We clean ceilings first and floors last

Construction dust settles on every surface

Post construction cleaning is the job between the last contractor leaving and your family moving back in. A renovation leaves drywall dust in places nobody thinks to look. It sits on top of door frames and inside light fixtures. It packs into window tracks and the backs of kitchen drawers. The dust is powder fine, so a regular house cleaning pushes it around instead of taking it out. We clear the loose debris first, then work the dust out of the house one room at a time.

When the job is finished properly, you can run a finger along a baseboard or the top of a door frame and it comes away clean. The windows are clear, with no paint specks or sticker glue left at the edges. Floors feel smooth under bare feet instead of gritty. You should not see dust floating in the afternoon sun, which is where leftover dust always gives itself away. That is the standard we clean to before we call a house finished.

Timing matters as much as the cleaning itself. Say the painter still has touch-ups to do, or the electrician still has cover plates to put on. If we clean before then, fresh dust lands on everything the next day. The right time to book is after the last trade has packed up and left. Tell us where your project stands when you call, and we will plan the visit around it.

• Loose debris and packaging cleared out
• Dust vacuumed off ceilings and walls first
• Light fixtures and vent grilles washed
• Cabinets and drawers cleaned inside
• Floors vacuumed first, then washed

We clean from the ceiling down

Dust falls, so the order of the work decides whether a room gets cleaned once or three times. We start at the highest points in each room: ceiling corners, crown molding, the tops of door frames and the blades of ceiling fans. Walls and trim come next, then windows and sills. Cabinets and counters follow. Floors come last, after everything above them has dropped whatever it was holding.

Every surface gets a dry pass before it gets a wet one. We vacuum the dust off with a brush attachment and a fine filter, then wipe with a damp cloth that gets rinsed often. Skip the vacuum and go straight to a wet rag, and drywall dust turns into a thin gray paste. That paste dries in streaks on painted walls and settles into the grain of wood trim. Then the same wall has to be cleaned twice.

Vents and light fixtures get extra time because they keep spreading dust after a room looks clean. Return grilles pull fine dust in while the work is going on, and the heat or air conditioning blows it back out for weeks. We wash the grilles that come off by hand. Then we vacuum as far into each opening as we can reach. Glass shades on light fixtures come down to be washed, then go back up once they are dry.

A rushed cleanup leaves dust behind

A fast cleanup can make a house look finished for one evening. The counters get wiped and the floors get mopped, but the dust above eye level is still up there. The next time the heat comes on or a door slams, it drifts back down onto everything that was just cleaned. Within a few days there is a film on the counters again and grit on the floors.

Windows take the most patience after a renovation. Paint specks, drywall mud, caulk smears and the stickers from new windows all end up on the glass. Scrubbing hard with a rough pad scratches it, and a scratch in a window does not come out. We soften the residue first and lift it with a blade held flat against the glass. Then we clean the frames and tracks. Tracks fill with grit during a job, and that grit keeps a window from sliding smoothly.

Inside surfaces are the other step people skip. Dust gets through the gaps around closed doors and settles on the shelves where your dishes and clothes are about to go. Empty cabinets and drawers get vacuumed and wiped inside before anything goes back in. Wood floors get vacuumed along the boards and the edges before a damp mop touches them, so leftover grit does not scratch the finish.

Hamptons houses have more places for dust

A lot of houses around Hampton Bays and East Quogue are wood framed with cedar shingle siding. Inside, many have beadboard walls and wide plank floors. Both are made of grooves and ledges that hold dust. Beadboard needs a brush worked down every line before it is wiped. Wide plank floors have gaps between the boards where fine dust packs in, so we vacuum the seams before we clean the surface.

The weather here changes the work too. In a humid summer, fine dust clings to glass and smears as soon as it gets damp. So the dry pass has to be thorough. In winter the windows stay shut and the heat runs, which keeps dust moving through the house long after the work ends. Houses near the water also get sand tracked in on work boots, and sand scratches floors if it gets mopped around instead of vacuumed up.

Plenty of homes out here are summer houses, and a lot of renovation work gets done in the off season while the owners are away. That means the cleaning often happens with nobody home to check on it. Chris Ewan has used us for many years in Quogue. He wrote that Suave "goes the extra mile during off season checking all is good at the house". We plan a post construction cleaning so the house is ready on the day you open it.

We walk the house before the estimate

Every renovation leaves a different mess, so we look at the house before we give you an estimate. We check which rooms were worked on and whether the floors are wood or tile. We also look at how much glass there is and whether any trades are still working. The estimate is free. After a spring cleaning walkthrough, Joy Sobhani wrote that Suave "quickly created a detailed and fair quote". That walkthrough is where we learn what matters most to you.

Ian Hantman used us after construction work on his house. In his review he wrote that they are "so grateful to have such a skilled group of cleaners to make our home still feel brand new". That is the point of this work. You paid for new floors or a new kitchen, and a layer of drywall dust hides it. A proper cleaning is what lets you see the work you paid for.

Several reviewers say Suave keeps them informed, and after a renovation that matters. Gilda Turano wrote, "Suave is very detailed and informs me about everything." If we find a chipped tile or a paint drip on the trim while we clean, we tell you. That gives you time to raise it with your contractor while the builder can still come back and fix it. My Hamptons Cleaning holds a 5.0 rating from 37 Google reviews.