Three postcodes, two boroughs, one list of figures. The round starts in HA8, runs west to Stanmore in HA7 on the Harrow side, and crosses east into NW7 at Mill Hill, picking up the NW9 edge towards Colindale and Kingsbury along the way. A bedroom carpet costs £36 in a 1930s semi off Watling Street, in a Watling Estate house, in a flat by the station and in a detached house on the Edgwarebury lanes. Six areas, six pages.
The six, and what each mostly wants doing
| Area | Postcode | Most of the work there |
|---|---|---|
| Burnt Oak | HA8 | Watling Estate houses, split lets, handover cleans, tenancy carpets |
| Stanmore | HA7 | Big houses on the hill, four hour weekly visits, after builders deep cleans |
| Mill Hill | NW7 | Mill Hill East flats between tenants, village houses, old boards |
| Canons Park | HA8 | Weekly housework, loft conversion ensuites, limescale, spring ovens |
| Queensbury | HA8 | The interwar grid, three hour weekly visits, spring carpet bursts |
| Edgwarebury | HA8 | Large detached houses, three cleaner deep cleans, range cookers |
The postcode does not touch the figure
£77 does a single oven in all six. The handover scale is identical everywhere, opening at £156 and closing at £425. Hourly housework stays at £22 weekly and £24 fortnightly per cleaner. Team deep cleans run from £186 to £498. Mileage never appears on an invoice, and leaving Barnet for Harrow at Stanmore costs nothing at all. There is exactly one floor, the £67 on a one off booking, and most jobs clear it unnoticed. All the numbers sit on the prices page; what each job gets through sits on the services page.
What the buildings do to the work
The interwar semi defines this patch. The Northern line reached Edgware in 1924 and most of the district was laid out across the following fifteen years, bay-fronted, built with solid brick spine walls, timber floor joists and generous rear plots. A great many still have original parquet, picture rails and a tiled front path. Hip to gable loft conversions with a rear dormer are everywhere, and each one brings a bedroom, an ensuite and a second flight of stairs, which lengthens a regular visit and adds a second £41 to a carpet job.
Around that core the stock changes at the edges. Burnt Oak is the Watling Estate, smaller houses on tighter plots with more of them split into flats or let room by room. Edgwarebury runs to large detached properties along long lanes at the Green Belt edge. Stanmore is larger again and sits on the hill. Mill Hill mixes a village core, 1930s semis and new build. Stonegrove and Spur Road were rebuilt through the 2000s and 2010s, and a band of flats keeps growing around the station. One list of figures covers the lot.
Parking varies more than the work does
Most houses on this side of the borough have a front drive, which keeps van access easy and hose runs short. The complication is the surface. Block paving holds jointing sand and gravel holds loose stone, and both get walked into a hall or dragged in behind a hose unless the line goes round the edge and a mat goes down. That is a two minute habit, not a charge.
The town centre is where it changes. Barnet operates permit-controlled streets around the station and along the bus station approaches, the interchange forecourt is not somewhere to leave a van, and the £1.7 billion Broadwalk Centre and interchange redevelopment, bringing 3,365 homes and an underground bus garage, means hoardings and diverted access for years to come. Your street gets checked the day before rather than on the morning, and a bay is paid for where one is needed. Stanmore answers to Harrow instead, which is a separate rulebook a mile up the road.
How the round gets covered
Edgware is the terminus of the Edgware branch of the Northern line, with Canons Park and Queensbury sitting on the Jubilee just west and south. Edgware bus station moves around 23,000 passengers a day and acts as the hub for routes including the 32, 79, 107, 113, 142, 186, 288, 292, 305 and 340. The A5 Edgware Road follows the line of Watling Street straight through the town, with the M1 at junction 4 and the A41 both close by. Cleaners on the regular round travel in on that network, which is why an early start is easier to promise in some corners of the patch than in others. Ask, and the answer will be straight rather than optimistic.
The water is the same everywhere on the round
Between 250 and 350 ppm out of Affinity Water’s north London zone. Elements fur, screens film over, chrome on a mixer dulls years before the tap gives out, and a toilet grows a rim line no cloth will shift. Descaling has never appeared as a line on one of our invoices, because it is part of the work rather than an addition. It is also why a handover clean books extra time for a bathroom left alone since the last tenancy, and why the extraction rinse gets softened before going anywhere near a pale wool pile.
If your road is not on the list
Those six describe where the van goes rather than a line drawn on a map. Jobs reach us from Colindale, Kingsbury, Hendon, the Watling Estate streets and the Stonegrove side, and none get refused for sitting off the list. Ring 020 8077 1591 with a road name and the yes or no arrives during the call instead of as a cancellation on Thursday. One more thing worth mentioning: if a neighbour wants work the same morning, say so. The van stands once and serves two addresses, waiting times drop for both, and the £67 floor is met a single time rather than twice over.
Questions we get asked
Is there a surcharge for the outer areas?
None at all. Mileage goes unbilled and no call out fee exists, so a bedroom carpet is £36 in Burnt Oak and £36 again in Edgwarebury. Crossing between HA8, HA7 and NW7 alters neither the price nor the wait.
My road is not listed. Will you come?
Nearly always. Read those six pages as a sketch of where the van goes rather than as a boundary. Jobs reach us from Colindale, Kingsbury, Hendon and the Stonegrove side. Ring 020 8077 1591 and give a road name.
Which council covers which part of the round?
Barnet takes Edgware, Burnt Oak, Canons Park, Queensbury, Edgwarebury and Mill Hill; Harrow takes Stanmore and the streets west of the boundary. It matters for permits and parking rules rather than for anything we charge.
Which areas can you reach quickest?
Burnt Oak and Edgwarebury, both minutes from the town centre. Stanmore and Canons Park usually share a day because they sit one stop apart on the Jubilee line, so being flexible on the morning helps there.