If your builder has mentioned a builders clean and a sparkle clean, you might reasonably wonder why one project needs two cleans. They are separate stages with different jobs to do, and knowing the difference helps you budget properly and avoid moving into a home that still has plaster dust in the light fittings.
A builders clean, sometimes called a rough clean or first-stage clean, happens while the site is still technically live, usually once the trades have finished the messy work but before final snagging. Its purpose is to shift the bulk of construction debris so the property is safe to walk through and any defects can actually be seen.
Expect the removal of offcuts, packaging, screws and heavy dust, scraping of paint and plaster splashes from floors and glass, and a first vacuum and wipe-down of surfaces. It is a functional clean, not a finishing one. Floors will look clearer, but fine dust will keep settling for days afterwards as it works its way out of the air, which is exactly why a second stage exists.
A sparkle clean is the final, detailed clean carried out once every trade has downed tools, snagging is complete and nobody else will be walking through in dusty boots. It is the clean that takes a property from tidy building site to handover-ready home.
This stage is about detail: the inside of kitchen cupboards and drawers, the tracks of sliding doors and windows, extractor fans, light fittings, the tops of door frames, inside the oven and behind appliances. Glass and chrome are polished streak-free, floors are cleaned and buffed to suit the material, and bathrooms are cleaned to the standard you would expect in a show home. On developments, this is the clean done before a viewing or a purchaser's demonstration, because it is the first impression a buyer or tenant gets.
The sequence on a typical London refurbishment or new build runs: trades finish, builders clean, snagging and touch-ups, then the sparkle clean last of all. Booking the sparkle clean too early is the most common and expensive mistake. If a decorator returns to touch up a wall or an electrician swaps a faceplate after the sparkle clean, dust and footprints undo hours of detailed work.
On a small domestic project, such as a kitchen extension, the two cleans might be three to seven days apart. On larger developments the gap can stretch to several weeks. If your builder offers a single clean at the end, ask which standard they mean, because a builders clean alone will leave fine dust on high surfaces and inside cupboards that only shows up once you start unpacking.
Pricing depends on floor area, how many trades were on site, the level of dust protection used during the works and access, so treat these as guide ranges rather than quotes. In London, a builders clean on a three-bedroom house refurbishment commonly falls somewhere between £300 and £600, while the sparkle clean for the same property might be £250 to £500 because it is slower, more detailed work even though there is less debris.
Some contractors bundle cleaning into the build contract, so check your quote before paying twice. If a property has been left a long time between the builders clean and handover, a lighter refresh clean may be enough instead of a full second sparkle, which is worth asking about as it can save a reasonable amount.
Not really, if the site is still full of debris and heavy dust. A sparkle clean assumes the bulk mess is already gone; asking a detail clean to do both jobs takes far longer and usually costs more than booking the two stages properly.
For a three-bedroom London home, a builders clean typically takes one to two days depending on how the site was left, and a sparkle clean usually takes one day with two or three cleaners. Larger properties or multi-unit developments take proportionally longer.
A small amount of residual fine dust can settle in the first week or two after any building work, as it filters out of the air and ventilation. It should be light enough to deal with in normal household cleaning, not the gritty film you would see after only a builders clean.
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