Stanmore is HA7 and, alone on our round, it is Harrow rather than Barnet. Worth knowing if you are ever chasing a council about anything, because the two boroughs run their parking, their permits and their waste to separate rules and the boundary is not where most people assume it is. For us it changes very little. It is a short run from Edgware and we are up there several days most weeks. Prices do not move for crossing the line.
Bigger houses, longer visits
The stock on the hill runs to larger detached houses and generously sized semis, a good number of them extended at the back or converted into the roof. Four bedrooms and two bathrooms is ordinary here rather than unusual. That pushes a regular clean to four hours rather than the three most Edgware semis need, which at £22 per cleaner per hour is £88 a week, or £96 on a fortnightly visit at the £24 rate. Nobody enjoys being told a bigger house costs more to clean. Pretending three hours will cover it just means we leave with half the job done.
Range cookers and second ovens
There are more range cookers per street in Stanmore than anywhere else we go. A 90cm range is £114 and takes close to three hours, because there are two cavities, a wider door and a great deal more metalwork going through the dip tank. A two oven AGA is £143 and needs to be cold through when we arrive, which means the switch goes off the previous evening. Doubles are £110 and singles £77, with a hob at £23 and an extractor at £28 alongside. The oven service runs the same way here as everywhere: removable parts into the heated tank in the van, cavity and glass by hand at the worktop, usable that evening.
Deep cleans once the builders leave
A lot of the houses up here have something being done to them at any given moment. Loft conversions with rear dormers, side returns, kitchens taken out and replaced. Fine plaster dust gets into every track and hinge and keeps reappearing for weeks, which is why a one off team deep clean after the trades finish is the job we get called for most often in HA7. That starts at £186 for two cleaners over three hours. A large detached house usually wants three cleaners for four hours at £342, and the biggest we take is three across six hours at £498. We clean finished work only, never a live site, and construction waste is somebody else’s trade.
Drives, gravel and the hose
Parking is rarely a problem on the hill, because almost everything here has its own drive and plenty of them are long. Gravel is the one thing we watch. Dragging an extraction hose across loose stone pushes it into ruts and walks it straight into the hall, so the line runs along the edge of the drive and a mat goes down at whichever door we are using. On block paving it is the jointing sand that travels instead. Small point, and it is the difference between a clean carpet and a gritty one.
How Stanmore fits the week
Stanmore is the end of the Jubilee line and Canons Park is the next stop back towards us, so those two usually sit on the same day in the diary. If you are flexible on the morning, that often means we can fit you in the same week. Carpet work follows the usual list, bedrooms at £36 and living rooms at £43, £61 where two rooms were opened up, and £41 for each flight. A converted loft brings a second flight with it. Ring 020 8077 1591 or see the rest of the round.
Questions we get asked
Is Stanmore in Barnet or Harrow?
Harrow. Barnet takes Edgware itself and the boundary runs between the two, which catches people out over permits, parking rules and council services. Neither our charges nor our speed change because of it.
What does a weekly clean cost on a four bedroom house?
Reckon on four hours where there are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, so £88 a week at the £22 rate. A fortnightly slot bills at £24 an hour and generally wants those same four hours or a shade more, which is £96.
Do you clean after builders?
Once the trades have gone and the site is safe, yes. It is a deep clean rather than a regular visit, opening at £186 for a pair over three hours and topping out at £498 for three across six. Construction waste goes elsewhere.
How much is a range cooker or an AGA?
£114 covers a 90cm range and takes close to three hours. A two oven AGA is £143 and most of a day, switched off the previous evening so it is cold through by the time we get there.
Will a gravel drive be a problem for carpet cleaning?
No, we just route the hose along the edge rather than straight across and put a mat at the door. Loose stone dragged indoors ends up in the carpet you are paying us to clean, so it is worth the extra two minutes.
Rather talk? Ring 020 8077 1591, seven days.