ᐅ Unsatisfied with the final cleaning after construction – am I being too particular?
Created on: 28 Sep 2020 17:39
K
kati1337
Hello everyone!
We just got back after our cleaning company finished the final construction cleaning.
We had a fixed price booked through MyHammer. Final cleaning including windows – ready for move-in. The company has 7 reviews there, all five stars, so I thought nothing could go wrong.
First, they arrived half an hour late – not a big deal, we were home anyway. Then they came with two people instead of three. One worker had called in sick.
That wasn’t a major issue either since we had a fixed price. Later, it turned out that the young man who was on site with the supervisor was completely new to the company. You could tell by the results. :/
It started in the kitchen. I had already mentioned that our cabinets have matte lacquered fronts and that the kitchen builders specifically told us not to use microfiber cloths for cleaning. I passed this information on and reminded the cleaning company when they arrived. When they got to the living/dining area, the young man immediately used a Swiffer on all the fronts. When I asked if those weren’t microfiber cloths, they said, “Swiffer won’t do any damage.” I hope they were right about that.
At that time, they were already done upstairs. I went upstairs on socks to have a look and wanted to take some pictures of the bathroom. The floor and wall tiles in the bathroom had been wiped but still had numerous stains everywhere. Not small ones, but paint drops, some up to 10cm (4 inches) long streaks of white paint, drops of tile adhesive or grout – I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I definitely didn’t want to see any of that in a finished, cleaned bathroom.
I asked if the upstairs cleaning was finished, and when they said yes, I requested they go over the floor again because there were still many paint stains. The young man went back up, touched it up, apologized, and said, “That really wasn’t thorough enough.”
So far, so good.
When everything was supposed to be finally done, I went upstairs for a quick walk-through with the supervisor – mostly spent in the bathroom – and together we scraped off more paint spots, tile adhesive/grout residue, and God knows what else from the tiles.
But I’m also not happy with what the supervisor delivered. Yes, the windows look noticeably better than before. BUT none of the windows are truly clean. Not in any room. I can still run a scraper over each window to check if the marks are dirt or actual scratches. So far, everything has come off with my fingernail, so it’s just cleaning errors up to now.
Am I being too picky? I mean, this is exactly why I hired a final construction cleaning: so I could judge afterward whether the windows are okay or not.
Other things I’m not happy about:
I could go on like this forever.
Overall, you can say: it’s just not really clean.
Am I expecting too much? Is a final construction cleaning only meant for the big stuff, even when the offer says “ready for move-in”?
I’m attaching some pictures, but they are just examples. This is what it looked like when they had already left, so “finished.”
We just got back after our cleaning company finished the final construction cleaning.
We had a fixed price booked through MyHammer. Final cleaning including windows – ready for move-in. The company has 7 reviews there, all five stars, so I thought nothing could go wrong.
First, they arrived half an hour late – not a big deal, we were home anyway. Then they came with two people instead of three. One worker had called in sick.
That wasn’t a major issue either since we had a fixed price. Later, it turned out that the young man who was on site with the supervisor was completely new to the company. You could tell by the results. :/
It started in the kitchen. I had already mentioned that our cabinets have matte lacquered fronts and that the kitchen builders specifically told us not to use microfiber cloths for cleaning. I passed this information on and reminded the cleaning company when they arrived. When they got to the living/dining area, the young man immediately used a Swiffer on all the fronts. When I asked if those weren’t microfiber cloths, they said, “Swiffer won’t do any damage.” I hope they were right about that.
At that time, they were already done upstairs. I went upstairs on socks to have a look and wanted to take some pictures of the bathroom. The floor and wall tiles in the bathroom had been wiped but still had numerous stains everywhere. Not small ones, but paint drops, some up to 10cm (4 inches) long streaks of white paint, drops of tile adhesive or grout – I’m not exactly sure what it was, but I definitely didn’t want to see any of that in a finished, cleaned bathroom.
I asked if the upstairs cleaning was finished, and when they said yes, I requested they go over the floor again because there were still many paint stains. The young man went back up, touched it up, apologized, and said, “That really wasn’t thorough enough.”
So far, so good.
When everything was supposed to be finally done, I went upstairs for a quick walk-through with the supervisor – mostly spent in the bathroom – and together we scraped off more paint spots, tile adhesive/grout residue, and God knows what else from the tiles.
But I’m also not happy with what the supervisor delivered. Yes, the windows look noticeably better than before. BUT none of the windows are truly clean. Not in any room. I can still run a scraper over each window to check if the marks are dirt or actual scratches. So far, everything has come off with my fingernail, so it’s just cleaning errors up to now.
Am I being too picky? I mean, this is exactly why I hired a final construction cleaning: so I could judge afterward whether the windows are okay or not.
Other things I’m not happy about:
- Cleaning/wiping inside all kitchen cabinets was explicitly part of the offer since it was supposed to be ready for move-in. In the kitchen, the young man only went through the drawers with a Swiffer once. I opened two display cabinets, and at the bottom, there was still wood dust from cutting/drilling. The drawers in the island area have water spots/splashes on the front. Those were NOT there before the cleaning company came. You could say the kitchen actually looks worse afterward. :/ During the final inspection, I pointed out that the toe kick (baseboard near the floor) was still covered in sawdust, which should be fixed. But when they left, the dust was still there.
- The vinyl floors were mopped but also look worse than before cleaning. I don’t know how, but when you come up the stairs now, everything is streaky/smeared somehow.
