Carpet cleaning in Catford

Bedrooms come out at £36 a room in Catford and living rooms at £43. Monster Cleaning Catford cleans by hot water extraction. Heated solution is forced down through the pile and lifted back out on the same stroke with the soil travelling in it. The pump and the vacuum motor live in the van, so only a hose comes through your door and the racket stays outside on the road. Where a wall has come out between the front and back rooms that counts once, as a through lounge at £61. A stair flight is £41.

There is a £67 floor under one off work, so a single bedroom booked alone comes to £67, and a second room takes you past it. A carpeted hall has its own price of £22 and a carpeted landing £9; neither is a long straight pass with the wand, and both are done with the small tool.

Count the flights before you ring, because the stairs decide the total

The staircase in a Corbett Estate house comes straight off the front door and runs up the side of the hall, and it is the single most-walked piece of carpet in the property. It is also the slowest to clean, because a flight is hand work down the risers and round the spindles rather than a long pass with a wand, which is why £41 buys a flight and £36 buys a whole bedroom. Loft conversions add a second flight, usually narrower with a turn at the top. Totted up on a three bedroom terrace with the loft done: three bedrooms at £108, the hall at £22, a through lounge at £61, two flights at £82 and their two landings at £18 comes to £291. Most households do the hall and one flight in the winter, £63 on the list and billed at the £67 minimum, and leave the bedrooms alone.

Everything crosses the hall, including the dirty water

These terraces are narrow at the front and most of them have a rear side return with no gate through to the street. There is no back way for a hose and no back way for a full waste tank either, so both travel the length of the hall and out through the front door, past whatever is standing in it. That shapes the order of the job. Floor protection goes down first, the rooms furthest from the door get cleaned first, and the hall carpet is done last so nobody walks a wet pass twice. When you book, the useful thing to tell us is how far the van can get from your front door. The hose reaches about thirty metres and beyond that we are carrying rather than running.

Damp ground floors near the Ravensbourne and Ladywell Fields

Heavy rain puts surface water into the low roads by the river and the Fields, and downstairs carpets there are often damp as well as dirty, so a meter comes out before a price does. Where a damp pile sits on dry underlay, we extract it and run a drying machine on it for an hour or two, and both the marks and the smell go. If the underlay has taken water as well, you hear that on the day so the right trade can be booked.

What extraction lifts

Traffic soil lifts. So does pet hair worked down to the base, spilt food, most drink marks and the grey band that builds along a hallway. Dried mud off the Fields comes up easily, since it is loose soil resting in the pile rather than colour bonded to the fibre, and the vacuum takes most of it before the wand gets near. Say what has already been used on a mark before we start, because some supermarket products fix a stain in place and change how we treat it.

Rugs stay where they are lying

£35 under 3 sq m and £51 above it, done where they lie as long as the floor beneath will stand it. Jute and hessian backings need watching. They shrink, and on a pale pile the backing colour can run, so a corner gets tested and left to dry before anything else happens. A rug sitting on fitted carpet is lifted out and charged separately rather than swallowed into the room price.

Drying, and what to do with the furniture

Two hours in socks and the better part of a day before heavy furniture goes back. Winter stretches both, and so does a ground floor room in one of the low-lying roads, which is the one place we would sooner leave a machine running than tell you to open a window in January. Put the heating on low and leave the internal doors open. Keep metal and dark wooden feet off the pile until it is properly dry, because a castor on damp wool leaves a mark that will not come out. Beds and sofas we shift ourselves. Wardrobes with clothes still in them, and anything with a screen, are left exactly where they stand and cleaned up to.

Booking carpets alongside something else

For a check-out, put the floors in with the move-out clean and both happen in one visit with the carpets last, once every other surface is finished. Added to a move-out they are cheaper too, £29 a bedroom and £35 a flight. Reverse that order and somebody walks wet pile all afternoon. Following building work, a team deep clean clears the dust from every hard surface before the machine comes anywhere near the floors. Households on a weekly round mostly have the hall and stairs done twice over the winter rather than once in spring, because ground-in mud is far harder to lift than fresh mud. The machine goes anywhere on the round, and we run a steady week of it up in Ladywell and on the hill at Forest Hill. Ring 020 3129 2846 any day between 8am and 7pm, or put your postcode in the form and expect a call back within the hour.

Questions we get asked

How much is carpet cleaning in Catford?

£36 a bedroom, £43 a living room, £61 for a through lounge and £41 per flight of stairs, with rugs at £35 up to 3 sq m and £51 over it. One off work carries a £67 minimum, so a single bedroom booked alone bills at £67.

How long do the carpets take to dry?

Two hours before you walk on them in socks and most of a day before heavy furniture goes back. Ground floor rooms in the low roads near the Ravensbourne take longer, and in winter we leave an air mover running for an hour or two rather than ask you to open a window.

My ground floor carpet is damp as well as dirty. Can you sort it?

Usually, and we check with a meter before quoting. Where the damp is in the carpet and the underlay is dry, extraction plus an hour or two of drying deals with it. If the underlay has taken water too, you hear that before we start.

Why are stairs priced separately from rooms?

Because a flight takes longer than a bedroom does. It is hand work down every riser and round the spindles rather than straight passes with a wand. £41 covers the flight, and the landing is £9 on top. A terrace with a loft conversion usually has two flights, so say so when you ring.

Do you move the furniture?

Beds, sofas and small tables, yes, and they go back on protectors. Full wardrobes and anything with a screen stay where they are and we clean up to them. Lift the small things off the floor before we arrive and the job runs quicker.

Will you get the pet smell out?

Usually, since most of it sits in the pile. We check before starting and tell you what to expect.