Post-Construction Cleaning in Conway, AR

Post-construction cleaning is the last trade on site and the one that decides what the client
sees first. It is also the most commonly underestimated line on a build, because the work is
nothing like ordinary cleaning — you are removing manufactured residues that were
deliberately designed to stick, from surfaces that are brand new and completely unforgiving of a
mistake.

Conway is a growing city and most of what we are called to here is the residential and light
commercial end: new builds and subdivisions on the west and south sides, retail and office
fit-outs, medical and dental suites, church and school work, and renovations on the older streets
near downtown. Our yard is fifteen minutes away, which on a job where the handover date is fixed
and the trades before you have run late is worth more than it sounds.

The Three Phases, and Why Skipping One Costs More

Rough clean

After framing and mechanical, before finishes. Debris and offcuts out, floors swept, the site
made safe and workable. Cheap, fast, and it prevents the single most expensive problem in this
trade: grit ground into a new floor by the boots of every trade that follows.

Interim or main clean

After finishes, before the final. The bulk of the work — dust removal from every
surface, adhesive and label removal, fixtures and fittings, paint spatter, the first proper pass
on glass and floors.

Final or white-glove clean

Immediately before handover. Detail work: glass and frames again, fingerprints, switch plates,
inside cabinets and drawers, vents, skirtings, and everything the client will touch and look at on
the walkthrough.

Compressing three phases into one is the standard false economy. Construction dust is
abrasive silica and it keeps settling for days after the last trade leaves — a single clean
means the client finds dust on the second day, and you are back on site for free.

The Residues That Make This Different

• Construction dust. Not household dust. Cement, gypsum and silica, fine
  enough to hang for days and abrasive enough to scratch glass and new finishes if wiped dry. It
  gets vacuumed and wet-wiped, never dry-dusted.
• Mortar and grout haze on brick, block and tile. Needs the correct acidic
  product and dwell time, and needs the surface wet first — acid onto dry masonry burns it.
• Stickers and labels on every window, appliance, fitting and fixture, with
  the adhesive left behind. Tedious, slow, and instantly noticed if missed.
• Paint and caulk spatter on glass, hardware, floors and frames.
• Protective film on metal, glass and appliances, which becomes far harder to
  remove after months of Arkansas sun has baked it on.
• Silicone and sealant smears.
• Drywall compound in every crevice and on every horizontal surface.

Glass: Where Post-Construction Jobs Go Wrong

New glass is the highest-risk surface on any handover and the one clients inspect first.

The problem is that construction glass frequently carries welding spatter, concrete splash and
mortar specks that have physically bonded to the surface. Scraping those off with a blade is
standard practice — and it is also how glass gets permanently scratched, because some
tempered glass carries fabricating debris fused to the surface that will drag under a blade and
leave a track across the pane.

So the rule is: wet the glass, use a sharp new blade at a shallow angle in one direction only,
and test a small area first. Where there is any doubt about the glass, chemical removal rather
than mechanical. A scratched pane on a new build is a replacement, and the argument about who pays
for it is one nobody wins.

New Concrete Needs Restraint

Driveways, walkways and slabs on a Conway new build are frequently less than a month old.
Fresh concrete has not reached full strength, and a surface cleaner at full working pressure can
etch it or expose aggregate that was meant to stay covered.

New concrete also brings its own residues: efflorescence bloom as the slab dries out, form
release agent along the edges, mortar droppings from masonry work above, and tire marks from site
traffic. Each needs a different approach and none of them wants full pressure. Where a slab is
genuinely too green to clean properly, the honest answer is to say so and schedule it after
handover rather than damage it to meet a date.

Working to a Handover Date

The realistic problem on most Conway jobs is that we are the last trade and the schedule has
already slipped. Things that make it work: being told the real handover date rather than the
optimistic one, knowing whether power and water are live, understanding whether other trades will
still be working while we are there, and having somewhere to put waste.

What we will tell you honestly is when a date is not achievable at the quality the client
expects. Rushing a final clean produces a walkthrough with a snag list, which costs the builder
more than the extra day would have.

Post-Construction Cleaning in Conway, AR — Questions We Get

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