After builders cleaning in Leyton, E10

Older Leyton is Victorian. The Council Tax records for the streets near Bakers Arms show 36.8% of homes with a recorded build date built before 1900 and 15.2% between 1900 and 1918, with 18.2% from 1945 to 1972 and 14.7% from 2000 to 2014. In Forest ward 48.5% of households live in flats, 16.9% in flats inside converted houses, and 36.0% in terraces. 28.4% of households rent privately and 23.0% from a social landlord.

The Bakers Arms conservation area, designated on 8 September 2015, protects the Victorian, Edwardian and early 20th-century shopping parade, with shopfronts mostly 5 to 7 metres wide and flats above them. Thornhill Road conservation area (1988) is a single street of late Victorian houses, from small cottages to large villas, in yellow stock brick with painted timber sashes and casements.

A conversion flat after a refit has dust in the old cornices, on the window boards and down a steep shared stair. The crew works from the ceiling down, cleans every sash and sill inside, and dusts twice. A 3-bed terrace after a refurbishment usually takes 2 cleaners for 5 hours: £332 all in.

For a one-day job the council's advice is a business visitor permit or the resident's own visitor hours on MiPermit, and the Leyton Town Centre street scheme has changed some routes, so give the office the nearest open road for the van when it rings to confirm. Builders' rubble goes with the builder or a licensed waste carrier before the crew arrives; the borough's tips refuse trade waste.

The crew comes once every room is finished, with water, hot water and power on. About a week's notice is usually enough, and Fridays and weekends go first.

Leyton sits south of Walthamstow (E17), with builders cleans in Leytonstone to the east and Stratford to the south. The rest of Waltham Forest has the council's licence fees, and the full price list has every size of home.