Hi!
We recently bought a new house near Melbourne. It’s two stories, old school bricks and a very nice classical look. Everything would be great, if it wasn’t for the fact that the previous owners were obviously complete slobs and the place is very dirty and poorly maintained. It actually looks as if nobody has lived there or cleaned it for years. The floors are blackened, you can’t see anything through the windows because of all the dirt, the kitchen is a complete mess, there are old boxes everywhere (and I don’t think anyone will ever come for them) and the concrete floor of the basement is smeared with something I can’t practically explain. I guess this is the reason this property was at such a good price. But now that we’re considering moving in there, we have to think about cleaning all this mess up somehow. I’m not very good at cleaning, and my husband is even worse. This is why I’m considering hiring someone to take care of it for us. But I don’t know what to say on the phone, because I practically need everything cleaned. And I’m also not sure who to call. So can you give some recommendations for cleaners who can clean everything? And how much would such a service cost? I am really open to all kinds of suggestions. For now I started throwing away all the junk from there, but everything happens very slowly.
Hi Amelia,
Start with searching for “house cleaning Melbourne” and see what pops up. Most will be domestic cleaners, but most also offer a “spring clean” service. And if your words have them saying “Oh no – we don’t do THAT kind of cleaning, just ask them if they know of a company who DOES!”If there is a whole lot of junk still in the house, maybe search for “junk removals Melbourne” – ‘cos there are people who do that too. Get the junk out first so the cleaners can have a good go at it. Re the concrete floor in the basement, there are groups that clean concrete floors for garages – call one or two of them.
Certainly with the savings in purchase price you have made, it will be totally good to turn this bad boy right around and have it re-valued in 6 months time for a HEAP more Equity. Go hard,
Benny
Hi Amelia
Welcome to the forums : )
Sounds like you have quite a job ahead of you !
With some councils, you are entitled to a couple of hard rubbish collections per year. It would be worth speaking to your council to see if this applies to you. It can be a convenient way of getting rid of bulky items that you would otherwise need to transport to the tip.
Also with some councils you receive tip entry tokens on/with the first council rates notice of the year.
The above two comments help reduce a bit of the cost of removing the junk, but it sounds like you are more overwhelmed by the cleaning task than the junk removal. So to address that :
With the cleaning, if you are feeling too nervous about asking a company to clean the whole house at once, you might consider asking for a room or two at a time. To get an accurate quote you could send a written description of what needs doing plus a few photos.
I’m not convinced that just using the same kind of residential cleaners that do end of lease cleans would be sufficient in this case. It might be necessary to get in a commercial or industrial cleaner.
With the windows I’d get in a specific window cleaning company rather than get a local cleaning lady to tackle it with her spray and wipe and sponge. It’d take too long. The the experts in, it’ll be faster and cheaper.
You mentioned that the floor is blackened … do you know what material is under the blackness? Is it tiles, lino, other? If it is lino it might be best to just rip it up and replace with new.
There are various cleaning machines available for hire at places like Bunnings and Kennards. It sounds like you’re not keen to tackle the cleaning yourself, however solutions like this might help get rid of the first layer of grime efficiently.
As has been mentioned by Benny there are various junk removal companies. There are also some that specifically take away items made from metal (they recycle it). So it’d be worthwhile scoping those out too.
Hope some of this helps.
Jacqui Middleton | Middleton Buyers Advocates
http://www.middletonbuyersadvocates.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeVIC Buyers' Agents for investors, home buyers & SMSFs.
Try Ian at 127 Degrees Cleaning – he’s an expert at tough cleans and would love the job: feel free to mention I referred you: https://www.facebook.com/127Degrees
Kate Ashmor | Ashmor Legal Pty Ltd
http://www.ashmorlegal.com.au
Email MeProperty Lawyer and Opiner
Thanks for all the advice! It turns out that in our area there are people who take care of such things and they have a contract with the local council, so this took care of our junk issue. But we are still left with a great mess inside the house, lots of cleaning, replacing everything in the bathrooms, and scrubbing a tile floor. I did some research myself for a local company which could take care of my issues. Turns out I will have to find two or three, just as some of you suggested. For the floors I’ll need a tile cleaner and maybe a pressure cleaner even, for the general cleaning of all the rooms I will need a regular cleaning session, for the windows, maybe a window cleaner or I’ll just ask for the regular cleaning session to include window cleaning. What I worry about is that I will probably also need someone to clean the ventilation system, since it’s also very dusty. I did some research online, and one website kept popping up – http://www.trustedcleaner.com.au/ . It’s like a guide with many companies in it. There I will be able to find a tile cleaner and maybe everything else I need. A friend also recommended http://www.paulsovencleaningmelbourne.com.au/one-off-cleaning/ , she said she’s used them for her kitchen and appliances and she was very satisfied with the results. I also have some mould issues, especially in the basement, so I called a couple of companies and so far I think I’m gonna go with http://www.mouldpro.com.au/ . Their rates seemed reasonable. I will do some further research and I will decide on everything and start planning in the end of the week.
Hi Amelia
Glad you have managed to start to see a path through it all !
Just another suggestion is to talk to each of the service providers you are going to use to explain to them the other jobs that will be happening, and ask them to help you determine which order the respective tradies should attend in. For instance, you might be advised that the ventilation system should be left till last (eg it might be deemed that there is no point cleaning that first, then kicking up more dust during the process of cleaning floors and mould, as these particles might end up in the ventilation system). No need for you to be an expert at such matters, just talk it over with each of the tradies you use. Line them up in an appropriate order, and be wary of booking them all in too close together in case one attends later than planned.
Jacqui Middleton | Middleton Buyers Advocates
http://www.middletonbuyersadvocates.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeVIC Buyers' Agents for investors, home buyers & SMSFs.
Line them up in an appropriate order, and be wary of booking them all in too close together in case one attends later than planned.
Good one, Jacqui !! Such an important consideration….
Benny
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
