, a family bathroom, a downstairs WC, and a garden with a lawn and a trampoline. The family had been there 3 years — two parents, two kids aged 8 and 5. He commuted to Waterloo from Tolworth station. She worked locally in Kingston. £1,850 a month. Managed by the landlord directly, who lived in Epsom and would be coming for the checkout himself.

Parked on the driveway. No restrictions. Carried the kit in through the front door.

Kitchen-diner first. The original separate kitchen had been opened up at some point — the wall between kitchen and dining room removed, a breakfast bar put in. A freestanding gas cooker — a Zanussi, single oven, four burners. Three years of a family that cooked every evening. The oven had the thick, layered grease of a house where the cooker is the most-used appliance. Dark on the roof, dark on the back wall, a baked crust on the bottom. Double dwell on the cavity. The roof needed a targeted third pass on the section around the fan. The back wall came clean on the second. Hob cleaned, burner caps soaked — one was cracked and we noted it. Grill pan heavy. Soaked for the duration of the kitchen clean.

Worktops — laminate — wiped. Sink descaled. The mixer tap had a thick white collar at the base after 3 years. Double application. Fridge-freezer cleaned. The freezer was solid — a thick ice layer, the drawers frozen shut. Defrosted for 40 minutes while we worked the rest of the kitchen and the conservatory. Inside all the cupboards. Extractor hood filter soaked. Floor — vinyl — mopped. Behind the cooker: pulled out, the wall degreased, a Lego brick and a 20p coin. Kitchen total: 48 minutes.

Conservatory. About 8 sqm, lean-to UPVC off the kitchen. This was the play zone. Fingerprints on the glass at child height. A marker pen line on one frame — green, about 5cm. Six panes of interior glass cleaned. Door track: dried leaves, garden debris, a small rubber ball. Track vacuumed and wiped. Floor tiles mopped. The marker came off in two passes. 16 minutes.

Bathroom. A white suite — bath with a shower over and a glass screen, pedestal basin, close-coupled toilet. Three years of Kingston hard water and a family of four using it every day. The shower screen had a thick limescale haze covering the lower two-thirds. Descaler, dwell, two passes. Still had a residual bloom on the lower section. Third application, targeted. It cleared. The taps had solid white crusts at the bases. Double descaler. Bath waterline — a stubborn ring from years of bath-time with the kids. Required manual attention with a non-scratch pad after the descaler dwell. Toilet — heavy calcium below the waterline and in the back section. Proper soak, 15 minutes, manual scrubbing on the stubborn section. Grout in the shower area: dark at the sealant line, anti-mould spray, scrubbed. Most came out. Some staining in the old sealant remained. Documented. Floor mopped. 32 minutes. The bathroom was the hardest single room in the house.

Downstairs WC: limescale on the tap, calcium in the toilet, vinyl floor mopped. 7 minutes.

Front lounge. Carpeted, vacuumed. Bay window — UPVC, cleaned. A gas fire in a modern surround. Wiped. Radiator done. Skirting wiped. 10 minutes.

Three bedrooms. Master: carpeted, vacuumed, window cleaned, wardrobe wiped inside. 10 minutes. Second bedroom: same. 8 minutes. Kids' room: carpet vacuumed, a small paint spot on the carpet near the wardrobe — looked like the aftermath of a school art project. Spot-treated, lightened. The window frame had sticker residue. Not on the glass, not on the sill — on the frame itself. Dinosaur stickers, four of them, placed on the white UPVC where a child could see them from the bed. Each peeled, adhesive cleaned. The UPVC cleaned up perfectly. That's the one advantage of UPVC over original timber — sticker adhesive comes off without a fight. 12 minutes.

Stairs and hallway: vacuumed, hallway floor — laminate — mopped. Front door wiped. 8 minutes.

Total time: 4 hours. Two people. A 3-bed 1930s semi where the bathroom took 32 minutes because 3 years of Kingston hard water builds a layer that doesn't surrender easily. The oven took 30 minutes with the triple roof pass. The conservatory added 16. A Tolworth house that was lived in properly by a family that used every room for what it was designed for.

The landlord arrived two days later. He was the kind of Epsom landlord who owned three or four properties in Tolworth because the yields were better than in the Surrey towns, and he'd been doing checkouts long enough to know exactly what to look for. He had a clipboard with a typed schedule, a torch, and a bottle of water because he'd driven from Epsom and it was a warm day.

Kitchen: oven opened, torch in. Triple-pass zone checked. He nodded. The cracked burner cap: he looked at it, said nothing, and wrote something on the clipboard. Tap base: he touched it. Smooth. Behind the cooker: he pulled it out himself and looked at the wall. Clean. The Lego brick was on the counter next to the 20p. He picked up the Lego brick, looked at it, and put it back down.

Bathroom: he went straight to the shower screen. Stood at an angle and looked at the lower section where the triple descaler application had been. Clear. He turned on the shower and watched the water hit the screen. Even sheet, no beading interruptions from residual scale. He turned it off. Taps checked. Toilet: he crouched and looked below the waterline with his torch. Clean. The sealant staining: he ran a finger along it, photographed it, wrote 'sealant replacement needed' on his clipboard. Not a cleaning issue.

Conservatory: marker pen location checked. Kids' room: dinosaur sticker locations checked — he ran a finger along the UPVC frame. Smooth.

Thirteen minutes. Everything passed on the cleaning items. The cracked burner cap was noted separately. The sealant was noted for replacement. The Lego brick was left on the counter for the family to collect.

Deposit returned in full within 9 days. The family moved to a 4-bed detached in Chessington — the next step out, still Kingston borough, trading an extra bedroom for a slightly longer commute. The trampoline went with them. The dinosaur stickers probably went with them too, headed for a new UPVC frame on a new window in a new bedroom, because kids who like dinosaurs at 5 still like dinosaurs at 8, and UPVC forgives them for it.