Cleaning for older Nepean homes and downsizing moves

Nepean in the older sense, Bells Corners, City View, Craig Henry, Arlington Woods and the streets around Baseline, is the city's stock of post-war and 1960s to 1980s houses, and it is a different job from either the century homes downtown or the new suburbs. These are mostly bungalows and side-splits of 1,000 to 1,800 square feet with one or two bathrooms, original kitchens in many cases, and a good deal of wall-to-wall carpet that has been down for decades. Per visit they are among the least expensive homes in Ottawa to clean, and the work is unglamorous rather than difficult.

Age shows in the fixtures rather than in the finishes. Older enamel tubs, cultured marble vanity tops, textured shower surrounds and chrome fittings from the 1970s all hold mineral film and none of them tolerate an aggressive abrasive. Ottawa's treated water leaves the plant with pH adjusted to 9.2 to 9.4 to limit corrosion in the distribution system (City of Ottawa), and alkaline water plus decades of soap is what produces the dull film on these surfaces. An acidic bathroom product left to dwell and then rinsed is the answer, and scouring is how a tub gets permanently scratched.

The other defining local pattern is the downsizing move. A large share of the work here is one-off: a deep clean before a house of forty years goes on the market, or an empty-property clean after an estate sale. Those jobs are bigger than they look, commonly sixteen to thirty cleaner-hours, and they need a frank conversation at the quoting stage about which marks are cleaning and which are repair, because nail holes, pet stains soaked into subfloor and cigarette residue in paint do not come off however long anybody works at them. Photograph the condition before a crew starts.

Where an elderly resident will be at home during visits, the screening question changes shape. Ontario's vulnerable sector check is intended for people in a position of trust or authority over children or other vulnerable persons, and a vulnerable person is described as somebody who, because of age, disability or circumstance, is in a position of dependency or at greater risk of harm than the general population. Consent from the individual being checked is required first (Ontario). Asking a company which type of check its staff have completed is reasonable here in a way it may not be for an empty condo.