Wandsworth Town is straight up Merton Road from us and still SW18. The borough’s offices are here, which is where you end up if you ever need to argue about a parking permit, and the work splits between the older terraces on the streets off Merton Road and the newer riverside flats down by the water. Those two want different kit in the van. We tend to do the riverside blocks in the morning and the terraces after lunch, because the concierge desks are staffed early and the school run makes the side streets impossible at three.
The riverside blocks
New build means a concierge desk, a service lift and often underfloor heating. We sign in at the desk, take the service lift rather than the residents’ one, and ask for underfloor heating to go off a few hours before any wet carpet work so the pile is not drying from both sides at once. Most of these blocks want a public liability certificate on file before a contractor comes through the door. Just ask. It goes over the same day.
The older streets
Off Merton Road the stock is much closer to what we work on at home, with suspended floors and a loft conversion on a good number of them. Move-out cleans are fixed on bedrooms, £207 for one and £339 for three, and the room in the roof counts towards the total. Carpets are £36 a bedroom and £41 for each flight of stairs. Two flights in a three storey house.
Deep cleans before a sale
More of our deep cleans come out of Wandsworth Town than anywhere else we cover, usually before a valuation or a first viewing weekend. Two cleaners for three hours is £186 including the kit, and a flat that has been let for five years generally wants four hours rather than three. We say which on the phone.
Weekly work, and who asks for it
Regular housework runs at £22 per cleaner per hour weekly and £24 fortnightly, same as everywhere else we go. In the riverside blocks it is usually two hours on a one or two bedroom flat, often held on a key left at the concierge desk rather than with us, which we are happy enough with as long as the desk keeps a log. In the terraces it is three hours and a key safe. Ironing is £12 an hour.
Getting here
Merton Road takes about eight minutes outside the rush and roughly twice that inside it, which is why the first slot of the day up here is eight in the morning and the next one is not until eleven. Take the early one. Prices are identical to the Southfields list, and the same round usually drops back down towards Earlsfield afterwards.
Questions we get asked
Do you work in the riverside flats?
Regularly. We sign in with the concierge, use the service lift and send a public liability certificate to the building manager beforehand if the block asks for one. Underfloor heating needs switching off a few hours before carpet cleaning.
How much is a deep clean in Wandsworth Town?
From £186 for two cleaners over three hours, including the £30 for equipment and detergents. Four hours is £238 and a three cleaner team over three hours is £264. Nothing recurs, it is a single visit.
Is there a travel charge from Southfields?
No. Wandsworth Town is eight minutes up Merton Road and the prices are the same as they are on our own street.
Rather talk? Ring 020 8077 8130, seven days.