The Khalid family had been away from Puchong for 18 months on a Singapore posting. They messaged Alpha three days before flying back — they wanted the unit move-in fresh, not just "tidied." Two cleaners, 8 hours, one full reset on a 1,100 sqft 3-bedroom condo at Setia Walk.
Three days before the Khalid family's flight back to KLIA, Faridah messaged us a single photo of her empty Setia Walk balcony with the caption: "My husband says it's clean. I don't think so. Can you fix it before Saturday?" The 8-month-old toddler and her 4-year-old were coming back to a unit that had been closed up for 18 months. We had two days to get it move-in fresh.
The Khalid family had moved to Singapore in late 2024 on Mr. Khalid's 18-month banking secondment. The Setia Walk unit had been closed up the whole time — windows shut, air-con off, drains dry, the wet kitchen door taped at the bottom against insects. The maid agency they'd previously used had folded, so Faridah found us via a neighbour's WhatsApp recommendation.
The brief was specific: not a maintenance clean, not a "freshen up." A full deep-clean that resets every inch of the unit so the family — including the 8-month-old — could move back in safely.
What We Found On Walkthrough
I (Adrian) did the on-site walk-through on Thursday morning. Faridah was on a Zoom call from Singapore. We video-walked the unit room by room. Findings:
Balcony glass: An 18-month film of LDP highway haze had built up on both sides of the sliding door. Visible from the outside as a uniform grey. Water alone wasn't lifting it.
Master bedroom: Mattress (king, 6 years old) had a faint musty smell when pressed — common in a closed-up Puchong condo where humidity hovers above 80% indoors. Wardrobe interior had a thin layer of black-grey settled dust on every shelf.
Kids' rooms (2): Two single mattresses (8-month-old's and 4-year-old's previous bed). Same musty profile, slightly worse — both had been wrapped in plastic before storage and the moisture had been trapped under the wrap.
Kitchen: Range hood mesh — they'd left a wok on the burner. The 18 months of slow cool-down had baked an oil film onto the mesh that would need full immersion. Cabinet door fronts: tacky with the same oil + dust film. Fridge interior: empty but with a sweet-sour stale smell.
Bathrooms (2): Limescale dot pattern on shower glass in master. White cement grout fully greyed in both. Toilet bowls: rust ring near water line from extended sit.
Air-con units (3): Visible black-mould spots along the louvre tops in all three. The master AC was the worst — likely needed a separate chemical service we'd flag, not deep-clean it ourselves.
The Scope & Sequence
Two cleaners across 8 hours requires a tight choreography or you end up half-finishing every room. Our standard sequence for a closed-up unit: balcony first (ventilation), kitchen second (heavy degrease while solvents work), mattresses third (steam dwell time), then bathrooms, bedrooms, and finally the living room and floors.
09:00 – 10:30 — Balcony & ventilation. Sliding door open. Outdoor glass cleaned with a streak-free squeegee from a stable angle. Inner glass with descaler dwell. Balcony floor wet-vacuumed twice — the second pass picked up another full reservoir of grey water.
10:30 – 12:30 — Kitchen degrease. Cleaner B started the range-hood mesh in a degreaser soak in the laundry sink. Cleaner A worked the cabinet door fronts left-to-right, top row first. Fridge interior was wiped with vinegar-water solution and left open to air. Sink drain cleared with baking soda + hot water.
12:30 – 13:00 — Lunch. Both cleaners ate outside the unit. We always do this — no eating on-site, no smell mixing with cleaning products.
13:00 – 14:30 — Mattress steam pass. All three mattresses moved to a clear floor space. High-temperature steam in slow passes across the entire upper surface. Allowed 20-minute drying with the bedroom fan running. The smell shifted noticeably on the master bed by the end of the dwell time.
14:30 – 16:00 — Bathrooms & bedrooms. Descaler dwell on both shower glass panels and tile grout while cleaners worked the wardrobes, dresser tops and skirting in the bedrooms. Toilet bowls scrubbed with the pumice approach for the water line rust. Mirrors finished last.
16:00 – 17:00 — Living room & final wipe. TV console, every door frame top, every light switch, every power-point face plate. Floors mopped twice — detergent then clean water. Furniture pushed back into place. Final supervisor video-call with Faridah for sign-off.
Project snapshot — Setia Walk 3-bed condo deep-clean.
What Got The Most Attention
Three specific objects took the longest:
The range-hood mesh. Eighteen months of baked oil film required a 45-minute degreaser soak followed by manual brushing — not a 2-minute wipe.
Master bed mattress. Steam pass alone wasn't going to fully resolve a closed-up musty smell. We did the steam, then a baking-soda absorption layer that sat for 90 minutes, then vacuumed it off. The "did-it-work?" check is a press-sniff at the head-end; we didn't sign off until that was neutral.
Balcony glass outer side. Setia Walk balconies face the LDP corridor — an 18-month dust load doesn't come off with water and a microfibre. We used a non-acidic glass descaler on the outer side, two passes, then squeegee-dried to avoid streak ghosts.
Handover & Customer Reaction
Faridah video-walked the unit again at 17:30 from her hotel in Singapore. The verdict was on the master mattress smell — she said "OK that's the test. If that's gone, everything else is fine." Cleaner A pressed the head-end on camera and gave it the press-sniff. Faridah laughed and said "alhamdulillah, finally."
The family flew back on Saturday afternoon. Faridah's follow-up message on Sunday morning is the review block below. We've scheduled them onto a fortnightly maintenance plus 8-week deep-clean rhythm.
★★★★★
We came back to Puchong after 18 months overseas and the condo felt like it belonged to strangers. Alpha sent two cleaners who clearly knew what they were doing — balcony glass cleared, the kitchen smelled clean again, and the mattresses didn't have that musty smell anymore. Booked them for a follow-up already.
F
Faridah K.Setia Walk Puchong · 3-bed unit owner
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Adrian leads our Setia Walk, Bandar Puteri and IOI Resort City team. Trained on the 60-point deep-clean checklist and four years with Alpha, he supervises an average of 12 condo deep-cleans per month across the Puchong south corridor.
Reviewed by Eric Tan · Founder · Alpha Cleaning Services Puchong
