Q. What is house cleaning?
A. You know what house cleaning is as you perform it, but the definition might be just a little different for professional
house cleaning. It involves a thorough, room-by-room, top to bottom cleaning of your house. Maple Maids will help you maintain your home, keep it organized, and provide a level of safety.
Q. Who will be cleaning, my home?
A. We will always send the same team of professional cleaners, each time we clean your home, sometimes due to illness, vacations or other reasons we have to substitute another member of staff but we will do that by requesting your permission to do so.
Q. Do I need to purchase any special supplies or equipment?
A. No, your cleaning team will bring everything with them. If you do have any of your own preferred products, please let us know and we will be happy to use them.
Q. How much does house cleaning cost?
A. Our Weekly or biweekly cleaning service can cost anywhere from $65 to $137 or more depending upon the size of the house and the duties you would like performed. The first cleaning of a house can cost you a little higher amount than usual. Special one time cleans are considered on a case-by-case basis.
Q. Why does it need to be performed?
A. Having a “maid” isn’t a luxury anymore. As we try to balance our busy lives and get more out of our leisure time, hiring some household help is becoming more common. An occasional professional cleaning ensures your house will be given the care that you might not have the time or inclination to provide. And having a consistently clean house helps prevent insect infestations, clears clutter (a potential fire hazard), and helps to provide a healthy environment.
Q. How often does it need to be performed?
A. That’s entirely up to how little you want to clean and how much you want to spend. It’s common to have household help for general cleaning weekly or biweekly. Or you can get someone once or twice a week to do special projects like organizing cabinets, doing laundry, cleaning the oven, buffing floors, polishing silver, etc. You also could hire us to do a major spring-cleaning, a move-in or move-out cleaning, or before and after special events. When requesting a quote for house cleaning, specify the frequency of service and any special jobs.
Q. How is the service performed and with what materials?
A. Depending on the size of your house, our cleaning service might work in teams, cleaning room-by-room or by duty, e.g., dusting the whole house then vacuuming, etc. We will try to assign the same worker or workers to your house for regular service. A standard cleaning usually includes dusting, vacuuming carpets, mopping floors, cleaning the kitchen, sanitizing bathrooms, wiping mirrors, and general “straightening up.” You might also clarify exactly what needs to be done.
Q. Who supplies the supplies?
A. We bring our own supplies.We will honor your requests. For example, if you want only “green” products used in your house, that’s what we will use, but you might have to supply them.
Q. How long will it take and what should the result be?
A. regular house cleaning could take 2 to 3 hours depending on the size of your house and the duties to be performed. Of course, the house should be visibly clean, from dust-free knickknacks to gunk-free faucets. If the cleaning is not satisfactory, contact us as soon as possible within 24hrs to arrange a follow-up visit.
Q. What preparations need to be made?
A. Most likely, you’ll have your house cleaned while you are away. So during the initial visit, give the proper house keys to one of our supervisors. And make sure the cleaners know how to operate alarm systems, where fuse boxes or circuit breakers are, what to do if they’re locked out, how to deal with pets, and any other instructions you might have. You hardly have to clean before the cleaners come, but it would be courteous to clear away clutter so they don’t have to clean around it or put it away where you can’t find it. Be clear about which items to be cleaned are fragile or irreplaceable. Better yet, put them away and clean them yourself to eliminate any risk of breakage.
Q. What happens if my regularly scheduled cleaning falls on a statutory holiday?
A. Your cleaning appointment will automatically be rescheduled to the following business day. We will endeavor to accommodate your needs when rescheduling.
Q. What happens if one of the maids is injured while on my property?
A. All of our staff are covered by Workers’ Compensation and any work related injuries will be dealt with through them.
Q. What if I need to change my cleaning appointment?
A. Not a problem, we ask that you give us 24 hours notice so that we can adjust our schedule. We charge $40 for a lockout.
Q. Do I have to be home when the team comes?
A. Most of our customers are not. For security, only the professionals who clean your home have access to the keys. For added security, keys are coded individually and cross-referenced separately. If you choose not to provide a key and we are unable to access your home for a scheduled cleaning, you may incur a lockout charge.
Q. How do I pay for my cleaning?
A. Simply leave a check on the kitchen counter top on each visit we make to your home or provide us with your credit card information to be used on your cleanings.
Q. How will I know when to expect my cleaning?
A. You will be entered into our online scheduling system. Please let us know if need to receive reminders a day before the cleaning time. Alternatively you can check your cleaning appointment time online.
More FAQ
Can I schedule house cleaning online? Yes. You will be assigned a password which will be used to visit the customer account page in our web site whereby you will check your scheduled times and make any appropriate changes by submitting a request. Otherwise your schedule remains permanent all times unless you request changes.
