Ladywell is SE13, north of Catford along the Ravensbourne, and it is Victorian terraces with Ladywell Fields running down the eastern side. We are up here every week. Carpets are the bulk of it at £36 a bedroom, £43 a living room and £41 a flight, then weekly houses at £23 per cleaner per hour, then the occasional move-out at £156 for a studio or £207 for a one bedroom.
Water is what makes this area different
The streets on the low ground by the river and the Fields take surface water when it rains hard, and a good number of ground floor carpets in those roads are damp rather than dirty. The difference decides whether cleaning is worth doing at all, so we bring a meter and check the pile and the underlay before quoting. Damp carpet over dry underlay: extraction plus a couple of hours with an air mover deals with it and the smell goes too. If the underlay has taken water as well, you get a straight answer on the day so the right trade can follow.
Mud off the Fields from October
The paths across Ladywell Fields turn once the weather does, and everybody walking a dog or cutting through to the station brings some of it in. Hall carpets and stair runners take the worst of it. Households on a weekly clean mostly have the hall and the flight done twice over the winter rather than once in spring, which is £63 for the pair, so on its own it bills at the £67 one off minimum. Dried mud lifts well, because it is dry soil sitting in the pile rather than a stain bonded to the fibre. Wet mud ground in and dried in layers is much harder, so the useful advice is to let it dry and hoover it before we come.
Terraces split into flats, and who owns the staircase
Plenty of the terraces near the station were cut into upper and lower flats years ago, and those change hands more often than whole houses do. The upper flat almost always owns its own staircase and the lower one does not, which is worth checking before you count rooms on a carpet booking, since a flight is £41 and its landing another £9. A one bedroom conversion is £207 for the move-out clean and a two bedroom £243, with carpets added on top where the agent has asked for them, which round here they usually have. Ground floor flats get the damp and the mud together, so those are the ones where we allow the extra hour.
Narrow roads near the station
The streets around Ladywell station are tight, so give us the road and the house number at the booking and the van’s spot is planned for the whole job.
Rugs and the odd sofa
Rugs are cleaned where they lie, £35 up to 3 sq m and £51 over it, and a rug sitting on top of fitted carpet gets lifted and priced separately rather than counted in with the room. A two seater sofa is £57, an armchair £33 and a mattress £35, all done by the piece rather than against a clock. A hall carpet, a flight and an armchair in the same visit is a common winter booking here and it comes to £96.
Along the river
South from here the Ravensbourne runs down through Catford towards Bellingham, and east across the Fields you are into Hither Green where a lot of houses have side access and the job runs differently. The same prices apply in all three and they are all printed on the prices page. Ring 020 3129 2846 from 8am to 7pm, any day of the week.
Questions we get asked
My ground floor carpet smells after heavy rain. Can you fix it?
Often. If the damp is in the carpet we clean it and dry it out with an air mover, and the smell goes with it. We check the underlay with a meter first so you know what you are dealing with.
How much is carpet cleaning in Ladywell?
£36 a bedroom, £43 a living room, £61 for a through lounge and £41 per flight of stairs, with rugs at £35 or £51 either side of 3 sq m. One off work carries a £67 minimum, so a hall and a flight (£63 together) bill at £67, and adding a bedroom takes you past it.
Do you do weekly cleaning here?
Yes. £23 per cleaner per hour weekly and £24 fortnightly, ironing £12 an hour on top, same cleaner each time wherever the rota allows. The shortest visit is three hours.
Do you clean stair runners in the split terraces?
Yes, often. The upper flat usually owns the staircase, so a flight at £41 plus its £9 landing is a common booking, especially after a muddy winter on the Fields.
Prefer the phone? 020 3129 2846, 8am to 7pm.