Cleaning after the builders have left can often be as challenging as the construction work itself.
The horror left in your home after the builders have finished can be disheartening. If you have recently renovated your property you are now faced with a bigger challenge than the building work itself. The work that still needs to be done is not insignificant. Every room has various types of challenges you have to deal with, different types of debris that has to be removed and cleaned. Imagine the following you enter your recently renovated living room and see residues from tape and plastic coverings, plaster, latex, cement spots, sanding paper scattered everywhere, dried glue and a lot, a lot of dust!
To deal with this without help is often very difficult or close to impossible. Coupled with all the daily, time-consuming tasks we have to take care of, the thought of dealing with the aftermath of the construction work that just took place in your home can cause terror to set in. But do not worry, this is the exact moment when you can reach out to a professional cleaning company for professional help. A cleaning company will pay attention even to the smallest cleaning aspects. It is possible to clean your property on your own after you have had it renovated, however, that will take a bit of special knowledge and a lot of patience. You can of course try and tackle the after builders cleaning challenge alone.
After Builders Cleaning - A professional cleaning solution or do it yourself?
The good news is that you have a few viable options for dealing with the cleaning process after the builders have left. We will present a few benefits you receive from professional cleaners as well as a few useful tips for cleaning on your own after the builders.
Your first option is hiring a single cleaner for a given number of hours. That is probably not the best decision. A single cleaner cannot deal with the required task to the extent a professional team can. The After Builders Cleaning is very specific it requires special attention and often specialized equipment. Specialized professional cleaning detergents and equipment are also necessary to remove as much grout, plaster, cement and other residues from the building work. The best option you have is to go with a professional cleaning company and a team of specialized cleaners. A cleaning company will handle the task with ease, the work process is completely specialized and delegated into subtasks. In this way, a team of professional cleaners will handle the required work more quickly, the team will be divided and work in specific rooms of your home focusing on eliminating as much dust as possible. A cleaning company will work quickly as it is not a single person working but a whole team and each team member is specialized in a specific task. You can be sure that they will remove every single dust particle, something that is important especially when children or individuals prone to allergies will be living in the property.
You have to make sure that you are contacting a cleaning company you can trust. An After Builders Cleaning Service should be an extensive cleaning of your home, no corner should be left unattended.
A thorough After Builders Cleaning Service should include:
Eliminating as much builders dust as possible
Washing all surfaces, mirrors, skirting boards
Cleaning windows internally along with the frames and ledges
Vacuuming hard and carpeted floors
Mopping hard floors
Removing as many cements, glue, plaster and paint spots as possible
The After Builders Cleaning service is conducted in several stages.
The first step is to remove any builder's debris. The building team should mostly take care of this step, any major fallout from the construction work should be thrown away so that it is not in the way of the cleaning. Also, all items inside the property should be dusted.
Secondly, a professional team should go room by room cleaning every inch of the property. Even minor details, such as the space between the window frames and ledges, should be paid attention to as dust can get in every single small nook of your home.
You would like to clean without hiring a professional cleaning company?
Here are a few useful tips for removing stains that may be leftover from the building work.
How to clean paint spots.
The way to approach cleaning paint spots is mostly determined by the type of paint you have used. Acrylic paints are most easily removed with acetone. If the paint spots are on your floors and you do not wish to risk damage to your floor coverings you can try and remove the paint spots using water and a firmer brush. You can relatively easily remove oil-based paint using regular dishwashing liquid or a degreaser. Remember that regardless of the method you are going to use to remove the paint spots you must test for damage over a small hidden area of your floor. Some paint thinners may damage the surface layer of your floor covering. Stains and drips from water-soluble paint are the easiest to clean. You can remove these types of paint stains by just using a water and soap solution and then dry them. Fresh paint spots are easy to remove if your stain is older you have to preliminarily soften it using a water solution and attempt to remove it 20-30 minutes later. There are special cleaning detergents that are designed for this purpose, however, those are chemical agents and the risk that comes with using them is not warranted, especially if you have kids at home.
How to clean tiles after construction work?
To begin with, remove any dry particles and dust with a vacuum cleaner, then you have to mechanically remove any paint or plaster spots. Lastly, treat any stains using a cleaning solvent. If there is any builders dust that has collected inside the tile's grouting you can use a vinegar solution to remove it and just wash the tiles using soap and water after. To finish the cleaning process mop your tiled floors using only clean water.
