The Elizabeth line platform at West Ealing station has changed our diary more than anything else in the last few years. W13 sits a mile west of the Broadway along the Uxbridge Road and it feels different from the W5 streets we are based on. We are over here several times a week. There are two kinds of building in this postcode and they need two different conversations.
Old conversions and new blocks
North of the Uxbridge Road is late Victorian and Edwardian terrace, much of it split into flats years ago. Then there is the new build, the Green Man Lane regeneration and the blocks that have gone up near the station. New flats reach us with builders’ dust and grout haze rather than dirt, which sounds like the easier job and is not, because plaster dust settles twice more after you think it has gone. A deep clean from £186 is normally the right booking for one of those.
What the Elizabeth line did to our diary
The station went from a stopping service to a fast run into the West End, and the letting market followed it. Shorter professional tenancies, more turnover, and check outs landing on quarter days instead of the old September rush. Move out cleans are now our commonest W13 booking: £156 for a studio, £207 for a one bedroom, £243 for two. Fixed by size, with the oven in the price, and agreed before we book rather than adjusted on the day.
Carpets in a conversion
Flats in the older terraces usually have one decent carpet in the living room and something cheaper in the bedrooms, so £43 and £36. The bit everyone forgets is the communal stair, which is nobody’s job and looks like everybody’s problem. We will do it at £41 a flight where the freeholder agrees to pay for it, and we have learned to ask who that is before quoting.
Where the van goes
The bus lane on the Uxbridge Road means we cannot sit outside a shop parade in the middle of the day, so we come off it and park in the side roads near Dean Gardens or behind the shops, then run the hose from there. Tell us your road when you ring and we will know before setting off whether the van goes on the street or round the back. For a flat over a shop that usually decides whether the job is an hour or two hours, and it is the sort of thing we would rather sort out on the phone than in your hallway.
Next door
W13 runs into Northfields to the south and Hanwell to the west, and we cover all three on one day when the bookings line up that way. What we charge for carpets, and everything else, is on the home page.
Questions we get asked
Is a new build flat cheaper to clean?
No. A move out clean is priced by bedroom count either way, so a new one bedroom flat is £207 the same as an old one. After builders work a new flat often needs more time, not less.
Can you clean a communal stair?
Yes, at £41 a flight, but somebody has to agree to pay. That is usually the freeholder or the managing agent rather than one flat owner.
Do you cover the whole of W13?
Yes, both sides of the Uxbridge Road, down to the Northfields boundary and across to Drayton Green.