How Long Does an End of Tenancy Clean Actually Take?
For a team of two, a studio takes about three to four hours, a one-bed flat four to five, a two-bed five to seven, and a three-bed house most of a working day. Add an hour or two if the oven hasn't been touched in a year or the carpets are coming up as well. Those are our own timings across 500+ jobs in North London, not an industry average, and the state of the property moves them more than the number of bedrooms does.
The more useful question is usually the one behind it: will it be finished before the check-out inspection? So let's deal with the timings and the timing.
How long it takes by property size
Assuming two cleaners and a property that's empty of furniture and belongings:
- Studio: 3 to 4 hours
- One-bed flat: 4 to 5 hours
- Two-bed flat: 5 to 7 hours
- Three-bed flat or small house: 7 to 9 hours
- Four-bed house or larger: a full day, often with a bigger team
A single cleaner working alone doesn't take twice as long, they take roughly twice as long plus the wasted time of doing everything in sequence. It's why nearly every move-out we do goes out as a pair.
Two things change these numbers more than anything else. Whether the property is empty, and whether the oven is in a state.
What makes it run over
Furniture still in the flat. By far the biggest one. If we're working around a sofa and a bed, we clean twice: once around it and once after it moves. Get the van loaded first if you possibly can.
The oven. A neglected oven is not a twenty-minute job. Racks, trays, the glass panels which usually come apart, the seal and the top of the interior all need dip treatment and time to soften. On its own our oven cleaning service is often an hour to ninety minutes of the total.
Limescale. London water is hard, and limescale on a shower screen that's never been treated needs applying, dwelling and repeating. It's chemistry, so it takes what it takes.
Carpets. Professional London carpet cleaners work at roughly 30 to 60 minutes a room, and then the carpet needs drying time before anyone walks it. That's the bit people forget when they book everything for the morning of check-out.
Mould in the bathroom. Surface mould wipes off. Mould that's got into silicone needs treating and sometimes the silicone replaced, which is a different job and not something a clean fixes.
Access. Third floor, no lift, no parking, ULEZ. It doesn't change the cleaning but it changes the day.
Doing it yourself? Roughly double it
If you're cleaning your own flat to check-out standard, budget about double the professional timings, and expect the fiddly bits to eat the day. Cupboard interiors, window tracks, skirting boards, the top of doors, behind the fridge.
That isn't a sales pitch, it's just what happens when one person does the work of two with domestic equipment. Plenty of tenants do it and pass fine. Our end of tenancy cleaning checklist is the order we'd work in if you want to borrow the method.
Where it does get expensive is doing it badly. Cleaning is the most common reason people lose deposit money. The Deposit Protection Service found cleaning was the top reason for deposit claims in 2025 at 29.37%, ahead of damage and arrears. A day of your own time against a chunk of a London deposit is worth doing the maths on.
Timing it around your check-out
The sequence that works, in order:
- Move everything out. Cleaning goes in after the last box, not before.
- Book the clean for the day before check-out, or the same morning if the inspection is late in the day.
- Carpets earlier if you can. They need hours of drying, and a damp carpet at inspection looks worse than a dry dirty one.
- Be there at the end if possible, or have someone let the clerk in. If something needs a second look, it's much easier to sort on the day.
- Photograph the finished flat before you hand the keys over.
Leave yourself a buffer day if the tenancy allows it. The one thing you cannot recover is time, and a clean that finishes at six for a five o'clock inspection helps nobody.
On the money side, gov.uk states your landlord "must return your deposit within 10 days of you both agreeing how much you'll get back". The clock starts on agreement, not on check-out, which is another reason to get the cleaning evidence right first time.
Can it be done in a day, at short notice?
Usually, yes. Most of our move-out work is booked with a few days' notice and a fair bit of it is same week. What we can't do is compress a nine-hour job into four because the inspection got moved, so the earlier you tell us the date, the better the outcome.
For agents and landlords running a void, we work to the turnaround rather than the clock: keys back, clean, and ready to show. That's the whole point of our end of tenancy turnovers for landlords service, and it's normally inside 48 hours.
FAQ
How long does a two-bed flat take?
Five to seven hours with two cleaners, if it's empty. Add time for a heavily used oven or carpets.
Do you charge by the hour?
No. We quote per job after we know the size and condition, so a long day doesn't turn into a bigger bill halfway through. There's a breakdown of what moves the price in our guide to end of tenancy cleaning prices.
How long does a deep clean take compared to an end of tenancy clean?
Similar, and often the same work. The difference is that a one-off deep clean is usually done around furniture in a lived-in home, which adds time.
Should the property be empty before you arrive?
Ideally yes. We can work around some furniture, but it costs hours and the result under a wardrobe is never as good.
Do carpets need to dry before the inspection?
Give them a few hours with windows open. Book them first thing rather than last.
Do I need to be there?
No. We can collect keys from the agent, and plenty of our landlord work is done with nobody on site.
Booking your move-out clean
Tell us the property size, the condition, and your check-out date, and we'll tell you honestly how long it takes and what it costs. We're fully insured with £5 million public liability cover, DBS-checked, and every job comes with an invoice you can put in front of an adjudicator if the deposit is ever queried.
Book an end of tenancy clean, call 07375 104665, or message us on WhatsApp at wa.me/447375104665 for a same-day answer.
