Cleaning terms, explained

Why cleaning has its own language

Every trade builds up a bit of shorthand, and cleaning is no different. Property managers, builders, NDIS coordinators and aged-care providers all talk in their own terms, and if you've never had to book a clean before, it can feel like a code you were never handed. A landlord asks for an exit clean to the REINSW standard, a council wants a strip and seal, an Airbnb host needs a changeover, and you're left nodding along.

We put this page together so you don't have to guess. Below are the words you're most likely to hear from us, from an agent, or from a support coordinator along the Eurobodalla coast, in plain English with a bit of honest context on each. We're a small local team (Tyson, Shanice, Lisa and Tash) and we'd rather you understood what you're paying for than felt talked over.

Bond clean, end of lease and exit clean

Bond clean, end of lease clean, exit clean and vacate clean are four names for the same job. It's a full top-to-bottom clean of an empty rental so the place matches the condition report you signed when you moved in, which lets your property manager release your bond. It goes well past a normal tidy: oven pulled apart, inside every cupboard and drawer, shower screens descaled, grout scrubbed, window tracks cleared, skirting boards, light fittings and the tops of doors.

The bond is just the deposit you paid at the start of the lease, usually four weeks rent, held until you hand back the keys. Our exit cleans are a fixed price by the number of bedrooms (a one bedroom is $450 to $550 plus GST, a two bedroom $500 to $600, a three bedroom $600 to $750 and a four bedroom $700 to $850), set by the size and state of the place, and they come with a bond-back guarantee: if the agent flags the cleaning at the final inspection we re-clean the flagged items free within 72 hours. Carpet cleaning is usually a separate line because it needs different gear, and we quote it alongside.

REINSW exit standard and the condition report

REINSW stands for the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales. Its exit standard is the benchmark most property managers along this coast measure against at the final inspection: a detailed room-by-room expectation of how clean an empty property should be handed back, from the oven and rangehood to window tracks, exhaust fans and the tops of door frames. We clean to that standard and work off a printed checklist so nothing gets skipped.

The condition report (sometimes called the entry or ingoing report) is the document you filled in when you first moved in, noting the state of every room with photos. It's the yardstick at the end. You only have to match that report allowing for fair wear and tear. Dig yours out before a move, because if a mark was there on day one and recorded, it was never yours to fix.

Carpet cleaning and why coastal carpets need it

Carpet cleaning, often just called carpet cleaning or deep carpet cleaning, is the proper way to clean carpets. Hot water and a cleaning solution are pushed deep into the pile and sucked straight back out along with the dirt, so the grime a household vacuum skims over comes up with it. It lifts ground-in sand, food, pet mess and traffic dirt from the base of the fibres.

This matters more down here than most people realise. Sandy feet and damp towels load beach-house carpets with fine grit a vacuum can't reach, and salty humidity keeps everything damper. That's why so many agents require a professional carpet clean and a receipt before they release a bond. Our carpet work is a flat $50 per room plus GST, with no minimum when it's part of an end of lease clean (a standalone carpet job has a two hour minimum, $120 plus GST), and we keep the receipt on file in case the agent asks.

Strip and seal, and high dusting

Strip and seal is a hard-floor job you'll hear about for offices, halls, shops and council buildings with vinyl or similar flooring. Stripping chemically removes the old worn-out layers of floor sealant and built-up polish, right back to the bare floor. Sealing then lays down fresh protective coats that give an even sheen and guard against scuffs and traffic. It's done every so often, because over time old layers go yellow and patchy no matter how often the floor is mopped.

High dusting is cleaning the parts most people never look at because they sit above eye level: ceiling fans, light fittings, the tops of cupboards and pelmets, air-conditioning vents, exhaust grilles and cobwebs in the corners. It matters in homes at exit time, where an agent checks the tops of doors, and in offices where dust drifts onto desks and worsens allergies.

Changeover, builders clean and facility clean

A changeover is the quick turnaround clean between one short-stay guest leaving and the next arriving, the bread and butter of holiday lets and Airbnbs from Surfside and Long Beach through to Mossy Point and Tomakin. It's fast and sharp: beds stripped and remade, bathrooms reset, floors done and the place guest-ready, often in the few hours between a midday checkout and an afternoon check-in. That's a different job to an exit clean, which gets an empty place to a final hand-back standard.

A builders clean (also called a post-construction or handover clean) is the deep first clean after building or renovation work finishes. It tackles the fine plaster dust that settles into every surface, paint splatter, silicone smears, sticker and label residue on new windows and appliances, and the grit a site leaves behind. It's heavier and dustier than a normal clean and usually needs more than one pass.

A facility clean covers the larger shared and public-use buildings: council premises, community halls, clubs and medical rooms. These are quoted to scope and often run to a standard the operator has to meet, sometimes with sign-off sheets.

NDIS domestic assistance and Home Care Packages

NDIS domestic assistance is cleaning and basic household help funded through a person's National Disability Insurance Scheme plan. If keeping on top of the house is hard because of disability, the plan can include support for vacuuming, mopping, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry. The work is the same careful cleaning we do anywhere, the difference is in how it's funded and recorded. We quote to the plan, so the funding goes where it's meant to.

A Home Care Package (HCP) is government-funded support that helps older Australians keep living safely in their own home rather than moving into care, with cleaning and home upkeep common inclusions managed through a provider. We work with providers including My Home Care and Goodwin, so your coordinator can arrange our cleaning as part of the plan. For both NDIS and home care work, the priority is a respectful, police-checked team to the same standard every visit.

Fixed-price quote, low-tox products and police-checked

A fixed-price quote means the number we give you up front, in writing, is the number you pay, agreed before we start. We price the job on its size and condition and tell you the figure before we start. Some jobs sit on a simple rate (regular home cleaning from $60 an hour plus GST, or a fixed price per visit), while offices, facilities, NDIS and home care work are quoted to the scope or the plan.

Low-tox products are cleaning supplies chosen to do the job without harsh chemical fumes or residues, which matters in a home where kids crawl on the floor and pets lick their paws, and at an exit clean where the next family often moves in the same day. We use family and pet-safe products as standard, not as an upsell. Police-checked means each of our cleaners has passed a national criminal history check, which is exactly what you want when you hand strangers the keys to your home or an empty rental. Add full public liability insurance and a 5.0 rating from 110 Google reviews, and that's the short version of why people along the coast keep ringing us on 0479 184 498.