After builders cleaning in Westhoughton, BL5

Westhoughton's conservation area sits at the western end of Market Street, where it meets Wigan Road, Church Street and School Street, and St Bartholomew's churchyard and the cemetery take up half of it. Bolton Council's appraisal describes mostly two-storey red brick buildings under Welsh or graded slate, some still with sliding sashes, and small terraced cottages on Wilbraham Street, Wigan Road and Church Walks. In the 19th century the township had four silk mills. The churchyard memorial names the 344 men and boys killed in the Pretoria Pit explosion of 21 December 1910.

Older houses make up a good share of the stock too: 18.6% of homes with a recorded build date in the area went up before 1900. In a small cottage, dust from one room reaches all of them, so the whole house usually needs the clean even when the work was in one room. Sash boxes and the runners get vacuumed out, and paint on old glass comes off only where it lifts without scratching.

A new 3-bed house at handover usually takes 2 cleaners for 4 hours: £272. A 3-bed terrace after a refurbishment takes 2 cleaners for 5 hours, £332, and a 4-bed detached house after an extension 3 cleaners for 4 hours, £392. Each extra bathroom adds roughly an hour and a half. Every total is £30 per cleaner-hour plus £32 for equipment and detergents; the full price list has the rest.

The council fees for Bolton are on the borough page. Over the boundary, Wigan (WN1) to the west and builders cleans in Leigh to the south come under Wigan Council, which runs its own tips and skip licences, and Horwich is the next Bolton town to the north.