Short-Let Damage Reports: What a Photo Inspection Should Cover After Every Guest
Written by Iva, founder of Iva Cleaning Services London. Damage in a short let is rarely dramatic. It is a…
A kitchen deep clean is not a long version of the weekly clean. It is a different job, done in a different order, and the order is most of the skill. Work from the top down so dust falls onto surfaces you have not done yet. Degrease before you descale so the acid is not fighting through a layer of fat. Do the oven and the extractor first because they need soaking time, and the floor last because everything else lands on it.
This is the checklist our cleaners work through on a kitchen deep cleaning in London visit, with the timings for a typical London kitchen of ten to twelve square metres. Use it to do the job yourself over a weekend, or to know exactly what you are getting when you book one.
With the parts soaking, treat the oven cavity: professional oven cleaner or a thick bicarbonate paste on the floor, walls and roof, avoiding the element and the fan. Leave it for the time on the label, or overnight for the paste. Take the door off its hinges if you can and separate the glass panes to clean between them. Scrape the loosened carbon with a plastic scraper, wipe, rinse, repeat until a cloth comes out clean. Scrub the soaked shelves and refit. Clean the door seal, the knobs and the control panel. How often this needs doing, and why, is covered in how often should you deep clean your oven.
The hob: lift the pan supports and burner caps on a gas hob and soak them with the oven shelves. Degrease the hob surface, the ignition rings and the gap at the back where it meets the splashback. On an induction or ceramic hob, use a hob scraper held flat for burnt-on sugar and a ceramic hob cleaner, never a scourer.
Scrub the soaked metal mesh filters with a brush; paper or charcoal filters are replaced, not cleaned. Degrease the inside of the hood where the filters sit, the underside, the light cover and the controls. Wipe the top of the hood, which collects a felt of greasy dust nobody sees. Refit the filters dry.
Working top down from here. Stand on a step and wipe the tops of the wall cupboards with a degreaser; the layer up there is grease and dust combined and it is sticky. Dust the light fitting, the ceiling corners for cobwebs, the top of the fridge and the top of the door frame.
Inside: vacuum the crumbs, wash the shelves and the inside of the doors with warm water and washing-up liquid, dry. Check the hinges for grease and the shelf pegs for sticky rings. Outside: the door fronts and particularly the handles and the edge above the handle where fingers land. Gloss and laminate take a mild degreaser; painted wood and oak take warm soapy water and a soft cloth.
Degrease the splashback behind the hob first, then the rest. Then, and only then, descale: tiles and glass splashbacks in a hard-water kitchen collect limescale around the sink and behind the kettle, and an acid descaler will not get through grease. Wipe down the painted walls at the end with a damp cloth; kitchen walls carry a film of grease that shows as grey when you wipe a patch.
Degrease the worktops, including the back edge and the sealant line. Then descale the taps, the base of the taps, the drainer and the plughole; London’s water leaves a white crust around every tap base within weeks. Wire-wool pads scratch stainless steel, so use a non-scratch pad and finish by wiping with the grain. Pour a kettle of hot water and a cup of soda crystals down the plughole for the smell. The descaling methods are in how to remove limescale.
Same as the wall units, plus the plinth and kickboards at the bottom, which collect a tide line of mop water and crumbs. Pull out the cutlery tray and wash it. The cupboard under the sink is usually the worst in the kitchen: check for damp, wipe the pipework and the base.
Wash the bin inside and out and leave it to dry outside. Dust the radiator top and behind. Wipe the door both sides, the frame, the handle, the light switch and the sockets.
Internal glass, the frame and the sill, which in a kitchen carries grease as well as dust. Then the floor: move what can be moved, vacuum into the corners and under the plinth, and mop with a degreasing floor cleaner. Mop the skirting at the same time. Let it dry before anything goes back.
Done thoroughly, that list is five to six hours for one person in an average London kitchen, about half of it waiting for products to work. Our kitchen reset books five hours and is £269 plus VAT, with one oven included. The add-ons are the things that take an extra hour each: a second oven (£49 plus VAT), an extractor that has not been cleaned in years (£39 plus VAT), and a kitchen with heavy grease build-up throughout (£59 plus VAT).
If you are cleaning for a check-out rather than for yourself, the kitchen is where inventory clerks spend longest, and this list matches what they open and photograph. The difference between a deep clean and a check-out clean is covered in end of tenancy clean vs deep clean. Many customers book the kitchen together with a bathroom deep clean, which uses the same descaling products on the other side of the wall.
Want it done in one visit? Book online, choose a date and time, and we confirm within one working hour.
