A builder’s clean and a deep clean are not the same job. Construction dust is finer than household dust, it is still falling for days after the last cut is made, and it carries things a normal clean never meets — plaster splash, adhesive residue, silicone smears and paint on glass. We price it by the hour and we come and look first, free, because no honest fixed price survives contact with a real site.
What it costs
£30 an hour per cleaner. The hours below are what our booking calculator uses, and the range allows for how much debris is actually there. Nothing starts until we have seen the property and confirmed the figure with you.
| Property | Typical cleaner-hours | Estimated range |
|---|---|---|
| Studio or one room | 6 | £155 – £205 |
| One bedroom | 8 | £205 – £275 |
| Two bedroom | 11 | £280 – £380 |
| Three bedroom | 14 | £355 – £485 |
| Four bedroom | 18 | £460 – £620 |
| Five bedroom or larger | 22 | £560 – £760 |
These are estimates and we say so plainly. A flat that has been decorated and dust-sheeted throughout can come in under the bottom of its range; one where a wall has come out and a kitchen has gone in can go over the top of it. The site visit is what turns the estimate into a price.
Why builders’ dust is not ordinary dust
Two things make it different. The first is how small it is: the fraction that matters is too fine to see in normal light, which is why a room can look finished and still coat a dark worktop overnight. The second is what is in it. Brick, concrete, mortar, tile and some plasters contain silica, and the Health and Safety Executive describes respirable crystalline silica as the biggest risk to construction workers after asbestos.
None of that makes a finished flat unsafe to live in. It does explain why dry-sweeping a site with a broom mostly moves the problem into the air, and why this is work worth having done rather than doing yourself on a Saturday.
Why we clean in two or three stages
Because fine dust keeps settling. Clean a property end to end in one pass and there is a film back on the surfaces by the next morning — not because the clean was poor, but because the air was still full when it was done.
- Stage one — the bulk. Debris, dust sheets, protective film, the heavy deposits on floors and sills, and everything high: tops of doors, frames, pipework, light fittings and the ledges nobody looks at
- Stage two — what has fallen since. The pass that catches the settling, plus the detail work: paint spots, adhesive, grout haze, silicone smears, sawdust in window tracks, hinges and runners
- Stage three — the finish, on bigger or dustier jobs. Glass, sanitaryware, kitchen interiors and floors brought to a state you would hand over to a tenant or move into yourself
How many stages a job needs is decided at the site visit, not afterwards.
What comes off, and what we will not attempt
Removed as part of the job:
- Plaster splash and plaster dust, including the film on glass that only shows at certain angles
- Paint spots on glass, hard floors, sanitaryware, sockets and switch plates
- Adhesive and tape residue from protective film, masking and packaging
- Silicone smears around baths, trays, worktops and window frames
- Grout haze and cement film on new tiling
- Sawdust and grit in window tracks, runners, hinges and trickle vents
- Labels and stickers from new units, glazing, appliances and sanitaryware
- Kitchen and bathroom interiors, cupboards, drawers and appliance cavities
And the honest other half. We do not take away rubble, offcuts or trade waste — that belongs in the builder’s contract, and we clean once the site is clear. We do not do snagging, touching-up or decorating. And we will not take a blade to a surface that will mark: coated glass, some laminates and powder-coated frames get a different method or an honest “that is damage, not dirt”. You will hear which at the site visit rather than after the event.
Who we do this for
Three jobs, mostly. Homeowners at the end of a refurbishment, who want to move back into a finished house rather than a dusty one. Landlords and letting agents turning a property round after works, where the clean sits between the builder leaving and the check-in — often alongside an end of tenancy clean for the next tenant. And builders and contractors who would rather hand over a finished job than leave their own team scrubbing on the last afternoon.
Where we do after builders cleans
Across NW1 to NW11 — Camden and Primrose Hill, Hampstead, Belsize Park and Swiss Cottage, St John’s Wood and Maida Vale, West Hampstead, Kilburn, Brondesbury and Queen’s Park, Cricklewood and Childs Hill, Willesden, Kensal Rise and Kensal Green, Golders Green and Temple Fortune.
Our cleaners are employed, not sent by an agency, and the same team stays on a job from the first stage to the last — which matters more here than anywhere, because whoever did stage one knows exactly where the dust hides.
Book a free site visit
Tell us where it is and what has been done, and we will come and look. You get the hours, the stages and the price in writing before anything is booked.