How to clean lime?
If there are any lime spots on your floor that have hardened use a spatula to carefully remove them. Wash the floor with a mixture of 100 grams of vegetable oil with a full bucket of hot water. Repeat the process using clean, hot water with a little bit of dishwashing liquid or vinegar mixed in it.
How to remove plaster from your floors?
After we have taken a look at some of the most common builder's spots and how to remove them we will focus on a few useful tips for cleaning specific and somewhat difficult areas of your home after the builders have left.
Cleaning the walls.
Walls are somewhat tricky, regardless if they are painted or have wallpaper on them cleaning your walls can be challenging as they are easily prone to damage. This is why they are usually exceptions to most professional cleaning services. Cleaning the walls is a task you may need to take care of on your own. If your walls are freshly painted stick to dry cleaning and focus on removing dust. Dry cleaning will not damage your walls in any way and will not affect drying paint. If you have enough leftover paint you can go over your walls using a damp cleaning cloth. Do not forget that cleaning your walls with a damp cloth can create extra work if some of the paint runs or drips while you are cleaning. Wrap the cleaning cloth around a mop or broom handle to reach the high areas around your ceiling. If your walls have wallpaper on them or a different type of natural covering (wood) you can use a brush for cleaning. Some wallpaper is more durable and will not be damaged by wet cleaning, these types of wallpaper you can clean with the damp cleaning cloth, however, be careful and make sure that you will not cause damage to the wallpaper with this cleaning method.
Vacuum
Gently vacuum carpeted floors. If you have wooden or tiled floors you can be a bit quicker and firmer with the vacuum cleaner. The idea behind this process is that if you initially vacuum the floors slowly and are a bit more gentle you will eliminate a bit more dust than if you act quickly. After you are done vacuuming you do have to mop hard floors, use the same warm water and soap mixture we mentioned earlier. Chances are you will not get all the fine dust particles from one go around. You will have to repeat the process over the next week or so to eliminate all of the dust. If you leave your floors unattended, especially carpet, in time the dust and dirt that was leftover from the construction process will deeply permeate in your carpet and will be impossible for you to remove on your own, you may need to schedule professional carpet cleaning to remove it, this is why you need to pay special attention to your floors.
Use a special attachment for your vacuum cleaner
It is no secret that different surfaces and materials should be treated in different ways. Do not make the mistake of going over your furniture, floors, walls, skirting boards with the same vacuum attachment. This will not only bring dirt to more sensitive areas of your home but also increases the likelihood of them being damaged by the dirt, for example, if you have not cleaned the attachment you used on your floors and abruptly move to clean your upholstered furniture you may damage your upholstery. A rule for an After Builders Cleaning is that regardless of how hard the top layer of dirt is there is always a sensitive surface beneath it so you need to be careful.
Remove and clean all light fixtures
If you did not get new light fixtures and they remained in place during the renovation process you have to take all of them down and dust them. If you have a ceiling fan in place you need to clean the individual blades and its main body panel.
Use soapy water
You have to take down and clean every single item that was on your property during the building work. Do not be fooled by thinking that if you do not see any visible dirt your belongings are clean. This is why the after builders cleaning is challenging, in practice when there is even light renovation work taking place in your property a layer of dust will accumulate on all surfaces and items. You have to clean and dust every exposed surface or item until you are sure that no dust has remained. Therefore, you need to pay special attention to any exposed items.
Use a damp cleaning cloth
You can use a damp cleaning cloth to wipe wooden or metal furniture (yes you also have to clean and dust any furniture that was in your home during the construction work), ornaments and any items. Pay attention to what you are cleaning, unfinished wood cannot be treated with any detergents or even water as it may be damaged. In such instances, you have to only dry clean unfinished wooden surfaces.
Check and clean all the filters in your home
After the building work has concluded we would very much recommend that you take out and clean all the filters (airconditioning, the filter from the extractor, water filter) in your home and clean them. It may sound odd to you but these filters will also collect dust and need to be periodically cleaned to be maintained.
As you can see After Builders Cleaning requires a lot of special attention to detail. It is certainly possible for you to clean your property on your own after renovation work has taken place, however, be prepared as the amount of work is significant. If the cleaning process sounds seemingly endless to you, you can make your life a lot easier and reach out to a professional cleaning company.
Manchester House Cleaning Services.
