Three kinds of calls come to us for deep cleaning, and honestly they come almost every week. One, somebody has taken a rented flat near Technopark and the owner says “it’s cleaned, it’s cleaned” but the kitchen shelf is sticky to touch. Two, there’s a marriage or a housewarming coming up, cousins are landing from Dubai, and the house has to look decent in ten days. Three – and this one I take seriously – a child at home keeps sneezing and the doctor has said the word dust.
Fair enough, all three. The trouble is people hear “deep cleaning” and picture different things. Some think it means the maid’s work done twice. Some think we’ll repaint the walls. Neither, actually.
So what is deep cleaning, really?
Put very simply, deep cleaning is the cleaning of all those places your daily broom never goes. Inside the cupboards. Behind the fridge, where there’s usually a dead cockroach or two and a lost spoon. The oily film on the chimney. Those black lines between bathroom tiles that you’ve stopped seeing. Fan blades (look up right now, you’ll see what I mean). Window grills, the top of the almirah, under the cot.
It’s not one person with a bucket and a mop. It’s a team, machines, the right chemicals, and most of a day.
What do we actually do in each room?
I’ll go room by room, because that’s how the team works too.
Kitchen. The kitchen eats up most of the hours. That’s just Kerala cooking, no? Coconut oil, frying fish, steam from the rice pot every single day, and all of it goes up and comes down again as a brown sticky layer on tiles and shelves and the top of the fridge. We take the chimney filters out and degrease them, do the hob, wash the tiles and grout, wipe the cabinets inside and outside, take the scale off the taps. Anything that can be pulled out, we pull out and clean behind. And while we’re in there we keep an eye open for cockroach eggs, because a kitchen like that almost always has them.
Bathrooms. Now the bathroom is its own story. Borewell house? Then you know that white crust I’m talking about, on the taps, on the shower head, on the glass door which stays cloudy however many times you wipe. Soap won’t touch it, you need a descaler. After that our boys go over the tiles with the machine, brush the grout until the old colour comes back (more than once a customer has told me “I thought it was grey only”), and the toilet, basin and those damp corners where black fungus comes up every monsoon get disinfected.
Bedrooms and the hall. Fans, tube lights, switchboards, door handles, glass, grills, the sliding window tracks that collect a surprising amount of sand. Top of the wardrobe. Under the cot, under the sofa, wherever we can shift things without breaking anything. We vacuum the sofa and the mattresses too. If there are real stains on the fabric, that’s shampooing, and that’s a separate job.
Floors. Vitrified tiles, granite, kota stone, old mosaic in tharavadu houses – each one wants a different chemical and a different pad on the machine. Wooden floors we treat gently. Too much water and wood starts lifting, and then you’re angry with us, and fairly so.
One thing people don’t expect. You don’t have to empty the house for us. Lock up the gold and the documents, keep fragile things aside, tell us if there’s some surface you’re worried about. That’s it.
Deep cleaning vs normal cleaning – what’s the difference?
Depth, time and tools, mostly.
Your normal cleaning – sweeping, mopping, a bit of dusting, a quick wash of the bathroom – looks after whatever you see and touch every day, and for that it’s perfectly fine, I’m not saying stop. Only thing is, behind and below all that, for months, stuff keeps quietly collecting. Grease. Scale. Dust that our humidity has turned into a kind of paste. Mould in the corners nobody looks at. That’s the layer we’re coming for.
The time is different too. A normal clean might be an hour or two. A deep clean of a 3BHK can take my team of three to five people the better part of a day. And you can’t really do it without scrubbing machines, a proper vacuum, degreasers and descalers that are matched to the surface. Most families need it once a year, maybe twice. Not every week.
When does it actually make sense to book one?
There are a few times when I’d say yes, do it, the money is well spent.
When you are moving into a rented place, or moving out and want your deposit back. Rented flats are mostly handed over after one quick mop, and the kitchen will tell you the real story.
After the monsoon. Our rain goes on for months and rooms that stay closed start smelling musty, with small spots of mould on the walls and behind cupboards. Pre-Onam and pre-Christmas, which are also our busiest weeks, so call early. After any painting or construction work, because that fine cement dust settles everywhere and mopping it only spreads it around.
