Builders clean for a new home.
Your builder's final clean got the house ready for handover. It did not get it ready to live in. Here is what is actually left behind in a new Pakenham build, why the plaster dust keeps coming back, and when to book it.
The builder's clean is a make-ready clean.
Let us be fair to the builders first, because this gets misrepresented. Nearly every volume builder working the Pakenham East, Officer and Cardinia Lakes estates includes a final clean in the contract, and they do it. It is not a rip-off and it is not negligence.
It is just a different job. The builder's clean exists to present the house at your handover walk-through: floors swept and mopped, benches wiped, glass done, rubbish gone. It is a presentation clean, and it is measured against a walk-through, not against you opening every drawer and living there. What it leaves behind is the same list on nearly every new home we do, and none of it is a defect you can raise with the builder.
What is actually still there.
- Plaster dust inside everything. Cupboards, drawers, drawer runners, the tops of doors, inside the linen press, in the ducted heating vents. The surfaces got wiped. The cavities did not.
- Sticker residue and protective film. Glass, the rangehood, the oven, the dishwasher, tapware, the shower screen. Half-peeled labels and adhesive ghosting that needs a solvent, not a cloth.
- Silicone smears. Around the shower base, the kitchen sink and the splashback edges, where excess was tooled and the film left behind hazed over.
- Grout haze. A fine cement film across floor tiles that reads as dull rather than dirty, so people assume that is just the tile. It usually is not.
- Paint and render spots. Flecks on window frames, sills, tiles and tapware from the spray and render stages.
- Construction dust in the ducts. The one that catches everyone. The heating was ducted in before the plaster was sanded.
Why the dust comes back three times.
This is the complaint we hear most from new owners in the estates, and it is worth explaining properly because it is not anyone's fault.
Fine gypsum dust from plaster sanding is light enough to stay airborne for hours and it goes everywhere during the build: into drawer runners, behind architraves, on top of the wardrobe, into the vents. A dry vacuum lifts the loose surface layer, and the rest stays in the cavities. Then you move in. The ducted heating runs for the first time, the doors start slamming, the house moves air properly for the first time in its life, and all of it lifts and resettles on your benches.
The only method that works is vacuum first, then damp wipe, then accept a second lighter pass a week or two later once the house has been lived in. Anyone promising a new build is dust-free after one visit has not done many of them. That second pass is usually a couple of hours, not another full clean.
Book it after the handover inspection, not before.
This one matters and it is the wrong way around in most people's heads. Do your handover walk-through with the house exactly as the builder left it. Under a domestic building contract you are listing defects at practical completion, and every scratch, chip, paint run and marked architrave you list is the builder's to rectify. A clean can polish a scratch out of view or lift a mark you would otherwise have had fixed for free. See the house dirty, list everything, then clean.
Then book the detail clean for the day after keys and before the furniture truck. An empty new home takes about half the hours of one full of boxes, and it is the only time in that house's life when every cupboard is accessible. Then expect the builder's defect and maintenance period to bring its own trades and its own dust in, which is normal on new builds in the Cardinia Shire, where reactive clay soils mean settlement cracks and sticking doors get touched up in the first year.
Worked example: a new 4-bedroom in Pakenham East.
A new four-bedroom, two-bathroom, double-garage home, keys Thursday, furniture Monday. Two cleaners for seven hours at $58 per cleaner-hour is $812. That covers every cupboard and drawer vacuumed then wiped, all protective film and label adhesive removed, silicone smears and grout haze taken off, paint flecks off frames and tapware, vents and ducts vacuumed, glass done inside and out, and the garage swept out.
A fortnight later, a two-hour return pass at $116 to catch the dust that lifted once the heating ran. Total $928 to actually move into a clean house.
For comparison, a bond clean on that same house would be $520 to $680 fixed. A builders clean costs more for the same square metres, and that is not a markup on new-home owners. It is genuinely more labour, because dust that has to be removed three times is three times the work. We charge it hourly rather than fixed for exactly that reason: sites vary enormously, and a fixed price would mean padding it. All rates are on our pricing guide, and if this is a rental you are about to list, our landlord and rental property cleaning page covers the turnover side.
New-estate suburbs we clean.
Most of the new-build work in the Cardinia Shire sits in the growth corridor between Officer and Pakenham East. Suburbs with their own page are linked.
The full list is on our service areas page, and once you are in, our regular house cleaning keeps it that way at the rhythm set out in how often you should clean your house. If your new home is one of a townhouse development with shared driveways or a bin store, the owners corporation common area cleaning page covers the common property side.
New-build questions.
Does the builder not clean the house before handover?
Most volume builders in the Pakenham and Officer estates include a final clean in the contract, but it is a make-ready clean, not a move-in clean. It gets the house presentable for your handover walk-through. What it typically leaves behind is plaster dust inside cupboards and drawers, sticker residue and protective film on glass and appliances, silicone smears, grout haze on tiles, and dust through the ducts and vents. That is normal, not a defect.
What does a builders clean cost in Pakenham?
A post-handover detail clean on a new home is charged hourly at $50 to $65 per cleaner-hour, because the condition varies enormously between sites. A typical new 4-bedroom in the Pakenham East or Officer estates takes two cleaners six to eight hours, so roughly $600 to $1,040. It is more labour than a bond clean on the same house because fine plaster dust has to be removed repeatedly rather than once.
When should I book the clean around handover?
After your handover inspection, not before it. At the walk-through you want to see the house as the builder left it so any defects are the builder's to fix, and a clean can hide a scratch or a mark you would otherwise have listed. Book the detail clean for the day after keys, and before your furniture arrives, because cleaning an empty new house takes about half the time of cleaning around boxes.
Why does plaster dust keep coming back in a new home?
Because it is not on the surfaces, it is in the cavities. Fine gypsum dust settles inside cupboards, in drawer runners, on top of doors, in the ducted heating vents and behind the architraves during construction. Every time the heating runs or a door slams it lifts and resettles. One dry vacuum and a wipe will not fix it. It takes vacuuming first, then damp wiping, then a second pass a week later once the house has moved air.
Should I clean before or after the three-month maintenance period?
Clean when you move in, and expect to do a lighter second pass later. New homes in the Cardinia Shire settle on reactive clay, and the builder's defect and maintenance period exists so cracks, sticking doors and touch-ups get rectified. Those rectification visits bring their own dust in. Do the proper detail clean at move-in so you can live in the house, then a shorter tidy-up once the maintenance trades have finished.
Getting keys to a new build?
Tell us the estate and your handover date. Honest hourly estimate, no call-out fee.