Best deep cleaning service in London: what to compare before you book

What makes a deep cleaning service the best one for your home?

It depends on the home. A one-bedroom flat with a single bathroom and a four-bedroom house with three need different amounts of work, so the useful meaning of best is something you can test before you pay.

• A written list you can read room by room.
• A clear line between what is included and what is an extra.
• A price that arrives after questions about your rooms and their condition.
• A plain answer on what happens if a point on the list is missed.

Neither a star score nor a slick website can show you those things. A written list can. Leave price until last: a smaller total on a thinner list may cost more once the missing jobs are added back.

What should a deep clean include, room by room?

A routine visit covers the surfaces people see. Out of sight, dust and grease collect along skirting boards, on door frames, around light switches, in grout and on the extractor. The deep clean list exists for those spots.

Ask each company for its list and hold it against Ivory's deep clean:

• Kitchen. Degreasing for the hob, extractor and splashback, a wipe of the cupboard fronts, and floors vacuumed and mopped right to the edges.
• Bathrooms. Limescale lifted from taps, tiles and glass, grout scrubbed rather than wiped, the toilet, basin and bath sanitised, and detail work on the extractor and skirting.
• Living spaces and bedrooms. Skirting boards, door frames and switches cleaned, dusting up to picture rails and vents, the glass on the inside of the windows cleaned (sills not included), and floors vacuumed and mopped.

Where a list simply says kitchen clean, ask what is behind the phrase. Is the hob and extractor degreased, or is it a quick wipe of the sink and worktops? One label can hide very different amounts of work.

How do you compare deep clean lists between companies?

1. Describe the home the same way to everyone: bedrooms, bathrooms, how each room looks now and which spot bothers you most.
2. Ask each one for its included list and its extras list, in writing. A message is enough.
3. Take a pen to the lists and look for matching jobs: extractor, grout, door frames, switches, skirting, window glass.
4. Mark every job that shows up on one list only, then ask the other company whether it is covered, charged extra or simply not done.
5. Look at the totals last.

Watch the vocabulary. Thorough, full and detailed are free to write, whereas grout, extractor and door frames can be checked once the team has left. When a list is all adjectives, ask which surfaces they refer to.

Length alone proves little. A short list that covers your priorities beats a long one that charges separately for the jobs you care about. The aim is a fair side-by-side, nothing more. Deep clean cost in London explains what moves a price, and regular clean vs deep clean in London helps if you are unsure which job you need.

Which jobs are paid extras, and what stays off the list?

An extra is any job priced on top of the base list. Extras are fine. The trouble is a low headline figure that quietly leaves out a job you took to be in it.

Ivory charges separately for the inside of the oven, fridge and cupboards, and for a carpet clean. A deep clean does cover the glass on the inside of your windows, though not the sills. Windows are a good test of vague wording, because the word can mean the glass inside, the glass outside or the sills. Ask which of those you are paying for.

• Inside the oven, fridge and cupboards: included or extra?
• Windows: inside, outside, sills?
• Carpets: part of the clean or priced separately?
• Anything your home has that you would expect to see listed, such as a utility room, a conservatory or a second bathroom.

Find out when each extra gets a price. It should be before you book, so every add-on is part of the figure you accept. An extra that first appears on the day, without a cost beside it, is how a sensible quote ends in a disagreement at the door. If the oven is your main reason for booking, oven cleaning is a service on its own.

Next, ask what falls outside the job. Ivory's deep clean excludes repairs and redecoration, as it is a cleaning job. Mould that is caused by damp is also excluded until the cause is dealt with, although surface mould is cleaned as part of the visit.

Finally, ask what happens when a point on the list is missed. You want to know who to tell, how to tell them, and whether anyone returns. At Ivory you tell us and we come back to re-clean that point, which is the re-clean guarantee. No window is stated for a deep clean, so ask each company, Ivory included, to confirm its terms in writing.

Why does the price follow your rooms and their condition?

Both decide how much work is waiting. Start with the rooms. Kitchens and bathrooms hold most of the detail work, so bedroom and bathroom counts set the base.

Condition is the part a floor plan hides: scale on a shower screen, grime set into grout, a hob that has gone a long time without a proper degrease. Light dust comes off quickly. Baked-on grease and scale take longer. Ivory's price reflects condition, not history, so you describe the home as it stands today and the figure follows. The number of years you have lived there plays no part.

That is also why a price with no questions attached deserves a second look, because nobody has seen your home yet. A sound quote asks for:

• The number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
• The state of the rooms, limescale and grease included.
• What you would like done first, if anything.
• Which extras you want.
• The date you need.

Ivory's deep clean is priced from £150. You send the details, the final figure comes back within 30 minutes, and it is confirmed before you book. It depends on the size of the home and the state it is in.

Which questions go in the message to every company?

Copy these into one message and send it to every company on your shortlist. The right-hand column is what Ivory can show, so hold us to it as you would anyone.

Time each reply as well. The speed and clarity of a first answer is a fair preview of the service you get after you have paid.

Where does Ivory fit?

Ivory's own pick is Ivory. That is the opinion of the company that wrote this guide, not a ranking, a vote or an award. This is what sits behind it:

• A written list by room, covering the kitchen, bathrooms, living spaces and bedrooms. The sills are not included, the inside glass is.
• Add-ons for the oven, fridge, cupboard interiors and carpets, each priced separately and picked when you ask for a figure.
• A deep clean priced from £150, settled on the size and state of the home.
• £2m public liability, vetted cleaners, and a team that brings its own equipment and eco products.
• A re-clean guarantee if a point on the list is missed.
• A reply within 30 minutes, 7 days a week from 8am to 10pm, same-day availability, and a 5.0 rating on Google.

Ivory is describing Ivory there, so put every company through the same questions and trust whichever answers you can verify. If your home is mostly in order, regular visits might do, and regular clean vs deep clean in London compares them. The same method covers a whole company in best cleaning company in London and a move-out in best end of tenancy cleaning in London. Ivory has also written a ranked shortlist with its sources in best cleaning companies in London.

Ivory has a London team covering all 32 London boroughs and the City of London, listed on the areas page. Send your postcode, your bedrooms and any extras through the contact page, and your price comes back within 30 minutes.