Questions to ask before you hire a trauma cleaning company

Most people calling about this have never hired anybody for anything like it, are calling on the worst day of their year, and feel they are in no position to interview anybody.

You are. None of these are rude, and any company worth hiring will be glad to answer them.

The three that matter most

• How is the waste disposed of? A good answer is specific and immediate. A vague one is the single biggest warning sign in this trade.
• Does someone attend in person before quoting? A number given over the phone from a description is a number somebody invented, and it changes once the work starts.
• What happens if the odour comes back? This tells you whether they believe the job is finished or are hoping it is.

The rest of the list

• Are you licensed, and under what name? Then check it yourself on the public register rather than taking the claim.
• What protective equipment will the crew use? If the answer is gloves and a mask, they have told you what they think the job is.
• Who will actually be in my home? Whether it is the people you are speaking to or a crew you have not met.
• What will be removed, and will I be told before it goes? Nothing should leave a home as a surprise.
• How will you handle discretion? Timing, vehicles, what is carried through a corridor. It is a normal request.
• What documentation will I get? Matters especially for landlords, executors and businesses who have to account to somebody else.

What a good answer sounds like

Specific, immediate, and occasionally “I would need to look at it first.” That last one is not evasion. It is the only honest answer to some of these.

Be more suspicious of total confidence than of a company that tells you the scope depends on what is under the floor. It does depend on what is under the floor.

Price is the wrong first question

Not because it does not matter, but because a number without a scope is not information. The cheapest version of this job is the one that is done once, and the way you find that is by asking the nine questions above and listening to how they are answered.

Ask us

All of the above applies to us too. Ask, and if we are not the right company for your job we would rather say so than take the booking.

There is more on the register in how to check a cleaning company is licensed, and how we run a job is on What happens now.

Ask about the things that go wrong

Everything above is about a job that goes to plan. These two are about the ones that do not, and they are the questions people only think to ask afterwards.

Ask what happens if the scope turns out to be larger once the work starts, and get the answer before you agree to anything. On this work the scope genuinely can change, because what is under a floor is not visible until it is opened. What matters is whether you are told and asked, or told and invoiced.

Ask also what happens if something is damaged. Work like this involves lifting, cutting and carrying in an occupied home, and a company that has never considered the question is a company you do not want discovering it in your hallway.

Notice how you are spoken to

You are allowed to weigh this. On a job that happens in your home on the worst week of your year, the manner of the person on the phone is not a soft consideration, it is most of what you are buying.

If somebody rushes you, talks over you, or pushes for a decision on the call, that is information. Whoever comes to look should be somebody you would be willing to have in the house. Why we look first is in why we look at the property before we quote.