Cleaning Durham's cobbled streets — and the homes that line them

Most of our cleaning round in Durham takes us through perfectly ordinary streets — semis in Newton Hall, family homes in Belmont, new builds in Bowburn. But a handful of mornings each week, we end up cleaning houses on the peninsula. Old Elvet, South Bailey, Saddler Street, the lanes running down to the river. And cleaning there is a completely different skill from anywhere else in the city.

If you live in a period property in Durham city centre and you're thinking about hiring a cleaning company — or even just trying to clean your own home better — there are some things worth knowing.

Why cleaning city centre properties is different

A weekly domestic clean in a 1970s semi takes about two and a half hours. The same square footage on the peninsula can take four. There's no mystery to it — the buildings are just harder to clean. Some of the things we deal with every visit to a period property:

• Old plaster walls that mark up the moment a damp cloth touches them. You can't wipe these — you have to dust them, dry, and only use moisture on the painted woodwork.
• Limestone window sills, which are porous and stain badly if you use the wrong product. We use pH-neutral cleaning products on every stone surface in Durham's older properties.
• Original timber floors — beautiful, but they need different cleaning methods to laminate or vinyl. Damp mop only, no soap, no standing water.
• Sash windows, which need cleaning from inside and by sliding both sashes to reach all four glass surfaces. Most cleaners only do two.
• Narrow staircases with awkward corners and no power-socket reach for a hoover. We carry battery-powered backpack vacuums specifically for these.
• Period fireplaces — beautiful, fragile, and they collect dust like nothing else.

Parking — the unspoken problem

Anyone who lives in central Durham knows: parking on the peninsula is borderline impossible. Timed loading bays, residents-only zones, narrow cobbled lanes where a transit van can't physically fit. This isn't just our problem — it's a problem for every trade that has to visit you, from the plumber to the courier.

What we do differently for these jobs:

• We use small estate cars rather than vans for peninsula jobs. Fits through the narrow lanes, can use the residents-only spaces with a customer's visitor permit, doesn't get clamped.
• We schedule peninsula cleans between 10am and 2pm whenever possible — the only window where the loading bays are usable.
• We carry our entire cleaning kit in a single wheeled caddy that can be lifted up the stone steps. No multi-trip loading.

Little things, but they mean we can actually get to you reliably.

The cleaning products we use in old properties

One of the biggest mistakes we see in period homes is people using strong supermarket cleaning products everywhere. Bleach-based bathroom cleaners on limestone tiles. Acidic descaler on chrome fittings that turn out to be vintage brass. Wood polish on French-polished tables that already had a wax finish.

For Durham's older housing stock, we use a more cautious cleaning routine:

Stone & limestone

pH-neutral surface cleaner only. Never acid, never alkaline. Anything acidic will etch the stone over time, anything alkaline can pull pigment out of polished surfaces. We carry a specific pH-neutral stone cleaner for window sills, hearths and any exposed stonework.

Original timber floors

Hoover with a soft-floor head, then damp mop with a microfibre flat mop and warm water only. No soap, no spray polish, no oil. Standing water is the enemy — old floorboards will warp.

Sash windows

Glass cleaner on microfibre, never paper towels (the lint sticks to the glazing bars). For the frames, a damp cloth with neutral surface cleaner. We avoid getting water near the cords inside the box frames, which can rot.

Period chrome & brassware

We check first whether the chrome is actually chrome or whether it's an old plated finish. Old finishes need a much gentler approach — just a damp microfibre cloth, no descaling sprays, no scouring pads.

Cleaning a 200-year-old house isn't the same job as cleaning a 20-year-old one. The materials are different, the techniques are different, and the products that suit one will damage the other.

What this means for you

If you live on the peninsula or in any of Durham's older streets, two things to know when hiring a cleaning company:

1. Ask them how they clean stone, period timber and original glass. If they don't have a different routine for old houses than modern ones, find someone else.
2. Ask about parking and access. A cleaner who turns up reliably is worth twice a cleaner who's brilliant but can't find anywhere to park.

Cleaning the homes on Durham's cobbled streets is one of the most satisfying parts of our week. They're beautiful buildings, and they deserve cleaning that respects what they are. That's the kind of cleaning company we try to be.