Post Construction Cleaning in Lake Balboa, CA

Because construction dust does not settle on a schedule. Drywall and joint compound dust is fine enough to stay airborne for hours after the work stops, and it keeps coming down for days afterwards, out of ceiling cavities, off the tops of door frames, and out of ducting. If you clean once and hand over, the space looks right for a day and then has a visible film on every horizontal surface. Two or three passes spaced out is the only way it actually stays clean.

Book the first pass for after the last dusty trade is off site, which usually means after drywall, sanding, and any cutting, but you can schedule it while punch list work is still going on. The final pass should land as close to handover or move in as the schedule allows. Text us the construction calendar and we will tell you where the passes should sit rather than guessing at it.

Small amounts, yes: offcuts, packaging, protective film, tape, and the general leftovers a finished job produces, bagged and taken out. Real construction waste, meaning lumber, drywall sheets, demolition material, appliances, or anything needing a dumpster, is a hauling job rather than a cleaning one. If your contractor still has a bin on site we will use it, and if not we will tell you before the day what we can and cannot take.

Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we get here. A converted garage on one of these tract lots is a compact but complete build: new drywall, a new floor, often a bathroom and a kitchenette, and a new exterior door. The dust load in a small enclosed space is heavy relative to the square footage, and it gets into every new cabinet and closet. We treat it as a full post construction job in miniature rather than a quick sweep out.

Those are messier than people expect, because the work happens above living space that stayed occupied. Dust travels down stairwells and through ceiling penetrations into rooms nobody worked in. We clean the new floor properly and then treat the affected rooms below it as part of the job, including the tops of door frames, light fixtures, and any registers that were open while the work was going on.

New cabinets inside and out, including the tops and the toe kicks. New appliances stripped of film, labels, and adhesive residue, and cleaned inside. Countertops taken back properly, including grout haze on any tiled surface. Then the parts of the old house the remodel dirtied: the hallway, the adjoining rooms, the door casings, and the original floor and wall registers that the dust went into. A kitchen remodel in a house of this era is never contained to the kitchen.

We vacuum them out rather than wiping them over. In houses of this era the ducting is original, the registers sit low in the floor or in the wall, and construction dust drops straight into them. If it is left, the first time the heating or air conditioning runs it blows back out across a room you just paid to have cleaned. Register covers come off, get vacuumed and washed, and go back on.

Yes, and it is a job of its own. Swapping the original single pane aluminum windows for dual pane units is one of the most common upgrades in this neighborhood, and the new units arrive covered in manufacturer labels, adhesive, and handling marks, with stucco patch and drywall dust around every frame. We remove labels and adhesive, clean the glass, and clear the frames, sills, and tracks. Say how many openings there are and it goes on the estimate as a line.

Most of it, yes. Paint spatter on glass and hard flooring, adhesive from protective film and labels, grout haze on new tile, and stucco splatter on hard exterior surfaces all come off with the right approach and patience. What we will not do is scrape at a finish hard enough to damage it. If something has cured onto a surface in a way that cannot be removed safely, we say so and leave it for the trade that put it there.

No, and you should be careful with anyone who says yes. Textured ceilings in houses of this age can contain asbestos, and removal is work for a licensed abatement contractor with the right containment and clearance testing, not for a cleaning company. What we do is the cleaning after abatement or removal is complete and the space has been cleared, which is a legitimate and substantial post construction job in itself.

The areas the job dirtied, yes. Sawdust and offcuts off the patio, dust off patio furniture, cobwebs and debris from the exterior of the affected walls, and a sweep of the driveway and walkway where the crew staged material. On flat lots like these the driveway is usually where everything was cut and loaded, so it takes the worst of it. Pressure washing is a separate service and we will say if it is what you actually need.

After the detail pass, not after the rough pass. The rough pass makes a space look finished. It is the second pass, done once the airborne dust has settled and the registers and fixtures have been cleared, that makes it a space you want a child crawling around in. If anyone in the household has asthma or allergies, tell us and we will build in an extra pass and pay particular attention to the ducting and the soft surfaces.

A converted garage or a single bathroom might be one long visit plus a shorter detail pass. A whole house remodel or a large addition is several days of work spread across the passes. It is driven by the dust load and the finish detail rather than by square footage alone. We give you a realistic schedule with the free estimate so it can be slotted into the construction calendar properly.

Yes, regularly. Plenty of our post construction work here is booked by the builder rather than the homeowner, on residential remodels, ADUs, and small commercial fit outs. We can work to your handover date, coordinate around punch list trades, and invoice the company. Text the site address and the finish date and we will quote the passes.

Yes. A shopfront or suite on one of the corridors here that has been fitted out for a new tenant needs the same treatment as a house: rough pass, detail pass, glass, fixtures, and the back of house nobody thinks about. The main difference is timing, because these jobs usually have an opening date that will not move, so we schedule the final pass tight to it.

By using the mildest method that will work and by knowing what each surface is. New quartz, engineered wood, luxury vinyl plank, matte tile, and freshly painted drywall all take different handling, and a product that is fine on one will mark another. We ask what went in before we start. If a manufacturer has care instructions for a finish, send them and we will follow them.

Yes, and it is worth doing rather than waiting until the end. A mid project clean of the occupied part of the house keeps the dust from settling permanently into the rooms you are actually using, and it makes the final post construction clean shorter. Tell us which areas are sealed off and which are live, and we work only where it is safe and useful.

The driveway or the street, usually, since the tract blocks here are flat and wide and street parking is normally available. If your contractor still has a bin, a portable toilet, or material stacked on the driveway, tell us and we will plan around it. On an apartment or condo project, we will need to know about gate access, the elevator, and whether the building has vendor rules about hours.

It depends on the square footage affected, the dust load, the number of passes, the finish detail, and whether debris removal and window labels are included. That is why every job gets a free written estimate rather than a flat rate. Text or call (818) 414-8012 with the address, what was built, and your handover date, and we send a real figure back with the passes broken out.

Monday to Saturday, 8am to 6pm, and we can work around a construction schedule where a handover date requires it. Call or text (818) 414-8012, or email honestmaidsla@gmail.com. Tell us what was built and when the trades finish, we send a free estimate, and we book the passes. No card is needed to hold a date.

Yes. Honest Maids is a family owned company based in Reseda, and every cleaner is our own employee, screened and trained by us. Nothing is subcontracted. If anything looks wrong after we leave, tell us and we come back to fix it.

Commercial vacuums with the right filtration for fine dust, plus microfibre, the appropriate cleaners for each new finish, and the tools for label and adhesive removal. Everything comes with us and nothing has to be on site. Where a surface needs a stronger product we use the mildest option that will work, and we ask about new finishes before we touch them rather than after.

If dust turns up after we have finished, and on a construction job it sometimes does, tell us within seven days and we come back and take it out at no charge. That is exactly the situation the guarantee exists for. We are a short drive away in Reseda, so returning to a Lake Balboa site is straightforward and we will not make an argument out of it.