About
A one man Exeter business, with the oven as its own service line
Where it came from
Hembury Contracting is Sam Hembury's Exeter contracting business: handyman work, property maintenance, refurbishments and the awkward jobs in between. Kitchens come up constantly, and the oven is the thing customers keep asking about while he is there for something else.
AGA and range cleaning came first, because Exeter has a lot of period houses with a cooker in them that nobody wants to tackle. Ordinary ovens followed for the same reason: it is heavy, unglamorous, methodical work, and doing it well is mostly about not rushing it.
It is a one person operation on purpose. There is no crew, no subcontractor and no rota, so the person who looks at your photograph and tells you how long it will take is the person who turns up and does it. That is also why the diary is straight with you: if a day is full, you get told it is full rather than being squeezed into a slot that was never going to fit.
On the record
What is actually on file
One person, named
Sam Hembury does the work himself. The person who gives you the estimate is the person standing in your kitchen.
Hembury Contracting
Exeter Oven Cleaning is a service line of Hembury Contracting, Sam's Exeter contracting business. Same trading entity, same invoices, same VAT registration.
Public liability cover
Insured for work in your home. A copy of the certificate goes over by email if you want to see it before booking.
By hand, with time
Professional degreasers, removable parts soaked, cabinet and glass done by hand. No shortcuts that leave the door glass looking like a fog.
Professional degreasers and time
Trade strength degreasers on the cabinet and a proper soak for everything that comes out. Time does the work that force would otherwise do to your enamel.
Soaking trays and hand tools
Racks, runners, trays, burner parts and filters go into a soaking tray while the cabinet is done by hand. Scrapers only on flat glass and steel, at the angle that lifts rather than scratches.
Floor and worktop protection
Sheeting down and the surrounding units masked before anything is opened. It is mucky work and leaving a bigger mess than the one we came for is not the deal.
Before and after photographs
Taken as a matter of course. They matter most on end of tenancy work, where they may be what settles a deposit question months later.
How we work
How the work is done
Time rather than force
Degreaser and a soak do the work. Anything that needs real force to shift is either coming off with a scraper on flat glass and steel, or it is a mark under the grime that was already there and is not going to move.
Apart, then back together
Racks, runners, trays, burner caps, pan supports, filters and the door panes where they are designed to separate. Nothing gets dismantled beyond what the manufacturer intends to come out for cleaning.
Told what is wrong
A perished seal, a cracked inner pane, a dead bulb or a fan that sounds like a bag of spanners all get pointed out. Cleaning is not repair and nothing here is gas work, so you get told what you have rather than sold something.
Get a time estimate
Book an oven clean with Exeter Oven Cleaning
Tell us what cooker you have and roughly what state it is in. Sam Hembury will come back with the hours it should take, what that costs, and the next free slot.