You can quote a Northfields house over the phone and be right, which is not true of most places. The terraces either side of Northfields Avenue were built to a handful of patterns on a tight grid south of the centre in W5, and once you have cleaned twenty of them you know what is behind the door. We are down here two or three times a week.
One house type, laid out the same way
Two rooms downstairs, often knocked through, a kitchen at the back and three bedrooms up one flight. Through lounges are £61, which is the figure most people here end up quoting back at us. One flight of stairs is £41. Where the loft has been converted there is a second flight and that is another £41, and the loft stair in these terraces is usually the steepest thing in the house.
The allotments make more work than you would expect
The allotment site off Northfields Avenue is one of the largest in London, and the people who use it walk home in their boots. Hall carpets in the streets nearest the gates take a beating from October onwards, once the ground turns and everything that comes off a plot ends up on somebody’s doormat. That is a real seasonal pattern for us. Halls and hall runners, autumn through to spring, more than in any other part of the borough. Clay soil holds in a pile and it does not hoover out, which is the whole argument for extraction over another go with the vacuum.
What gets booked in this corner of W5
Carpets and regular housework, in that order. A bedroom is £36 and a living room £43, and most bookings run to three rooms plus the stairs. Weekly cleaning is £22 per cleaner per hour and two and a half hours does one of these terraces properly. There is a fair amount of shared house work near the station too, which means check out cleans landing at odd times of year rather than in a summer block.
Timing and the commuter streets
The roads by Northfields station and the Piccadilly line depot fill with commuter cars early, so an 8am start is easier for us than an 11am one and we will usually suggest it. Down towards Little Ealing Lane it makes no difference at all. If you are opposite the station and the road is solid by half past eight, say so when you book, because we would rather bring the job forward than circle the block with a van full of kit.
Northfields runs into West Ealing on one side and up towards Ealing Common on the other, all the same round and the same prices, and the full list is on the front page.
Questions we get asked
How much is a through lounge?
£61. A through lounge is two reception rooms knocked into one, which is most of the terraces down here. Two separate rooms would be £43 and £36 instead.
How do you price a hall, stairs and landing?
A flight of stairs is £41. Halls and landings go at the £36 room rate. For a standard Northfields terrace with one flight, that is the whole run done in one visit.
Do you clean shared houses?
Yes, and we invoice the landlord or the agent directly if that is easier. For a check out on a shared house we need to know how many bedrooms there are, not how many tenants.