Post-renovation cleaning guide

Post-renovation cleaning — what’s included and when to book

Updated: 2026-04-20

By the Prime Cleaning Services team · Cleaning Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa since 2012 · About us

Construction dust settles everywhere. It hides inside cabinets and drawers, behind radiators, on top of door frames, and in places you don’t notice until light hits them sideways at the wrong time. A post-renovation clean is a different job from a normal deep clean — different tools, different timing, different expectations. Here’s what to plan for.

Why post-renovation is a different job

A regular deep clean focuses on built-up grime in a lived-in home. Post-renovation cleaning deals with something different:

Fine construction dust — sanding dust, drywall (gyproc) dust, sawdust, plaster dust. This gets into ventilation systems, inside electronics, inside cabinet shelves
Paint splatters and drip residue — on floors, windows, fixtures
Adhesive residue — masking tape left too long leaves glue, which needs specific solvents
Silicone haze around new caulk lines
Protective film residue on new appliances and fixtures
Footprint grime from workers walking through

Because the dust is very fine, a standard household vacuum actually makes it worse — it blows fine particles back into the air. Post-renovation cleaners use HEPA-filtered vacuums and microfibre cloths, and work from top to bottom so dust falls downward as you clean.

When to book

After construction debris and tools are out. We clean, not haul. Contractors or you should remove offcuts, packaging, and any bulky waste first.
Before furniture goes back in. An empty room cleans in about half the time of a furnished one.
Before you move in (for renovated apartments you’re about to occupy).
If the renovation was partial (e.g., just a kitchen or bathroom remodel), we can clean just that room plus adjacent common areas where dust will have traveled.

Tip: dust travels. A bathroom renovation leaves dust through the entire apartment via foot traffic and air currents. Factor that into your scope.

What a post-renovation clean includes

HEPA-vacuum all surfaces — floors, walls (yes, walls), ceilings, door frames, window frames, radiators, baseboards
Wipe-down of every surface — top to bottom, in a specific order that prevents re-contamination
Inside cabinets and drawers — dust gets everywhere
Windows, sills, frames — inside and between panes
Light fixtures, ceiling fans, vents — dust carriers
Remove paint splatter, adhesive residue, silicone haze using appropriate solvents
Deep clean of kitchen — appliances (inside too), hood, sink, counters
Deep clean of bathroom — fixtures, grout, tile, drain covers, toilet
Floor finish — washed, polished if parquet/wood, or left appropriate for tile/LVT
Trash removal — what we generate (used wipes, waste bags) we take

Typical duration

Scope	Typical hours	Cleaners
Single-room renovation (kitchen or bathroom) + adjacent spread	6–10 h	1–2
Full-apartment renovation (1 bedroom)	10–16 h	2
Full-apartment renovation (2–3 bedrooms)	16–28 h	2–3
Whole-house major renovation	25–40+ h	3+

For larger scopes we often do two passes: a rough dust-removal pass, wait 12–24 hours for airborne particles to resettle, then a final detail pass. This delivers a genuinely clean handover rather than a surface-level job that looks fine for 30 minutes until the dust settles again.

Pricing and kotitalousvähennys

Rate is the same as other services: 32 €/hour + 24 % ALV (39,68 €/h gross). A full-apartment post-renovation clean usually runs several hundred euros — which easily clears the 150 € annual kotitalousvähennys threshold, so the 35 % labour deduction applies. Effective rate after the credit: about 25,80 €/hour.

If this is your only cleaning job of the year and you haven’t used the credit otherwise, remember: the 150 € threshold hits once per person. A 10-hour clean at 32 €/h = 320 € labour → 112 € deduction → 0 € benefit after threshold on a single job. Pair with regular cleaning later in the year and you clear it.

DIY vs professional

You can DIY a post-renovation clean, but two caveats:

Equipment matters. A normal household vacuum redistributes fine dust through its exhaust. A HEPA shop-vac is the minimum, and ideally a proper construction-cleanup vacuum.
Time is real. A 2-bedroom apartment post-renovation is a full weekend of careful work for an experienced person; several weekends for someone doing it for the first time.

The economics with kotitalousvähennys factored in often make professional cleaning competitive with DIY once you price your weekend time at anything meaningful.

What we need from you

Debris and tools out of the way
Water and electricity working
Access to all rooms (doors unlocked, keys if needed)
Paint/finish still curing? Let us know — we’ll avoid aggressive cleaning on uncured surfaces
Photos beforehand for our quote, if possible

Book post-renovation cleaning

Prime Cleaning Services covers post-renovation cleaning in Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa. Send photos of the space (before-cleaning condition) to info@primecleaning.fi or call Eric 040 670 25 77 / Kareen 040 670 25 75. We’ll quote hours and schedule.

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