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.”
ypg schrieb:
The offer refers to a full cleaning, not a final construction cleaning.
Also, there’s no mention of any adhesive residues on all surfaces. When I think about all the adhesive residues from the protective film on the window frames, glass, etc., that were everywhere here... The offer only covers the floors.
In my opinion, a cleaning like simple wiping is something different, unless it’s about fine dust.
I think a (small) company simply took on more than they could handle without knowing what is included in a final construction cleaning. And this is what the accepted offer looks like.
Accordingly, the review should reflect that, because if a company underestimates the scope or overcommits, that doesn’t work.
A crime scene is cleaned by a specialist cleaner, not by a cleaning lady who wants to fill a gap in her schedule.
But I believe Kati has blocked me – so she will never read this... unless someone copies it to her again What, why would I block you? O.o
If I didn’t respond to posts before – I somehow only see about half of the replies to me weeks later because I usually only click the small notification bell. I have often missed replies in my own threads because they weren’t “alerted” and didn’t show up under “new posts.”
I also think the company was not hired or prepared for a final construction cleaning. But it was stated in the assignment text (see below). MyHammer turned that into “full cleaning” in the title, I don’t know why, but the company’s written offer included the phrase “final construction cleaning.”
Wiping the cabinets was also in the offer (see quote a few pages earlier), and not just the floors but explicitly cleaning tile backsplashes and floors. On the phone, the company also explicitly said that building residues would be removed from all tiles. There were no ambiguities in the offer. It was just poorly executed. Maybe also because one of the three announced workers was missing and one was new to the company. But as a customer, that’s not really my problem, is it?
guckuck2 schrieb:
I feel a bit addressed here since the recommendation to use MyHammer for this job came from me.
However, I also remember the warning that you get what you pay for.
For 420€ (about $460), you understandably only get a rough cleaning. A “proper” final construction cleaning costs around 1200–1500€ (about $1300–$1650). Removing cement residue, for example, is labor-intensive; suitable cleaning agents don’t come for free. Heavy dirt on windows is also not cleaned with a quick wipe, and the risk of damage is high, meaning careful work = higher costs. No way, the tip did come from you, but in the past I’ve also hired people through MyHammer and was very satisfied. For example, our painter came through MyHammer, and we are very happy with him—especially for the price-performance ratio. He certainly did not deliver perfect work, but we didn’t expect this either because it was clear from the start that the substrate we offered would cause some imperfections. In addition, he offered the work for a price that was only slightly above material costs in terms of labor (it would have been more profitable for him if we had bought the materials ourselves, but buying wholesale likely helped him).
Otherwise, it’s often said that the price should have been a warning sign. In my defense: I received several offers all around the same range. None were significantly more expensive, and some were even cheaper. I assumed it was simply cheaper here than in urban areas.
Maybe it was also because MyHammer showed the title as “full cleaning” instead of “final construction cleaning,” which I had initially typed in.
Tarnari schrieb:
I mentioned at the beginning that our architect recommends final construction cleaning. She also said we should look for a company that specifically advertises this service. Apparently, it is a specialized field. We haven’t requested any quotes yet, but we have already started searching for suitable companies. I expect the cost to be at least 1000€ (around $1,100), maybe even more. Regarding reviews, 5 stars from 7(!) reviews is not very meaningful in my opinion. 100 reviews, maybe. More likely many more. Of course, you won’t find that regionally. Even our kitchen studio, which has an excellent reputation, has only about 20 reviews over 30 years. From my experience, reviews can be a tricky matter. This is not meant as criticism of your approach at all. Rather, from my side, either just accept it or have a professional do it again. I generally don’t understand... every doctor and restaurant has reviews... so why doesn’t anyone rate tradespeople? Plasterers, construction supervisors, carpenters: no reviews online at all... Wrong generation?Mycraft schrieb:
But you can rate anything and anyone on Google or the contractor portals.Yes, but there are no reviews!Because no one else except me leaves a review...
The only tradesperson who has reviews for us was the tiler... all the others don’t have any Google listings where I could leave a review, and when they do, I find at most three reviews...
The plasterer worked on the entire street here: none of those customers seem to have left a review, otherwise he wouldn’t have only one... I don’t understand it... it’s great that I can see which kebab shop xyz to avoid because people get stomach aches after eating there... but when it comes to building, where it’s not about $4.50 for a kebab, it doesn’t seem to be common practice...
And which contractor platforms are you referring to?
The plasterer worked on the entire street here: none of those customers seem to have left a review, otherwise he wouldn’t have only one... I don’t understand it... it’s great that I can see which kebab shop xyz to avoid because people get stomach aches after eating there... but when it comes to building, where it’s not about $4.50 for a kebab, it doesn’t seem to be common practice...
And which contractor platforms are you referring to?
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