02/11/2023
Bungalow SOS !!
With such a busy and involved 2023, it’s been almost impossible to cover every challenging job in a single post.
However this one job was one of the toughest since the day the business began.
The sad circumstances that led to this challenge were a mix of the client losing direction, an overwhelming mass of accumulated belongs, most with no rhyme or reason and sadly a point of no return with the cleaning within the property.
The weeks leading to this task were firstly the deep clean and preparation of the clients new home. Already empty and fully decorated, this was more about offering the client a fresh clean start and the opportunity to massively reduce the contents of the old property, ahead of moving into the new.
Being such a sensitive situation, this task was carried out by the client along with the family. The following two weeks saw two full sized skips filled to capacity with approximately three quarters of the property clear.
Relocated in a new, clean and prepared home, the next step was the final clear of the old property and eventual renovation.
With weeks of planning and multiple changes of what was required by the landlord, the decision was made to go full attack.
This job actually involved many aspects of cleaning, clearing, house clearance, gutting and preparation for contractors to start renovations.
Preparation for this type of work is key and it’s always best to have too much equipment and more protective gear than on other jobs.
On arrival and access, the very first task was to suit and boot up with the full protective clothes, breathing masks and gloves.
From that point the work plan was set in motion, beginning with emptying the property of all remaining rubbish and all white goods, namely the washing machine, fridge and freezer.
Both the fridge and freezer were filled to capacity with rotten contents that in certain cases were liquidated due to power for the property being switched over for weeks previously.
Naturally the result of this was a massive risk of bacteria from all contents of the white goods, so swift removal and safe disposal was key.
All white goods were removed from the property along with every carpet and Lino within the building being cut up and removed.
In turn this helped the floor fitters to replace everything under foot at a later date.
Sadly on removal of the floorings, it was discovered that the actual wood based floors underneath were requiring replacement as everything was heavily soiled, damp and contaminated.
On reflection, removal of everything under foot was the safest way to work and prevented continued spreed on contamination.
This lead to areas like the kitchen and bathroom, which became a task in itself.
So shovels, buckets and multiple trips to an empty skip, filled it to the half way point just from the kitchen alone.
In the end it was decided that simply tearing out the kitchen out was the very best option, as there was a skip to hand.
Absolutely nothing was saveable, all units were falling apart, rotten, caked with grime or just simply disgusting to handle. It took approximately 30 minutes to tear the kitchen out, with just the sink left, a clear shell of what was once sat there.
It was pretty much the same for the bathroom, all floorings were heavily soiled, rotten, wet and dangerously contaminated.
A brief visit from the owner of the property, lead to the decision that a plumber needed to be brought in to remove the bath, basin and remaining fixtures, including the kitchen sink.
With a swift arrival of a local plumber, the kitchen sink was torn out, bath and bathroom sink, but this work abruptly ended with the toilet.
This was filled to capacity, fully blocked and evidently had been this way for many months, a true thing of nightmares as its contents were extremely hazardous.
Nobody really wanting to tackle this task as it seemed that it could have been blocked as far back as one of the outside man hole covers. The risk around bodily waste was on everyones minds here and as it was a specialist task, we continued with our work list and left this problem to a drain specialist.
The final tasks within this property were mostly final rubbish removal, high and low vacuum to remove the mass of accumulated cobwebs, some as big as curtains.
Multiple emptying of the vacuum cleaner was evidence of just how bad things had become.
The classic example would be areas within the kitchen where huge piles of dead blue bottle flys had piled up behind the doors and in the window ledges, an actual shovel was used to remove them, so it’s not difficult to imagine how that would have looked.
Spiders in their hundreds had taken a firm hold over every available space, but within a matter of hours the entire place was insect and cobweb free.
So a day of work had literally ripped the guts out of the property until there was a basic shell remaining, with inner walls defining only basic empty rooms.
It had taken an entire skip in the end to achieve this task and two skips before we had entered the property.
People ask and often say that it must be very rewarding in this line of work and in this particular case, it really was.
We had achieved everything set out, beautifully executed and perfectly planned.
It’s a very sad situation when clients get in to that impossible situation, but nobody should have to live like this, so it felt very good to assist on this particular occasion.
So there you have it, Wax on Wax off has tackled another complex task and added another string to its bow of services, house clearance and recovery packages..not a problem, drop us a message as we are always happy to assist.
