Hither Green is SE13, ten minutes north-east of the Catford gyratory, and it is the one part of the round where a fair share of houses have a gate down the side. That single feature changes how a job runs more than any other local fact we deal with. The price list does not change for the postcode: a studio move-out is £156, a bedroom carpet £36, a flight of stairs £41 and a single oven £77.
Side access, and why it matters this much
The interwar semis here mostly have a path down the side to the back garden. Where that gate exists we run the extraction hose or carry the oven parts straight round to the kitchen without crossing the hall at all, which saves twenty minutes of covering up at each end and keeps the wet kit away from your stair carpet. That is the opposite of how the job works a mile south, where the Corbett terraces have a rear side return and no through route from the street, so everything travels the length of the hallway and back out the front. The northern top of the Corbett Estate runs into Hither Green too, so both kinds of house sit within a few streets of each other. Tell us which you have and the morning plans itself.
Bigger rooms, and what they do to a carpet bill
The semis run to bigger rooms than the terraces, and more of them are carpeted throughout. A typical booking here is three bedrooms at £108, a flight at £41, the landing at £9 and a living room at £43, which is £201, and it takes the best part of a morning. Move-outs land at £339 for three bedrooms more often than they land at the £243 two bedroom figure that is common down in the town centre. Rugs get lifted and priced on their own at £35 up to 3 sq m or £51 over it rather than counted as part of the room they are lying in.
Start times that suit the street
Control in part of Hither Green runs a short weekday window rather than most of the day, unlike the zones round the two Catford stations, so for anything with the van standing still, an oven clean in particular, we pick a start time that suits your street.
Old bathrooms and hard water
Most of the semis were refitted in the eighties or nineties and a good number still have that grout. Thames Water supplies this side of the borough at around 300 ppm, so there is a film sitting on it that will not come off with a cloth and a spray. It wants an acid descaler and time. On a move-out clean that is allowed for at the front of the job rather than discovered at four in the afternoon, and it is usually the difference between an inventory that passes and one that comes back at you.
Where SE13 starts, and why nobody should worry about it
The postcode boundary cuts through the middle of the Corbett Estate rather than round the outside of it, so two houses facing each other across the same road can be SE6 and SE13. People ring worried they are in the wrong area for us. They are not. We cover both sides of the line at the same prices, and the boundary decides nothing except which sorting office handles your post.
What gets booked here
Move-out cleans lead, because the streets near the station turn over steadily and the agents want a receipt for a professional clean. After that it is carpets, mostly stairs and landings, and a run of weekly houses on the regular service at £23 per cleaner per hour. Hither Green has its own station on the Sidcup and Dartford lines, handy for cleaners arriving by train. South of here the ground drops towards the river and the streets around Ladywell behave differently again. Every figure is on the prices page and 020 3129 2846 is answered by a person from 8am to 7pm, seven days.
Questions we get asked
Is Hither Green on the Catford price list?
Yes. The SE13 streets read off the same list as SE6. Two bedrooms is £243 for a move-out here just as it is in the middle of Catford, and a bedroom carpet stays at £36.
Can you get a hose round the back?
On the semis with side access, yes, and it keeps the machine and the wet hose out of your hall entirely. On the Corbett terraces at the top of the estate there is usually no through gate, so everything goes down the hallway and floor protection goes down first.
What time can you start?
From 8am, seven days a week, and the rate is the same whatever the hour. For an oven clean, where the van stands still for two hours, we may suggest a start time that suits your street.
Do you take one off jobs as well as regular cleaning?
Yes. There is a £67 floor under one off work, which turns a lone carpeted bedroom from £36 into £67 and makes it worth adding a second room. Standing hourly bookings are exempt from that floor completely.
Prefer the phone? 020 3129 2846, 8am to 7pm.