Post-renovation cleaning checklist: room by room

01What does a post-renovation cleaning checklist cover?

A post-renovation cleaning checklist covers what a renovation leaves stuck to a home in Ipoh: cement film and grout haze on tile, paint spots and silicone on glass and fittings, and fine dust in every track, ledge and fitting. Kean Can Cleaning Service lists its own scope on the post-renovation cleaning service page, and most items below map onto that list.

In the order a room is worked, top down, the checklist is:

1. Light fittings, aircon louvres and ceiling fan blades.
2. Cabinet and wardrobe tops and insides, curtain rails, ledges and the tops of door frames.
3. Walls, switch plates and sockets.
4. Glass, window frames and grilles.
5. Sliding door tracks and runners.
6. Kitchen: taps, sink edge, splashback and cooker hood.
7. Bathrooms: glass screen, taps, toilet and basin, sealant lines and the exhaust fan grille.
8. Floors, skirting edges and floor drains, last.

Aircon louvres and filters, fan blades, walls, sockets, splashbacks, cooker hoods, exhaust fan grilles, cabinet and wardrobe insides, grilles and floor drains are not named in that scope list, so list them in your first WhatsApp message and the quote can say whether they are included. Why the order runs top down, and why it is done twice, is set out in the complete post-renovation guide. How this differs from an ordinary deep clean is covered in post-renovation versus deep cleaning. The list comes from a company that has done more than 3,000 residential cleans, by its own count.

02How do you check a post-renovation clean, room by room?

Check a post-renovation clean room by room with three things: a clean white cloth, a torch and a step stool. Wipe the surfaces you cannot see from the floor, shine the torch into gaps you cannot reach, and look at glass and tile at a low angle against daylight. Each row below names the room, what to check there and the quickest way to test it yourself.

One customer described the standard the table tests for: even the tops of the cabinets, light fixtures, and corners is clean.

The floor row waits for a dry floor for a reason: water hides a thin cement film, and it shows again once the tile dries, so a floor judged straight after mopping can pass and still be wrong.

03When should you check a post-renovation clean?

Check a post-renovation clean at or just after the end of the handover window, not on the first afternoon the rooms look clean. Kean Can Cleaning Service's stated promise is move-in condition three to five days after the renovation handover, and the quality control team checks the property at the end of the handover window. Your own walk-through with this checklist comes after that QC check, in daylight.

Why not check on the first day?

Fine renovation dust carries on landing for a day or two after the heavy building work has stopped. A ledge wiped on day one can be grey again the next morning, which is why the scope includes a repeat pass before the check, and why a white cloth tells you more than a glance.

Why test the dust at all?

Renovation dust left in an Ipoh home is a health question as well as a cosmetic one, which is why the checklist tests for it with a cloth rather than trusting a glance. Two public bodies, one writing for building sites and one for homes, give the reasons behind the cloth test, and the guide's chapter on dust and health goes further.

The UK Health and Safety Executive's construction dust guidance, written for people who work on building sites in Britain, puts it plainly: Construction dust is not just a nuisance; it is a real risk to your lungs. The same page names lung cancer, asthma, COPD and silicosis among the diseases regular exposure can cause, and says over 500 construction workers are believed to die from silica dust exposure every year; the HSE is Britain's workplace regulator, so that is a British figure. For homes, the US Environmental Protection Agency says: For most indoor air quality problems in the home, source control is the most effective solution. Settled renovation dust is a source in that sense, which is why the clean has to lift it, and why the cloth tests in section 02 check that it has gone.

04What does not belong on a post-renovation cleaning checklist?

Three things do not belong on a post-renovation cleaning checklist because they are not cleaning: repairs, touch-up painting, grouting or sealing; renovation debris in skip quantities; and pest treatment. A fourth, glass beyond safe ladder height, is cleaning but needs planning, so it has to be mentioned when the job is booked. Knowing which is which saves an argument later.

Who handles each one, and what to say when you book?

After a renovation in Ipoh, the contractor handles repairs, grouting, sealing and skip-quantity debris, and pest treatment sits outside a post-renovation clean. Glass beyond safe ladder height stays with Kean Can Cleaning Service, but it has to be raised when the job is booked so the right equipment is planned.

• Cracked or missing grout, a gap in the sealant, a scuffed wall: the contractor. Walk the property for these at the renovation handover, before the clean, and put them on the contractor's list. Cleaning lifts residue; it does not rebuild a finish.
• Bagged rubble, offcuts and packaging in skip quantities: disposal is the contractor's job.
• Signs of pests: not part of the clean, though we tell you if we find evidence of them.
• Glass beyond safe ladder height: say so when you book, as the glass and high-access guide explains, so the right equipment is planned.

05What should be ready before the cleaners arrive?

Three things should be ready before a post-renovation clean begins, and all three sit with the owner or the contractor rather than the cleaning crew. Tick them off on the same walk as the snags in section 04, while the contractor is still on hand to deal with anything missing, so the cleaning starts on a finished property rather than a site still in progress.

1. Every trade has packed up. No tiling, sanding or touch-up work left to do.
2. The contractor's rubble, offcuts and packaging have left the property.
3. Protective film has been peeled off new glass and appliances, or you have told us it is still on.

For the first message, what to send for a post-renovation cleaning quote lists the photographs that help, and the service page explains why protective film left on new glass is worth mentioning.

06What do owners ask about a post-renovation cleaning checklist?

Three questions about a post-renovation cleaning checklist are answered below, for owners working with Kean Can Cleaning Service or cleaning themselves: what happens when the check finds something, whether the list works for a do-it-yourself clean, and who fixes cracked grout. The short answers: we come back, the dust rows work for anyone, and grout goes back to the contractor.

What happens if my check finds something?

Tell us and we come back. Kean Can Cleaning Service's stated promise is move-in condition three to five days after the renovation handover, and its quality control team checks the property at the end of the handover window. If your own walk-through with this checklist still finds a missed ledge, track or tile after that, photograph it in daylight and send it on WhatsApp, so the crew knows exactly where to look when they return.

Can I use this checklist if I clean the property myself?

An owner cleaning a renovated property themselves can use this checklist for every dust row, which needs patience and a cloth, nothing more. Cement film and grout haze are a different matter: they need a treatment chosen for the particular residue on the particular tile, and a wrong choice can mark the tile for good. When you do not need a specialist is covered in the guide.

Wear a dust mask for the high-level rows, for the reasons in section 03.

Should the cleaner or the contractor fix cracked grout?

The contractor. Grouting and sealing sit outside the scope of a post-renovation clean, so a cracked joint or a missing bead of sealant goes back to whoever did the renovation, on the snag list described in section 04. Cleaning cannot fix them.