Oven cleaning in Dawlish

The cliff top estates above Dawlish are largely post-war bungalows, a great many of them occupied by one or two people. That produces a kitchen pattern you can almost predict: a compact freestanding cooker or an under counter oven, a four burner hob where two burners do all the work, and a grill that gets used more than the oven does.

A cooker used that way is not heavily soiled in the way a family oven is, but it is soiled for far longer, because a small amount of use over fifteen years still builds a hard layer nobody has ever taken off. These jobs sit inside the two hour minimum almost without exception, and the difference at the end is dramatic for the money.

Level access, a driveway and somewhere to put a soaking tray outside make them quick and easy visits, which is one reason the diary can usually fit them in at short notice.

The grill is worth a separate mention in these houses, because in a one or two person kitchen it does most of the cooking. A grill pan and its rack collect fat faster than anything else in the appliance and they are almost never the thing somebody thinks to ask about, so they come as part of the job rather than as an extra.

Down in the town the housing is Regency and Victorian terraces around The Lawn and seafront blocks along the front, and a large share of it is holiday accommodation. The work there is changeover work: a fixed window between one party leaving and the next arriving, and a cooker that has to be back together and usable at the end of it.

Let kitchens get used hard in short bursts by people who are not coming back, and the grill pan is invariably the worst item in the property. It is not a criticism of anybody; it is simply what happens in a kitchen with no permanent occupant.

Dawlish is among the most storm exposed places on this coast. Sea water comes over the wall in a south easterly and salt gets driven inland far beyond the front, which is why stainless steel in kitchens here dulls faster than it does a few miles up the estuary.

The practical effect on a cooker is the same as anywhere on the coast and the order of work is the same: the grease comes off first, because it is what holds the salt against the metal, then the finish is polished back. What has already pitted does not come back, and that gets said rather than hinted at.

There is a substantial amount of holiday accommodation at Dawlish Warren with small kitchens: compact ovens, two burner hobs and combination microwaves rather than full size appliances. They still get greasy and they still clean, and several small units in the same place on the same visit is efficient work.

Whether it is worth doing depends on the number rather than the size, and a straight answer on that comes back before anything is booked. One tiny oven is not worth either party's minimum charge; six of them on a changeover morning very much is.