A carpet can look clean and still hold a surprising weight of dust. Most of it is fine, dry soil that has worked down to the base of the pile, below the point a household vacuum reaches. In Battersea a good share arrives on shoes from Lavender Hill and Battersea Park Road, and in the older conversions some of it rises through the floorboards. Getting that out, then getting the room dry quickly, is the whole job.
The order of work
Dry dust comes out before any water goes down. Wet a dusty carpet and the soil turns to a paste at the foot of the tufts, then wicks back up to the tips as the room dries. So a clean here runs like this:
- A slow vacuum pass over the whole floor, edges included.
- Pre-spray on the traffic lanes and along the skirting, left a few minutes to work.
- Hot rinse and extraction in overlapping strokes, slower where the pile is darker.
- The pile groomed upright, so air can get down into it.
Spots that survive the general clean are dealt with afterwards as separate stain work, each by type.
Grey lines at the skirting
Many of the split Victorian houses off Northcote Road still have their original boards under the carpet, gaps and all. Air from the void below pushes up at the carpet edge and under the doors, and the pile filters the dust out of it, leaving dark lines that a vacuum will not shift. The trade calls this filtration soiling. We work those strips by hand tool with a stronger pre-spray. They lighten a great deal, though lines that have built up over a decade rarely go completely, and we say so at the start of the visit.
Air while it dries
A carpet left to dry in a shut, warm room stays damp for hours longer than it should, and still, humid air is exactly what dust mites like. So we ask for a through draught: a window open in the cleaned room and another somewhere else in the flat. With sash windows, a few inches at the top and the bottom does it, since the damp air leaves by the upper gap. Synthetic carpets can take socks after two or three hours. Wool soaks up more of the rinse and in winter can take until the evening.
Pricing by the room
Rooms are counted on the phone. Bedrooms are £36 each; a small lounge costs £55, and a knock-through lounge £61. A flight of stairs costs £41, a carpeted landing adds £9 and a hallway is £22. An unusually large room gets quoted before we arrive, never on the doorstep. We lift sofas, chairs and beds on castors and set them back on pads; wardrobes and pianos stay put and we clean around them. One-off visits have a £67 minimum.
| Clean | Price |
|---|---|
| Bedroom | £36 |
| Lounge | £43 |
| Through lounge | £61 |
| Stairs, per flight | £41 |
| Small rug (to 3m²) | £35 |
| Rug, over 3m² | £51 |
| Carpet per bedroom, alongside an end of tenancy | £29 |
| Living room carpet, alongside an end of tenancy | £36 |
| Stairs, with a move-out clean | £35 |
Battersea notes
The mansion blocks on Prince of Wales Drive and Albert Bridge Road can be awkward: small lifts, sometimes none above the first floor, and porters who only allow the service lift at certain hours. Give us your floor and the lift rules when you book and we will time the visit to them. SW11 is a hard water area, and on pale wool we keep the detergent light and rinse thoroughly, because residue left in the fibre dulls the colour and draws dust back within weeks.
If dust in the bedroom is what bothers you, the mattress can be done on the same visit, and a loose rug goes on the same machine. Full figures are on the price list.
Questions we get asked
Why is there a dark line along the skirting boards in my flat?
It is usually dust carried by air coming up from under the floor. Where the carpet meets the wall there is a small gap, air moves through it whenever a door opens or the heating comes on, and the pile catches the dust like a filter. We treat those edges separately. Expect a big improvement; a line that has been building for many years may leave a faint shadow.
Should the windows be open while it dries, even in January?
Yes, a few inches, with the heating on low as well. Warm air picks up the moisture and the open window lets it out. Heating a shut room only makes it humid and slows the drying. Close up once the carpet no longer feels cool to the back of your hand.
Do I need to vacuum before you come?
There is no need, because we do a thorough dry pass ourselves and it usually lifts more dust than any other part of the job. It does help to clear the floor of small things: shoes, cables, toys and whatever lives under the bed. Breakables on low tables are best moved by you before we arrive.
Our mansion block only lets contractors use the service lift in the morning. Can you fit round that?
Yes. Tell us the hours when you book and we will take the first slot of the day, so the heavy kit goes up while the lift is free. If there is no lift above the first floor we carry the machine up, which takes a little longer and costs you nothing extra.