- Despite damp mopping, there were still small piles of crumbs/dust/dirt upstairs.
- Still paint splashes on the stair railing
- Front door – a black mark on the white door frame, I don’t understand how that was missed
- In the hallway, my shoes and the supervisor’s shoes were there because we walked upstairs in socks during the inspection – the young man just mopped around them. Seriously?!
- All strap winders still covered in paint/plaster
- Many window frames still have plaster/paint on the edges
I could go on like this forever.
Overall, you can say: it’s just not really clean.
Am I expecting too much? Is a final construction cleaning only meant for the big stuff, even when the offer says “ready for move-in”?
I’m attaching some pictures, but they are just examples. This is what it looked like when they had already left, so “finished.”
P
Pinkiponk28 Sep 2020 19:48kati1337 schrieb:
Here is the text of the offer I received:
It was already listed as the final cleaning after construction.
I think I will follow your advice, clean up once more myself, and consider the cost a learning experience.
It is definitely cleaner than before. However, I will have to make sure my review reflects my true experience. It’s not worth 5 stars, or even 3. I’m not sure anymore how big your house is, but "definitely cleaner than before" would be enough for me at €420.00. I would do the detailed cleaning myself or have to pay significantly more for it.
Zaba12 schrieb:
Just the window cleaning inside and outside including frames and blinds is roughly around that price.
210 gross per person minus travel expenses and deductions. Asking the self-employed here: what’s left as net income?
You get what you pay for. Normally, I would agree with that, but neither the windows nor the frames were properly cleaned.
They spent 6 hours on site for 210€ per person, which is about 35€ per hour. After taxes, travel costs, and a bit of materials, the actual hourly pay is probably even less, but even 20€ per hour still seems reasonable for cleaning.
Their hourly calculation is not really my concern—I paid a fixed price for a specific service, and in my opinion, the service was poorly performed. Actually, that’s my question— is this level of service acceptable or not? I think the price quoted is irrelevant here.
I placed an order and received a clearly defined offer (post-construction cleaning, ready for occupancy). Whatever price they set does not give them a free pass to deliver substandard work.
I mentioned at the beginning that our architect recommends a final construction cleaning. However, she also advised us to look for a company that specifically specializes in this service. It seems to be a distinct area of expertise.
Although we haven’t requested quotes yet, we have already started looking for relevant companies. I expect the cost to be at least €1000 (about $1100), possibly more.
Regarding reviews, 5 stars from only 7(!) ratings doesn’t seem very significant to me. Maybe 100 reviews. Possibly even more. Obviously, you won’t find that many locally.
Even our kitchen studio, which has a very good reputation, has only around 20 reviews in 30 years. From my experience, reviews can be tricky.
This is not meant as any criticism of your approach. More from my side it’s either to accept it as is or have a professional do it again.
Although we haven’t requested quotes yet, we have already started looking for relevant companies. I expect the cost to be at least €1000 (about $1100), possibly more.
Regarding reviews, 5 stars from only 7(!) ratings doesn’t seem very significant to me. Maybe 100 reviews. Possibly even more. Obviously, you won’t find that many locally.
Even our kitchen studio, which has a very good reputation, has only around 20 reviews in 30 years. From my experience, reviews can be tricky.
This is not meant as any criticism of your approach. More from my side it’s either to accept it as is or have a professional do it again.
kati1337 schrieb:
Normally, I would agree, but neither the windows nor the frames were properly cleaned.
They were on site for 6 hours at 210€ per person, which comes to about 35€ per hour. After taxes, travel costs, and some materials, it’s probably even less, but I still think 20€ per hour for cleaning is quite generous.
Their hourly rate calculation is not really my concern—I paid a fixed price for a service, and in my opinion, the service was inadequate. Or to put it precisely, my question is: is this level of service acceptable or not? I don’t think the agreed price matters here at all.
I tendered a job and received a clearly defined offer (final cleaning, ready for occupancy). The price they quoted is no license to deliver substandard work. If the quoted price is irrelevant, I can say that 20€/hour for basic cleaning of an entire single-family home is acceptable. You’ll just have to clean the rest more thoroughly yourself. How do you plan to get the paint off the belt reels? Did you paint yourselves?
But that doesn’t really matter either; you should have clarified your expectations in detail with the cleaning team beforehand, because “final cleaning, ready for occupancy” is definitely not a clearly defined offer.
A construction specification stating that anthracite-colored windows will be installed is just as clearly detailed.
According to the contract, only the interior of the kitchen was to be plastered, not the exterior. The paint and silicone on the tiled walls and the roller blind were not included in the contract, only the floor, or at least that is what the contract states; it’s somewhat open to interpretation.
I think the instructions were simply not clear enough. I’ve fallen for something like this before. I had a window cleaner for a while until I realized that the frames and windowsills were very dirty. When I addressed this with him, he told me that only window cleaning was contractually agreed on, and the rest was not. Well, to me, that was part of the job, but for him, it wasn’t specified in the contract.
Since then, I have been very thorough and make sure to have my requests confirmed in writing.
I think the instructions were simply not clear enough. I’ve fallen for something like this before. I had a window cleaner for a while until I realized that the frames and windowsills were very dirty. When I addressed this with him, he told me that only window cleaning was contractually agreed on, and the rest was not. Well, to me, that was part of the job, but for him, it wasn’t specified in the contract.
Since then, I have been very thorough and make sure to have my requests confirmed in writing.
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