For homeowners
Post-renovation cleaning in Melbourne
The builders have gone and the house is technically finished, but you cannot live in it. Fine dust is on every surface and in every cupboard, there is paint on the window glass and adhesive on the new tapware, and the more you clean the more of it appears. This is the clean that ends that.
Best suited to
- Kitchen, bathroom or whole-home renovations that are complete
- Homes you are moving back into, or first moving into
- Properties where the trades have finished and left
Still have trades on site? You want staged construction cleaning instead.
What a post-renovation clean covers
Included as standard
- Full dust removal: walls where the finish allows, ledges, architraves, skirting, tops of doors and cabinetry
- Kitchen detailed: inside all cupboards and drawers, splashback, benchtops, sink and tapware, appliance exteriors, rangehood exterior
- Bathrooms and laundry detailed: grout haze, silicone smears, screens, tiles, tapware, exhaust covers, mirrors
- Internal glass, frames, sills and window tracks
- Floors vacuumed then washed, with edges and corners done by hand
- Paint, plaster, adhesive, sticker and label residue removed from hard surfaces
- Light fittings, switches, power points, vents, handles and rails
- Wardrobes and built-in storage cleaned inside
- Our own cleaning waste removed from site
Not included unless quoted separately
- Oven and appliance interiors
- Carpet steam cleaning
- Tile and grout restoration or resealing
- External windows above ground level
- Pressure cleaning of driveways, paths or exteriors
- Removal of builders’ waste, offcuts, packaging or skip material
- Repairs to damage left by trades: scratched glass, chipped tiles, marked paintwork
- Cleaning of areas still holding trade materials or tools
Several of these we can arrange or quote on request. Tell us what you need when you send photos.
Why renovation dust behaves the way it does
Understanding this is the difference between one clean and three.
It is finer than household dust
Plaster sanding, tile cutting and timber work produce particles small enough to stay airborne for hours. They settle long after the trades have packed up, which is why the house looks dusty again the morning after you cleaned it.
It travels through the whole house
Rooms that were never touched by the renovation end up coated, because the dust moves with air and on foot traffic. Cleaning only the renovated room leaves the source of the next layer sitting in the hallway.
It scratches
Construction dust is abrasive. Wiping it dry across new glass, stone or polished surfaces can leave fine scratching. It needs to be lifted rather than pushed, which is slower and is a large part of why this work takes the time it does.
What this means for your quote. We scope a post-renovation clean to include going back over finished surfaces once the airborne dust has settled, rather than treating a single pass as complete. It is the reason an honest quote for this work is higher than a quote for a standard house clean of the same size, and the reason you should be sceptical of one that isn’t.
Questions homeowners ask
How long after the renovation should I book the clean?
Once every trade has finished and removed their materials. If a painter is coming back for touch-ups, or the electrician still has fittings to install, wait, or book it as staged work. Cleaning before the last trade leaves means paying for the same room twice.
Will one clean be enough, or will the dust come back?
A properly scoped post-renovation clean accounts for the second settling of airborne dust, so you should not need a second visit. What can still happen is dust released later from ducts or from a room that was sealed off during the work. Tell us about any closed-off areas so we include them.
Do you clean inside the cupboards?
Yes. Inside every cupboard, drawer and wardrobe is part of the standard scope, because that is where the dust that ruins your crockery on day one is sitting. A clean that only does cupboard fronts is not a renovation clean.
Can you get paint spots off my new windows?
In most cases, yes. Paint, plaster, adhesive and sticker residue on glass and hard surfaces is part of the standard scope. What we will not do is force a mark that risks damaging the surface underneath. If we find something like that we stop and tell you rather than scratching new glass.
What do you need from me on the day?
Access for the booked window, working power and water, and the rooms clear of trade materials. If the property is empty and you cannot be there, we can arrange access details in advance and do the walkthrough by phone with photos.