The process
Book, deposit, clean, balance. Four steps and no surprises
On the day
From the first message to a working oven
- Step 1
Send a photograph
Open the door and take one picture of the inside. That single photograph answers more than a paragraph of description does, and it is what the estimate of hours is built on.
- Step 2
Get the hours and the price
Back comes an estimate of the hours, what that costs at £60 an hour including VAT, and the next free slot. Nothing is booked until you say so.
- Step 3
Pay half to hold the date
A deposit of 50 per cent of the estimated time holds the booking. Move it or cancel with reasonable notice and it carries over or comes straight back.
- Step 4
The kitchen gets covered
On the day, the floor and the units around the cooker are protected before anything is opened. Ten minutes at the start that decides how the end looks.
- Step 5
The clean
Cooker stripped, removable parts soaked, cabinet and door glass done by hand, hob and extractor if they are on the job, everything dried and refitted.
- Step 6
Look at it, then pay the balance
The oven is run up to temperature, the kitchen is cleaned down, and you look at the work before the balance is settled. Anything found broken is pointed out then, not buried on an invoice.
The report
What is handed back
A working cooker, rebuilt
Every part that came out goes back in, dry, in the right order, and the oven is brought up to temperature before we leave.
Before and after photographs
Taken as a matter of course. They matter most on end of tenancy work, where they may be the thing that settles a deposit question months later.
A list of what is worn or broken
Perished seals, crazed or bloomed glass, dead bulbs, rusted trays, blocked burner ports. What it is, whether it matters, and what usually fixes it.
What will keep it this way
Two or three specific things for your cooker rather than general advice. Usually it is a liner, a habit, and one product to stop using.
Same day, back together
Nothing is taken away and nothing has to sit overnight. Whatever the state of it when we start, the cooker is reassembled and usable before the van leaves.
Weather and rules
The things worth knowing before booking
Access, power and water
Somebody to let us in, mains power, and hot and cold water at the kitchen tap. Parking within carrying distance of the door helps, because the kit comes in and out of a van.
Nothing gas, nothing electrical
This is cleaning. No gas work is carried out, and nothing behind a cover that needs an electrician comes off. A faulty cooker needs the right trade, and you will be told which one.
Old damage stays old damage
Pitted enamel, crazed door glass and worn seals are uncovered by a clean rather than caused by it. They do not come out with more hours, so nobody is going to charge you for trying.
Pets and small children
The products used are strong degreasers and the parts come out hot on a cooker that has been on. It is easier for everyone if the kitchen is a no go area while the work is running.
Before you book
Common questions
- How long does an oven clean take?
- A standard single or double oven usually fits inside the two hour minimum. A range cooker, an AGA class cooker, or an oven with the hob and extractor added on the same visit runs longer and is charged for the hours it takes. Tell us what you have and roughly how long since it was last done and you will get a straight estimate before anything is booked.
- Can I use the oven the same day?
- Yes. Everything is rebuilt before we leave and the oven is brought up to temperature so the last of the cleaner smell burns off rather than turning up in your dinner. Nothing needs to sit overnight.
- Do I need to be there the whole time?
- No. Somebody needs to let us in and be there at the end to look at the work and settle the balance, but the middle of the job does not need an audience. Plenty of people go out and come back to a clean kitchen.
- Will it damage the enamel or the door seals?
- Not the way this is done. Degreaser and time do most of the work, with a scraper only on flat glass and steel where it is safe. Door seals are cleaned and left in place rather than pulled out, because a perished seal is a part to replace and not something a clean can fix.
- What if the oven turns out to be broken rather than dirty?
- You get told and it is left alone. A blown bulb, a perished seal, a cracked inner pane or a failed fan can all hide under baked-on grease, and cleaning is not a repair. Nothing here is gas work, so anything on the gas side goes to a Gas Safe registered engineer.
- Do you cover my area?
- Exeter and roughly twenty miles around it, which takes in the estuary towns, the East and Mid Devon market towns, the Teign valley and the edge of Dartmoor. There is a page for each town covered saying what the work usually looks like there.
- Who actually turns up?
- Sam Hembury. Exeter Oven Cleaning is a service line of Hembury Contracting, a one man Exeter business with public liability insurance, so the person who quotes the job is the person who does it.
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.