Cleaning terms
The words in your quote.
Twelve terms that decide what you are actually buying. Knowing which one applies is the difference between a fair quote and a wrong one.
Cleaning quotes are full of trade words that hide what you are buying. Post-renovation cleaning means removing construction residue, not tidying. Scrubbing lifts soil; polishing changes the surface itself. High-access means work that needs a ladder or a boom lift. Descaling removes mineral deposits. Knowing which one you actually need is the difference between a fair quote and a wrong one.
C
- Cement film
- A thin grey haze left on tiles after grouting or rendering. It is not dirt sitting on the surface but a mineral deposit bonded to it, which is why mopping spreads it rather than removing it. It comes off with an acidic treatment matched to the tile, and the wrong one etches the tile permanently.
D
- Descaling
- Removing mineral deposits — limescale, hard-water marks, soap scale — from taps, glass, tiles and sanitaryware. Distinct from general cleaning because the deposit is chemically bonded, not loose.
- Disinfection cleaning
- Cleaning followed by application of a disinfectant to reduce microbial load, used in clinics and food-adjacent premises. It is a step added to cleaning, never a replacement for it: disinfectant applied over soil does very little.
G
- Grout haze
- The specific film left across tile faces by grouting. Usually removable within days of the work, considerably harder once it has cured for weeks.
H
- Handover check
- The inspection at the end of a post-renovation job, carried out here by the quality control team at the end of the three-to-five-day window rather than by whoever cleaned the room.
- High-access cleaning
- Work on surfaces past safe ladder height, reached with a boom lift, tower or anchored system. It is defined by how the surface is reached, not by how dirty it is, and it is a working-at-height job with cleaning attached.
- Homogeneous tile
- Tile with the same body and colour throughout rather than a glazed surface over a different base. It tolerates aggressive scrubbing that would strip a glaze, which is why identifying the floor comes before choosing a treatment.
M
- Move-out cleaning
- Cleaning a property to the standard an inspection expects at the end of a tenancy. The distinguishing feature is that someone else decides whether it passed.
P
- Polishing
- Reworking a floor's surface itself — by abrasion, and on stone sometimes chemically — to an even finish. It changes the surface. Scrubbing does not.
- Post-renovation cleaning
- The specialist clean a property needs before occupation after building work. It removes construction residue rather than household dirt: cement skim, grout haze, paint, silicone, adhesive and fine dust in every track and runner.
S
- Scrubbing
- Lifting embedded soil out of a surface mechanically, usually with a rotary machine and a chosen pad or brush. The surface is unchanged; what sat in it is gone.
V
- Vacant property clearing
- Removing abandoned belongings, rubbish and accumulated material from an empty property so that it can be assessed and cleaned. Always the first of two stages, never the whole job.
Two of these words, side by side
Scrubbing lifts soil out. Polishing reworks the surface.
The most consequential distinction on this page, and the one that decides what a floor quote should say.
Not sure which of these your property needs?
Send photographs. We will tell you which job it is before anyone quotes.