We clean homes all over Salem

Old Salem houses have more to dust

Salem has a lot of very old houses. The McIntire Historic District covers Chestnut Street and Federal Street, and the blocks around Salem Common are lined with big Federal houses. Inside, those homes have carved mantels, deep window casings, paneled doors and tall baseboards, and each of them has a ledge where dust sits. In a house with that much woodwork, wiping the counters and running the vacuum leaves most of the dust where it was.

Floors take their own kind of care here. Plenty of Salem homes still have wide pine boards, and the gaps between them fill with grit that a broom just pushes around. Old floor finishes do not hold up well to a soaking wet mop either, so a light touch matters. Then there are the radiators. Dust packs in between the fins all summer. When the heat comes on in the fall, it bakes, and the room smells like something is burning.

In an older Salem house, a deep clean is the sensible place to start. Our service list covers the spots that hold dust in these homes, including door frames, wall hangings, mini blinds and ceiling fans. Once the built-up layer is gone, recurring cleaning keeps it under control. Skip the deep clean and each regular visit spends its time on old dust instead of keeping the house fresh.

• Door frames and wall hangings dusted
• Ceiling fans and mini blinds cleaned
• Floors vacuumed, edges and board gaps too
• Windows washed inside and out
• Inside of the oven and microwave cleaned

Harbor air leaves salt on the windows

A big part of Salem sits right on the water. Houses along Derby Street and out by Salem Willows are close to the harbor, and the wind off the water carries salt with it. That salt dries on the glass as a gray haze. It makes a sunny room look dim, and it builds up on sills and storm windows until a normal wipe just smears it around.

Winter brings a different kind of salt. The city treats the roads, and every pair of boots carries salt and sand into the front hall. On old wood floors that grit acts like sandpaper, and the salt leaves white marks that get harder to lift the longer they sit. Many of the older houses downtown open straight onto the sidewalk with no mudroom, so all of it lands right on the hall floor. Getting that grit up often, all winter long, is what saves the finish.

Summer on the coast is damp. Bathrooms in older houses often have small windows and weak fans. Grout and caulk stay wet longer, and soap film sets hard on the shower glass. Basement laundry rooms pick up a musty smell and a coat of lint. A regular schedule for the bathrooms and the laundry room keeps all of that from turning into a hard scrubbing job. One customer summed it up: "Everything from the kitchen to the bathrooms was left spotless."

Salem apartments get new tenants often

Plenty of Salem homes are not old mansions at all. The Point, along the South River, is packed with triple-deckers and wood-frame apartment houses, and more are spread across the rest of the city. Near Salem State University in South Salem, a lot of houses are split into student rentals. Downtown, older brick buildings have been turned into condos. That makes Salem a city where people move in and out often.

A unit that has had the same tenant for a while needs real work when they leave. Grease builds up inside the oven, and a film settles on the bathroom tile that a quick spray will not lift. Our move-in and move-out cleaning goes after the inside of the oven and microwave, the other appliances, the laundry room and the floors. When a tenant leaves belongings and trash behind, trash out is on our service list too. The next tenant walks into a clean place, and the landlord has a unit ready to show.

Salem's old houses get renovated a lot, and plaster dust is the hard part. Plaster dust is so fine it floats through the whole house and keeps settling for days, even in rooms nobody worked in. Post construction clean up means working from the ceiling fans down to the floors, so nothing falls onto a surface that is already done. A customer who called us after a renovation left this review. "Called for a one-time clean after renovations and they handled all the dust and leftover mess without complaining."

Getting a price in Salem

Call us at (617) 803-6705 or fill in the form on this page with your Salem address and a few words about the home. Tell us roughly how big it is and whether you want a regular visit or a single deep clean. A Federal house on Chestnut Street and a studio condo downtown are very different jobs, so we price each home on its own. We offer online estimates, and you will have a free quote to look over before you decide.