And if anyone at home has asthma or a dust allergy. Dust mites sit in mattresses and curtains and cushions, and a broom does nothing to them.
One more, very common here – a parents’ house or a second house that has been locked for months while everybody is in the Gulf or in Bangalore.
How many hours will it take?
Roughly, and this is only a rough idea: a 1BHK is four or five hours. A 2BHK, five to seven. A 3BHK or an independent house is usually a full day, and the big villas sometimes need us for two days. A kitchen with years of grease adds time. So does a new house straight after construction. When we come to see the place we’ll tell you how long, and we’re usually close.
Is it safe with small kids, old people or pets in the house?
Yes, as long as it’s done properly. We use products that are made for homes, we keep the windows open while working, and anything that food or skin touches gets rinsed after. But use a little common sense too. Keep the babies and the dog in another room, or better, out of the house, while we’re doing the kitchen and bathrooms. Once we leave, keep the windows open for an hour or so. And if somebody at home gets a headache or breathing trouble from strong smells, tell me before we begin, na? We’ll switch to something milder.
Anything I should do before the team comes?
Not much, really. Clear the stuff off the kitchen counter and the bathroom shelves, otherwise we waste the first hour moving bottles. Gold, cash, papers, phones and chargers – keep them locked somewhere. Check that water is coming in the taps and that there’s a working plug point in each room (you’d be surprised how often there isn’t). Tell us about the delicate stuff – the marble top, grandmother’s almirah, the wooden floor in the pooja room.
And if you have a pest problem, say so. Cockroaches and ants are better treated after the deep clean, not before.
Why do deep cleaning and pest control go together?
Think about it from the cockroach’s side. Grease, crumbs, a pile of old newspapers under the sink – that’s a five-star hotel for them. Ants and rats feel the same. Half the time when we pull a fridge out we find the brown egg cases stuck right there on the wall behind it, and more in the hinge gaps of the cabinet doors. Clean all that out and suddenly the pests have nothing else to eat, so a gel or a targeted treatment actually works.
If you’ve been fighting cockroaches for a long time and nothing is working, try a deep clean first and then a proper cockroach control service. It lasts much longer than either one done alone.
Why people in Trivandrum call PCCS India
We’ve been doing pest control and cleaning in Kerala for more than 15 years. Our boys are trained by us before they go into anyone’s house, and they come with their own machines and materials. We work on Sundays and holidays, which matters when that’s the only day you are free. And since we also do pest control, the team knows what to look for while cleaning – termite mud tubes, rat droppings, damp patches – and they’ll tell you before it turns into a bigger problem.
We cover all of Thiruvananthapuram. Kazhakoottam and the Technopark flats, Sreekaryam, Pattom, Kowdiar, Peroorkada, Vattiyoorkavu, down to Neyyattinkara. Other districts too, through our branches. You can see the full list on our deep cleaning services page.
Questions people ask us
How much does deep cleaning cost in Trivandrum?
Honestly it changes house to house. Size matters, how bad it is matters, and what all you want us to cover. A brand new flat with only cement dust will cost you less than an old kitchen carrying ten years of oil, that’s obvious. We come, have a look, and give you the price before we start. The estimate is free.
How often should a house be deep cleaned?
Once a year is fine for most houses. If you have small kids, pets, someone with allergies, or the house is next to a busy road with dust coming in all day, then twice – before the rains and after.
Do I have to stay at home the whole time?
No. It helps if somebody is there at the start to show the team around, and at the end to check everything. In between, go do your work.
Can you do only the kitchen, or only the bathrooms?
Yes, and that’s one of the most common requests we get.
Will you clean the sofa and mattress also?
We vacuum both as part of the deep clean anyway. If there’s a tea stain or the kids have drawn on it, shampooing is extra, just ask.
Want to book?
Call PCCS India on 0471-2353735 or 81138 50599, or drop us a message on the contact page. Just tell us roughly how big the house is and when you’d like it done. We’ll come and see it, and give you a free estimate.
