Our cleaners work all over Rockport

Salt air gets inside Rockport houses

Rockport sits at the very tip of Cape Ann, and the ocean wraps around most of the town. On a windy day, spray blows in off Sandy Bay and settles on anything that faces the water. You see it first on the glass. Windows that look out at the harbor or the shore go cloudy with a thin gray film. A quick wipe with a dry cloth just smears it around.

Salt comes indoors too. In summer it rides in on shoes from Front Beach and Back Beach. In winter it comes in on boots, off roads that get salted after a storm. Sand is the bigger problem. It hides in carpet and in the gaps of old wood floors, and every step grinds it into the finish. A floor walked on with sand in it all summer looks dull by fall.

So on a Rockport house, we spend real time on the windows. We clean them inside and out, and we lift the salt film off the glass instead of spreading it. Carpets and floors get vacuumed before anything wet touches them, so the sand comes up instead of being dragged across the wood. Patio doors that open toward the yard or the water get the same care, glass and frame both. That is where most of the sand comes in.

• Windows cleaned inside and out, salt film included
• Sand vacuumed out of carpets and rugs
• Patio doors cleaned, glass and frame
• Ceiling fans and mini blinds dusted
• Inside of the oven and microwave cleaned

Old Rockport houses take more careful work

Many Rockport houses have stood for well over a century. Near the harbor and along the roads up to Pigeon Cove, you find old colonials and shingled cottages built close to the street. Granite from the old town quarries shows up in steps and foundations all over town. Inside, that usually means wide pine floorboards and windows split into small panes, with wood trim around every door. They look lovely. They also take time to clean well.

Old pine is soft, and the gaps between the boards collect grit. Old plaster sheds a fine dust that settles on every door frame and window ledge. Small panes mean a lot of corners, and grime builds up in each one where the glass meets the wood. Rush a house like this and the corners stay dirty. Use too much water on the floors and the wood pays for it.

A lot of these houses get renovated, and that leaves a dustier job behind. Post construction clean up is on our list of services. Patricia Weibel wrote this in a Google review. "Called for a one-time clean after renovations and they handled all the dust and leftover mess without complaining." On an old Rockport house, we dust the door frames and trim first. Then we clean each small window pane. The floors come last.

Summer houses need cleaning after the winter

Plenty of Rockport houses sit empty from fall to late spring. Some owners only come for the summer, and some houses are rented out by the week. In between, the house stays shut. When you open it again, it smells closed up. Dust has settled on every flat surface and the window sills are full of dead flies. The beds have been sitting in damp sea air for months.

Seasonal cleaning is on our Google listing, and a closed-up summer house needs the full treatment. We dust the whole place, ceiling fans and wall hangings included, and vacuum every floor. We clean the kitchen appliances, inside the oven and the microwave too. Then we change the linens and make the beds, so the house is ready to sleep in on the first night you arrive.

Closing the house in the fall matters as much. Trash left in a bin all winter is a mess nobody wants to find in May. We empty the trash and clean the kitchen appliances, so spring starts from a clean house. For year-round Rockport homes, a recurring visit on a set schedule keeps salt and sand from building up. Nicholis wrote in a Google review: "I work from home and having them come every other week keeps the place manageable."

Getting a price in Rockport

Call us at (617) 803-6705 or send the form on this page with your street and what the house needs. We offer online estimates, so you can start by telling us about the house from wherever you are. You get the estimate in writing before any work is booked. For a summer house, tell us when you plan to open it, and we can plan the visit around that.