What is an After Builder’s clean?

One popular question we get from our clients, homeowners and owner-builders is – what is a builder’s clean or Sparkle clean and what does it consist of?

What is an After Builder’s clean?

The first thing I’d like to reference before getting into the details is that a builder’s clean is NOT your normal house clean. There are a lot of cleaning companies that are distorting their services as builder’s cleans when they are just doing regular domestic cleaning.

Essentially, a builders clean comprises of two key stages –

Initial / Rough Clean

This is the initial stage of a builders clean and involves removal of rubbish, dust and debris from all surfaces of the building. It is usually done half-way through the building process (e.g. cleaning up all the dust so floors or tiles can be laid). A lot of builders also use a sparkle clean service before a client visit so any trade imperfections can be easily spotted.

Final Clean

This is the final stage and is what differentiates a real builder’s clean apart from a normal house clean. It involves removal of trade defects such as cement splatter on walls, straightening grout lines and removing grout marks on tiles, detailing of tiles, paint marks from floorboards etc.

The final clean is what will give your home that showroom quality look. You can easily tell when a new home has had a final detail clean because the difference is noticeable.

This stage also takes the most amount of time. Unfortunately, there are a lot of cleaning companies who leave this part out of their quote to make their prices seem cheaper or because they don’t have knowledge of what a builder’s clean consists of. Worse yet, there have been cases of some cleaners causing permanent damage to the home by using harsh chemicals on delicate surfaces, and without the necessary experience.

What does a Sparkle Clean cost?

The cost and requirements can vary depending on several factors including:

Skill and care of tradesmen

The workmanship of tradesman make a huge difference to the final price. For example, it will only take 10 minutes or so to clean a large window if a skilled tradesman has bothered to tape up the windows before starting their work. It can take more than double the time if they don’t.

Building materials used

Another contributing factor is the materials used.
For example, an average-sized bathroom that has had glazed ceramic tiles installed will about 1 hour to detail but this will take twice as long if it has had porous tiles laid.

Whether or not tradesmen and builders have cleaned up.

Builders and tradesmen run on a tight schedule, and this can be the difference between an easier and therefore cheaper builder’s clean or not. Some reputable builders will get their labourers to do a quick clean of the property before finishing up, some don’t – This will affect the overall cost of the clean.

For specialist builders cleans and sparkle cleans, call us now on 020 3561 3720 or email us at petya@elegantly-clean.co.uk and we will provide you with a quote.