Expectations of cleaner

[dopeyduck]

We have recently (about 6 - 8 weeks ago) employed a cleaning company to clean our 4 bed detached house. This is a weekly 2hr clean.

We've had to complain a couple of times as routine things were being missed, for example dining table not being cleaned / french doors not touched with finger marks from toddler all over them etc. The final nail in the coffin was when we were billed for a full 2hr clean and our ring door bell showed them in and out in just over an hour.

Raised with manager of company and she apologised and offered to do our next clean (and keep up after if we were happy with her).

This week the cleaning was generally fine but a few things were missed that I'll list -

A few 'bits' on carpet / floors particularly the stairs but also atleast three other rooms

Tv cabinet has clearly been dusted but finger marks remain (where DS cruises)

A tea stain on kitchen floor

Bathroom mirror has a obvious Mark still on it

Side tables in bedroom have a couple of marks that came away when I cleaned them after

A mark on kitchen side missed

I now feel a bit deflated, however I'm worried that due to the issues we have had I'm potentially now looking for things and therefore being overly critical.

I've had a cleaner in the past (when I had my own home and lived with just a partner) I never had any issues, it was always spotless but I can't remember ever walking round checking either.

What do you all think? Am I being OTT to expect it to be perfect or are they not doing well enough?

If it matters we are SE England and paying £15 an hour which I think is about standard.

I hear what everyone is saying re not enough time. I am just totally in two minds as to weather I ask them to increase or try someone else.

Oh and I wrote a list this week (granted for the first time) I don't know what else I can do other than be explicit about what I want doing and give them free rein as to how long they stay to do it.

This is our only luxury and we both work such long hours in stressful jobs (particularly this year) I don't want to spend my days off cleaning. I hate not seeing DS most the week so days off are family days. I just want it to be something I don't think about if you know what I mean - obviously we clean day to day but I just don't want to spend my weekend scrubbing tiles and bathrooms

They’re shit. Get rid and ask around friends/family for recommendations.

We had a series of awful cleaners but much more success with our most recent one who we have a checklist to when she started. Cleaning windows is definitely an extra and not part of the routine weekly clean. We are in a 4 bed detached and she comes for 2 1/2 hours. I think for what you want I would increase it to 3 hours.
We also pay more than £15 per hour, also in the SE

You are not allowing enough time. I have a cleaner for 2 hours twice a week and although we have 6 bedrooms the cleaner is only asked to clean 1. In 4 hours our cleaner vaccines and steam mops floors in kitchen, dining room, lounge, hall, on both days, vaccines stairs cleans family bathroom, downstairs cloakroom and kitchen, cleaning all worktops, light switches and foot handles. She does some jobs less often like cleaning mirror robes in child's room, morrow in hall, wiping over window sills in lounge, dining room and kitchen. Damp dusting in lounge and dining room.Today she cleaned down all kitchen unit doors and inside of lounge window. Friday she will clean silver. She vaccines cat and dog beds too. Once a week she changed sheets on child's bed. She cleans down banister but really that is mostly what she can.get through.in 4 hours. Sometimes she does an extra hour if I want something specific done eg clean patio doors and conservatory. 2 hours is not enough time to clean a whole house.

Cleaner here. I appreciate that you did not set the time, but you should know roughly how long it takes to get round cleaning everything in your home. When they suggested 2 hours, you should have queried whether it was long enough.

2 hours does not clean a 4 bedroom, as other posters have said a minimum of 3 hours. Even at that there may be little details still not done, like skirtings in behind furniture or doorframe edges.

I find that the biggest majority of households hugely underestimate how long it takes to do a thorough cleaning job.

To be fair to the OP she has said she is happy to pay for more hours, it is the company saying otherwise.

Perhaps they haven't enough staff, low standards or are hoping to build trade by being a cheap option.

I used a cleaning company and apart from one cleaner they were shocking. It was 2 hours for a 2 bedroom terrace (but only 1 bedroom to clean) and it was doable in that time. I then had a cleaner who worked for herself who did that house and then our 3 bedroom house. The 3 bedroom was 2.5 hours and was spotless.

I would ask around for a self employed cleaner but I think you need more hours as it takes me at least 3 hours to do our 2 bedroom apartment.

It takes me more than 2hrs to clean our 4 bed detached house. For a thorough clean I’d say 3 hours at least.

It would probably take me longer than two hours but I never get enough time to clean in one go. I always do bit by bit as DS is hard work when I'm not trying to clean. I'd typically do one job / room whilst DS naps and then another when he's in bed + day to day stuff but do that everyday so over a week it gets done.

I probably have been a bit clueless with time, just went along with what they said. I clearly over estimated not having any people / distractions. Although I will say I leave the house completely tidied so she has a clear space to clean without moving too much etc.

I've increased to three hours and she suggested focusing on a couple of rooms each clean for deeper clean and rotating and a general clean elsewhere. Will see how it goes but I think I'll be open minded to looking elsewhere too.

Thanks for the perspective all

What do you all think? Am I being OTT to expect it to be perfect or are they not doing well enough?

Could you clean your 4 bedroom house to the desired standard in 2 hours? Really doesn't sound like enough time to do everything each week. Maybe alternate some jobs to be done every other week?

Have you tried to clean everything you expect them to in 2 hours? It doesn't sound long enough to me

I've increased to three hours and she suggested focusing on a couple of rooms each clean for deeper clean and rotating and a general clean elsewhere.

Yes this is the way to go. They’re probably trying to fit in the whole house in the 2 hours and it means they are half assing every room whereas just focusing on a few rooms each visit means they can really clean them properly.

Two hours is a ridiculously short time. Allow at least three to four hours weekly. Try doing it yourself to the standard you want and see how long it takes.

Are they doing just 2 hours? Or is is 2x cleaners for 2 hours (i.e. 4 hours cleaning)?

If they've left early (and it's not because they've doubled up on number of cleaners) then that's completely unacceptable.

But... I think you're expecting too much in 2 hours. We have a 5 bed house (but the 4th and 5th bedrooms are our home offices and never cleaned). Therefore we effectively have 3 bedrooms and have 3 hours of cleaning per week. With our old cleaner she was fast but didn't deep clean (no toothbrushes on grout), and managed most of the house.

With our current cleaners, they manage 2/3 of that in 3 hours. We pay about £16/hour. So that's: 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, kitchen, dining room, sitting room, halls and stairs per week, and we alternate the bedrooms and bathrooms by week. It's a little slow for my taste, given what previous cleaner achieved, but hard to get reliable cleaners so I'll take it.

So there is no way the agency is right when they say 2 hours for 4 bedrooms, there's something really wrong there. I'd find someone else.

We have a cleaner who is one of our neighbours and cleans for lots of households in our area so has a good reputation and is well known in the community, which I prefer over a company that employs staff. We pay her £12.50 an hour and she takes 3.5 hours to clean our 3 bed house and I would say it's spotless every time. She comes every other week which works well for us, on the weeks she doesn't come we clean the high frequency areas. I suggest you look at FB and talk to your neighbours / local friends if they can recommend someone. We WFH so we're always around when she comes so that helps from a security perspective x