After builders cleaning in Crayford, DA1

Vickers' armaments works made Crayford a munitions town, and during the First World War the firm put up the Crayford Garden Suburb east of the centre, around Barnes Cray, for its workers; the houses are still there. In the 1930s local builders such as New Ideal Homesteads and W.H. Wedlock took over, and the urban district's population went from 15,896 in 1931 to 27,950 in 1951. In the Council Tax records 15.7% of local homes with a recorded build date went up between 1900 and 1918 and 25.4% between 1919 and 1939, and 41.8% of households in Crayford ward live in semis.

Refurbishing a house of that age usually means opening up old plaster. Lath and lime plaster come down as a fine grey dust that drifts into rooms the builders never touched, so the whole house needs doing: a 3-bed after a full renovation takes 3 cleaners for 5 hours, £482 all in. The page on construction dust cleaning explains why the crew dusts each room more than once.

The largest permission nearby is the former Electrobase and Wheatsheaf Works, approved in June 2023 for 310 to 559 homes. Sainsbury's Crayford is on the brownfield register too, still without permission, and the London Plan puts Crayford inside the Bexley Riverside opportunity area. New flats bring handover cleans with dust inside every cupboard and stickers on the glass; a 2-bed with light dust takes 2 cleaners for 3 hours, £212, and the page on window cleaning after the builders covers labels and paint flecks on new glazing.

The DA1 postcode also takes in streets in Dartford, where other council rules apply. Crayford has Barnehurst to the north-west and Erith to the north; the skip, scaffold and parking fees are on the page for the rest of Bexley, and our prices list every size of home.