to think 4 hours is enough to clean a 4 bedroom house?

[DorothyL]

Just tried out a new cleaner. House was completely tidy and not filthy by any means.

In 4 hours she

cleaned the showerroom
cleaned the kitchen (a good clean, incl the microwave and one cupboard)

dusted and mopped in the living room ( though there were still bits on the floor)

vacuumed the playroom

Cleaned the family bathroom, but did not do the floor in there as no time left

Aibu to think that's not that great in 4 hours?

In 3 hours my cleaner does 3 reception rooms, kitchen, hall stairs and landing, 2 bathrooms. Also irons 5 shirts. All done to a high standard!

My cleaner does 2 hours a week. My house is a small 2 bed.

Hoovers and mops living room/kitchen/hallway.

Wipes cupboards/appliances in kitchen.

Cleans bathroom top to bottom.

Hoovers stairs and 2 bedrooms.

Cleans inside windows.

She's a machine and is well worth the money.

3 floor townhouse. In 3 hours cleaners do 2 bathrooms, vacuum hallways and lounge and sofas (cat hair) and do the kitchen and mop utility room.

They only dust if they have time and will vacuum other bedrooms if have time. With another hour I think they would be able to vacuum everywhere and dust...

As a cleaning company after we have done the initial clean four man hours is usually enough to provide full service in most homes (we work in teams but can work out our man hours obviously).

The initial clean is different though and no matter how tidy it takes our teams about 8 to 12 man hours to complete and initial clean to our standards, it's very hard intensive work to get a home professionally clean but after that the maintenance cleans are relatively easy.

We will put a team of two in a house for the best part of the day on an intital clean.

3 bed detached with kitchen extension. In 2 hours my cleaners clean kitchen, clean bathroom, wet dust and clean glass in 2 bedrooms (3rd bedroom is my DH's work study and isn't touched), clean downstairs loo and hoover and mop throughout-all to a very high standard. Your cleaner is taking the proverbial piss.

I disagree, I have been cleaning for 18 years now and on an initial clean we would have a fraction of the work done in just 4 man hours.

However after the intial is done 4 hours is plenty for the whole house fully serviced.

Could you explain further why the initial clean would take longer?

The thing is it's not even like what she did clean was completely wow...

It totally depends on the level of cleaning needed surely?

If the house is OK-ish already, not messy or cluttered, and you are really just going over surfaces & floors then 4 hours should be enough time. If you need to deep clean anything, then no - nowhere near enough time.

I imagine cleaning out a cupboard would have taken quite a while?

When you say including one cupboard, does that mean everything out, door and shelves scrubbed etc, or just a wipe over the outside of the door. Kitchens do tend to build up a film of grease which takes ages to shift without using products that are so abrasive they will damage the finish, so I could imagine that doing a whole kitchen would take about 4 hours if they were doing it to that level of cleanliness...

I have 2.5 hours a week for a 4 bedroom house and TBH it's not quite enough to get everything done, but mine manages to clean 1 bathroom and downstairs loo, hoover throughout, wash kitchen and bathroom floors, empty bins and clean the kitchen sink. Usually there is time for either window cleaning or dusting.

my cleaner doesnt do my entire 4bed house in 4 hours, but she does do most of it ( I havent asked her to do my bedroom yet)
She tidies as well as cleans, and im pretty messy. Shes fabulous

initial clean she did do less though, admittedly

The initial clean takes about twice to three times as long (depending how clean the family live in the home) just to get up to professional cleaning standards because of the build up.

Most professional cleaning services are aware of this and it should be communicated to the client in the first meeting.

My house is very clean but we don't do a full professional service in it each time, as the homeowners we just clean it in parts and don't do the full service we are selling (because it's ours and we haven't the time) so if we did an initial clean on ours it would take double the time of subsequent cleans.

A dirty house can take around 13/14 man hours - ie a full day with a team of two, this is regardless of size, some small two-bed terraces have taken us this long to get up-together but can then be maintained in 2 man hours after that.

It's just part of a normal process of getting the house into the 'maintenance' phase of the cleaning.

