We clean old homes in Essex

Old Essex houses need careful cleaning

Essex was a shipbuilding town for generations, and plenty of its houses go back to those days. Along Main Street and the side roads you find colonials and farmhouses with wide pine floors and small-paned windows. They are lovely to live in. They also hold dust in places a newer house does not have, like the gaps between floorboards and the grooves in old trim.

Old pine does not like water. A soaking wet mop pushes grit down into the seams, and the boards can swell or stain as they dry. So we vacuum the floor first, seams and baseboard edges included. Then it gets a damp mop, and we dry the boards as we go. Painted floors and worn finishes get the same light touch, because hard scrubbing takes the finish off with the dirt.

Small-paned windows take time. Each pane has its own wood frame around it, and dust packs into the corners where the glass meets the wood. We wipe those by hand, along with the door frames and any wall hangings. If the house has a fireplace or a wood stove, fine ash settles on every flat surface all winter. A quick pass with a duster just moves it around, so we wipe it off instead.

• Pine floors vacuumed at the seams, then damp mopped
• Small window panes and sills wiped by hand
• Door frames and wall hangings dusted
• Fireplace ash wiped off mantels and shelves
• Ceiling fans and mini blinds dusted

Salt air and marsh mud come inside

A good part of Essex sits on the Essex River and the Great Marsh, and the tide runs up to the Main Street causeway. Salt blows in on the wind off the water and settles on glass as a dull film. You notice it most on windows that face the marsh. Rain seldom rinses it clean. It builds up until the view looks foggy on a clear day.

At low tide the river pulls back to mud flats, and that mud comes home on boots and on the dog. Once it dries it turns into a fine grit. That grit scratches wood floors and works down into carpet. We vacuum the carpets and entry rugs, and we clean the patio door glass where noses and paws press against it. The laundry room gets wiped down too, since that is where wet gear lands.

Then there is the damp. Fog off the marsh and wet spring weather keep bathrooms from drying out, and mildew starts in the grout along the bottom of the shower. We scrub those spots before the mildew spreads. In winter the roads get salted when it snows, and that salt dries into white streaks on the front hall floor. It comes up with a damp cloth if nobody lets it sit for weeks.

Some Essex jobs need more than dusting

Renovation on an old Essex house makes a very fine dust. Old plaster and sanded pine grind down to a powder that drifts into closets and light fixtures. It keeps settling for days after the plastic sheeting comes down, and a quick dusting just stirs it back into the air. Patricia Weibel wrote on Google: "Called for a one-time clean after renovations and they handled all the dust and leftover mess without complaining. Communication was easy and the price was fair."

When an Essex house sells, the empty rooms hide nothing. With the furniture gone, you see the dust along every baseboard and in every corner. Our move-in and move-out cleaning includes the inside of the oven and microwave. The next owner walks into a kitchen they can use right away. If a house has been sitting empty for a while, our Google listing also covers foreclosure cleaning.

Some cottages out toward Conomo Point sit shut through the winter. When you open one up for the summer, dust is sitting on every sill and the rooms smell stale. We can clean a cottage before you get there and again when you close it up. For people who live here all year, regular visits keep the dust and the mud from piling up. Nicholis wrote on Google: "I work from home and having them come every other week keeps the place manageable."

Getting a price in Essex

Call (617) 803-6705 or request an online estimate on this page. Tell us about the house and what you want done, whether that is a deep clean after a project or visits on a regular schedule. If it is an antique with old pine floors, or it sits right on the marsh, mention that too, because it changes the work. You get a free quote before anything starts. Our Google listing shows us open around the clock Monday to Friday, with shorter hours on the weekend.