Los Angeles is our home city

Older Los Angeles homes need a gentler clean

Many houses in Los Angeles were built in the early part of the last century. In neighborhoods like West Adams and Highland Park, you still find Craftsman bungalows and Spanish-style homes with their original wood floors and built-in cabinets. Newer stucco houses and small apartment buildings sit right beside them. Those old details are why people buy these houses. They are also why a rushed, heavy-handed clean can do real damage here.

Old hardwood is usually the first thing to suffer. The finish on it is often thin, and the boards have small gaps between them. A soaking wet mop pushes water down into those gaps. The wood swells and the edges start to lift. Strong cleaners cause a different problem, because they cut through old varnish on trim and cabinet doors and leave the wood dull. Plaster walls mark easily too, so scrubbing hard at a smudge can leave a bigger mark than the smudge.

In an older house we slow down and go easy on water. Wood floors get a mop that is wrung out well, and trim and built-in cabinets get dusted by hand. Glazed tile can take firmer scrubbing, but we look at the grout first, because old grout can be soft. If something in your home needs special care, tell us when you ask for an estimate and we will plan around it.

• Wood floors mopped damp, never soaking wet
• Trim and built-in cabinets dusted by hand
• Grout checked before any tile gets scrubbed
• Window sills and tracks cleared of grit
• Plaster walls spot-cleaned gently, never scoured

Dry weather keeps dust coming indoors

Los Angeles can go months without real rain. With nothing to wash it down, fine dust hangs in the air and settles on every flat surface in the house. Window sills and blinds show it first. Ceiling fans and the tops of door frames collect it where nobody looks. In homes near a busy freeway, the dust comes with a gray, greasy film from traffic that a dry cloth only smears around.

In the fall, the Santa Ana winds blow hot, dry air in from the desert. They push grit under doors and through old window frames, and a clean house can look dusty again by the end of the week. Fire season adds ash. Ash is gritty, and wiping it dry drags it across wood and glass. It needs a damp cloth, and it needs to come off floors and furniture before it gets tracked through the rest of the home.

Dust in this city keeps coming back, so it pays to stay ahead of it. Regular standard cleans stop it from building up in the first place. A deep clean makes sense after a windy stretch or a smoky week, when fine dust has worked into blinds and air vents. Either way we clean from the top down, so dust knocked off a fan or a shelf lands on a floor we have not done yet.

Hard water leaves white spots in bathrooms

Much of the tap water in Los Angeles is hard, which means it carries a lot of dissolved minerals. When water dries on a shower door or a faucet, those minerals stay behind. A single drop leaves a faint spot. Months of drops leave a cloudy white crust that soap and water will not move. You see it most on shower glass and around faucet handles. Kitchen sinks get it too, mostly around the drain.

Left alone, the crust keeps building. It makes a new shower door look old, and it dulls chrome until the faucet looks worn out. The usual fix is the strongest bottle under the sink, and that can be a mistake. Scouring powder can scratch glass, and acid cleaners can eat into marble for good. Old tile grout can also stain or crumble when it is scrubbed too hard.

On a standard clean, we wipe down shower glass and fixtures so the spots do not get a chance to build. On a deep clean, we go after the buildup that is already there. Before we pick a cleaner, we check what the surface is made of. Some old crust will not come off in a single visit. If that is true in your bathroom, we will tell you instead of scrubbing until something scratches.

Getting a price in Los Angeles

Call us at (310) 736-5266 Monday to Saturday, or ask for an estimate online through this website. Tell us how big the home is and whether you want a standard clean or a deep clean. If anything needs extra care, like old wood floors or a shower door crusted with hard water, mention it too. For an office or a small shop in the city, tell us what kind of space it is. Either way, you get a free quote before any cleaning starts.