After builders cleaning in Stockport

Across the borough 16.2% of households live in a flat and 72.3% own their home (Census 2021), so the usual job is a house after a rear extension, a loft conversion or a knock-through. The dust climbs the stairs into bedrooms nobody touched and gets inside the new kitchen units before the doors go on. The crew works from the ceiling line down and dusts each room twice, because fine plaster dust keeps landing for hours after the sanding stops.

The town centre is another market. In the census area round SK1 3DJ 61.7% of households live in flats, and in the Council Tax records for the same area 15.1% of homes with a recorded build date, about 700, went up in 2015 or later. More are coming: in January 2026 the council leader said Weir Mill's 253 flats were due to finish that spring, and Stockport 8, about 1,300 homes by the viaduct, got planning permission in August 2025. A handover clean in a new block needs the lift booked and somewhere for the van, so put both in the request.

At the other end of the scale, more than half the households round the middle of Bramhall live in a detached house, which usually means a crew of three.

A skip on the road needs a permit, which the skip firm applies for. It lasts up to 28 days and covers one skip per site: £42.50 in advance for a firm on the council's register, £84.50 if it applies after the skip is down, and £159 for an unregistered firm. Scaffolding or a hoarding on the highway costs £150 for the first seven days and £54 a week after that in the town centre or a district centre, or £92.50 and then £47.50 a week elsewhere. Ask for both to be gone, or at least clear of the front door, by the cleaning day.

The council has stopped issuing visitor scratch cards for its resident parking schemes, so visitors and tradespeople have to use unrestricted roads or public car parks. The crew's van carries vacuums, ladders and detergents and needs to be close by all day, ideally on your drive. For a tight street, building works are one of the special cases for which the council will consider a parking dispensation. It replies within 10 working days and a charge may apply, so the builder should ask early.

Stockport has 37 conservation areas. In 24 an Article 4(2) direction applies and in five an Article 4(1) direction, so changes to windows, doors, roofs and chimneys, a switch to uPVC, porches, walls and hardstanding need planning permission. Heaton Moor, Bramhall Lane South and Marple Bridge are Article 4(2) areas, and the Hulme Hall Road, Swann Lane and Hill Top Avenue area of Cheadle Hulme has both kinds. Original timber windows tend to survive there, so the crew treats old glass and putty gently and says on the day if a paint spot will not come off safely.

Extensions go through building control: the council's own service charges £840 for a full plans application on a single-storey extension of up to 10 square metres.

A mandatory HMO licence costs £1,190 for up to five bedrooms (£360 on application, £830 on grant), plus £38 for each extra room, and lasts at most five years. Have any fire doors and alarms it calls for fitted before the clean: a door planed on site afterwards leaves sawdust across a mopped floor.