What should I do if something is broken while your team is cleaning? We hope it wont happen. The first thing to do is not panic and please direct the matter to our office immediately. Accidents do occur. Call our office within 24 hours from the time of the cleaning and we will be glad to resolve the matter to your satisfaction.
Where is your office located? Our main office is located at 5622 Columbia Pike # 204 Falls Church, Va. Visit the Contact Us page for other Maple Maids office locations.
How is payment for services rendered? Services are paid for at the completion of the job. We accept checks, payments through Paypal, cash, major credit cards; Master card, Visa, and Discover as well as debt cards.Please leave the check on the kitchen counter where our employees will find it.
Will the team clean the in/out of my oven/refrigerator? Is there an extra charge? As a part of our regular cleaning, the outside of the oven, including the stovetop is cleaned thoroughly. The team also cleans the outside and top of the refrigerator. If you would like the inside of these appliances cleaned you would just need to inform the office when you make the appointment.
How many employees do you send to my home? Normally we send out a team of two. However, there are times when due to scheduling demands we need to send a team of three or just one maid.
Do you provide references? Upon request we are willing to provide referrals to commercial clients only due to privancy issues. We have always felt that asking our customers to allow strangers to call their homes was a violation of their privacy. We feel it is not proper to impose on our customers to answer questions about our service if they are not willing to. In return, we would not impose on you to answer questions unless you accept to help us with referrals.
Do you provide your own cleaning supplies?
Yes, we come to your home fully equipped with a vacuum. In addition, each team brings an equal amount of cleaning chemicals. This way each employee can efficiently clean your home without having to wait for his or her partner to finish with a particular cleaner. Each team also brings with them a clean sanitized huck towels, grooves, cleaning packets, mops, brooms, and any necessary cleaning materials. We do not use soiled cloths to clean your home. We only require our clients to provide a supply trash bags on each cleaning.
What kind of cleaning supplies do you use?
All of our cleaning supplies are formulated with environmental concerns in mind. We use formulated highly recommended chemical brand names. Every team has maid file (Material Safety Data Sheets) available for references.
What do I do if I am not satisfied with the cleaning that was done?
Clients should discuss their concerns with their Team Leader, as well as our office. Our motto is that “ We create happy faces everyday”. We love what we do and if you are not satisfied we will do it over. If something is missed or not done to your satisfaction, we will either note your service report so it is taken care of on the next visit or we will send a team out to your home to correct the problem.
What is your availability?
Our office is open from Monday – Saturday and our business hours are 9:30am to 5:30pm. We have three designated cleaning times. The first appointment of the day, which is 8:30am to 10:00am, is the only guaranteed appointment time for first time clients. All other appointments are approximate times. 11:30am to 12:30pm, and 2:30pm to 3:30pm. We hope our customers will understand that we are in a service business and it is sometimes difficult to narrow down an exact time. If the team will be more than 45 minutes late, we will contact you and advise you as to their time of arrival at your home. We highly recommend regular clients to provide us with a key to avoid the stress of waiting for the maids on each cleaning.
Can I give you a key if I can’t be home during those hours?
We understand that many of our customers are working people that just don’t have enough time in the day to do everything. So it’s obvious that our customers will appreciate coming home to a clean house and enjoy not being there while our employees are cleaning. Basically our customers work out different arrangements based upon their individual situations. Most supply us with a key to their home. We number and keep your key in a lock box. All keys are assigned codes there is nothing on the key that would let someone else know the key belongs to you. Others give us a code to enter through the garage and a small number of our customers leave a key under the mat or any chosen place. We generally advise against the latter option due to security reasons.
Do I need to secure pet(s) while your team is cleaning? If you will not be home while we clean, we do request you to introduce your pet(s) to our employees on the first visit. Some of our customers show our teams where the animal treats are. When the team arrives at the home they give the pet(s) a treat and go about their business. Other than that, our employees are all animal friendly and will not have a problem working around your pet(s). Giving pet(s) treats is an optional alternative to get around pets.
Should I feel secured that my key is in the hands right hands?
On the day of your cleaning, the key to your home is removed from the lock box, by our office manager who has the key to the lock box. The key is placed in a customer data sheet pouch that is located in the maid’s file with the service report for your home. The key is then removed only by the Team Captain to open your door and lock your door. You key is checked back in and locked back in the box upon the maids return from work.
What if my key is lost?
Since we started serving our customers we have been accepting keys for customer’s homes, and we know the care your key deserves. However, accidents do occur. Rest assured that we would abide by whatever action you would like us to take. We have an additional rider in our insurance that covers our organization for $18,000 of coverage for new keys or locks and the cost of installing them.
Is your company registered and insured?
Yes. We are registered and insured to operate in all locations we service. Our employees are bonded as well as covered by workers compensation
If you’re thinking on how your pet(s) will get along with us, you came to the right place “maple maids love pets”. On our first cleaning your pet(s) will get ready to welcome the newest members of your family.