An initial or gut clean will be literally cleaning every surface in the house to make sure it's a perfectly clean canvas to start with, then its just maintenance cleans on a weekly etc basis. So for a kitchen as another poster said, all cupboards emptied and fully cleaned, dishes, pots pans etc done, the unit tops, cooker, sinks, tiles behind cookers and fridge, all appliances wiped down, light fittings cleaned/dusted, skirting, floor. In the living room it would be behind and under sofa, under cushions, light fittings, cleaning shelving/units, windows, tv, dusting coving,....every possible surface. It takes a lot longer than a quick hoover and dust!

I wouldn't be able to clean my own house in 4 hours. If I were doing a deep clean the kitchen would take that time on its own.

If I clear the floors and Hoover daily it still takes an hour as sofas and chairs need to be moved.

I agree with others it depends on the level of cleaning required: if all surfaces are completely clear, there is no clutter and all toiletries have been been removed from the bathroom/ shower room products can be sprayed on, hoovering done, then everything wiped off to finish the room. But if things have to be moved first it adds to the tidying up time.

I'm sure it's hard to get to 'know' a house. I would cut her some slack.

Initial clean = gutting every room, and moving furniture to get at skirtings etc.
My friends a cleaner and she cleaned for me whilst I was recovering from my elcs, she did an initial clean (house was not too bad) which took her an entire day, but think wiping tops of door frames! And then came in twice weekly and concentrated on upstairs one day and downstairs the next, she did however Hoover and mop all floors on both visits. In total she was cleaning for me for 6 hours a week, I have a 5 bedroom/4 reception room house. So in essence after an initial clean I do think 4 hours is enough to clean a 4 bedroom house.

It takes me an hour to clean my whole house! I hoover and sweep everywhere - 3 bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen, bathroom. Then i mop my hall, sitting room, bathroom. Dust in the sitting room and hall. Clean the toilet, clean the kitchen, dishes etc and thats me. How can it take somebody 4 hrs?

Pixie, you can't possible clean a 3 bedroom house properly in one hour.

I see what you mean, but the cleaninv she did was just normal standard, not particularly deep clean at all

I'm in a 3 bed detached, mine does my whole house in 2 hours! I've got two bathrooms and downstairs loo. She does miss the occasional bit but she's amazing!! I can't think of anything she doesn't clean other than the Venetian blinds, but who can blame her!! She even changes the sheets on the bed if she notices I've taken it off, she's pegged my washing out too on occasion, I'd never ask her to do this though! I dread the day she gives it up!!!

Think 4 hours to totally clean a four bed home including sorting out cupboards etc is a bit optimistic, especially first time.

For no other reason than she'll be unsure of her surroundings etc, never mind differing standards of how the house was to begin with. So there may be things you are are unaware of (and therefore skip) that she has done (and that you don't notice as you are aren't aware of them). And because they haven't been done before (because you don't notice them) they took a while to get up to scratch.

For example, DH thinks I take ages to hover, but I do things like tops of skirting boards, under sofas (as well as the cushions and cracks in the sofa), in corners of bedframes, behind curtains even if it means changing the attachment. I also do things like take out sink traps and clean down the plughole a bit, clean round crevices in plugholes/overflows etc.

I'm not saying she did those specific things, just that the very things you don't notice and haven't done, are the things that would eat up time when she did them (and you still wouldn't notice them).

Well what is properly? I dust, wipe down, clean the toilet, wash dishes, mop everwhere. I can and do. Mind you, its my house and i dont have a cleaner. I dont clean out the cupboards though or wash the windows weekly.

Pixie, I could do one hour's cleaning in my own house and call it a do but it certainly wouldn't be comparable in any way to the service we are selling to customers.

My own house is cleanish and the cleaning I could do in an hour would not be a full job at all just a scuff over really.

I'm a cleaner and in 4 hours I would do , bedrooms , change beds if needed , all inside windows ensuites bathroom incl floors , hall stairs landings, Polish all surfaces ,Hoover everywhere , some skirtings I alternate , kitchen thorough clean , loos , playrooms . I have to work but could get most done . Depends how much I need to tidy to clean if it's only a bit of paperwork I do quite well but hard work ??