There's a particular kind of dread that hits on the last morning in a Potts Point walk-up. The furniture's gone, the afternoon light is doing something lovely through the casement windows, and you can suddenly see forty years of grime in the corner of every glazing bar. We clean these buildings constantly — the Macleay Street strip, the quiet end of Elizabeth Bay Road, the deco blocks tucked behind Victoria Street — and the exit reports come back flagging the same dozen things. So this is the end of lease cleaning Potts Point apartment checklist we actually work from, with realistic 2026 prices and the tricks that stop a $60 fix turning into a $400 bond claim.
Deco apartments are their own species. A 2019 build in Zetland has flat surfaces, sealed windows and a dishwasher. A 1936 block has plaster cornices, sash and casement windows, terrazzo, picture rails, original timber, and a kitchen that was designed for a maid to boil an egg in. Our crews budget roughly 30–40% more time for a deco one-bedder than a modern one of the same floor area. That's not padding, it's the cornices. If you want the general framework first, our room-by-room Sydney bond clean checklist covers the standard items — this article is the inner-east deco overlay on top of it.
Why do Art Deco walk-ups fail inspections more often than new builds?
Three reasons, and they compound.
First, the surfaces. Ornate cornice, picture rails, fluted architraves, panelled doors, curved plaster reveals around the windows — every one of those catches dust and none of them wipe clean in a single pass. A flat modern skirting takes four seconds a metre. A deco skirt with a bullnose and a shadow line takes fifteen.
Second, the age of the finishes. Original timber floors have gaps. Terrazzo and tessellated tile entries are porous and hold decades of foot traffic. Brass and chrome hardware from the thirties tarnishes in the salt air off the harbour, and Elizabeth Bay gets plenty of it.
Third, the agents. The inner-east property managers working Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay and Darlinghurst are inspecting premium stock with short vacancy windows. They photograph. They compare to the ingoing condition report line by line. We've seen exit reports out of Macleay Street with eighteen photographed items. That's not hostility — it's a building where the next tenant is paying $750 a week for a one-bedder and expects it spotless.
What are the 12 things agents check in a deco apartment?
In roughly the order they get flagged on the report.
1. Casement window tracks and glazing bars
Deco casements swing out on steel or brass stays, and the bottom channel collects a grey paste of dust, paint flakes and Sydney road grit. Agents open one window and run a finger along the channel. We use a stiff detail brush dry first, then a damp microfibre wrapped on a plastic scraper. Glazing bars — those thin dividers between panes — need to be done individually or they streak.
2. Picture rails
Nearly everyone forgets them. They sit at 2.1m, they're horizontal, and they're furred with dust. A flagged picture rail is one of the most common re-clean requests we get in Darlinghurst.
3. Cornice and ceiling rose
Stepped plaster cornice needs a soft brush attachment, not a wet cloth — wet cloths on old distemper-painted plaster can pull the finish. Ceiling roses in the lounge and main bedroom collect cobwebs on the underside where you can't see them from standing height.
4. Original timber floors, especially the gaps
Baltic pine and tallowwood boards have 2–4mm gaps packed with hair and crumbs. Vacuum along the grain with a crevice tool, then a barely-damp mop with a pH-neutral timber cleaner. Never flood them. If your floors are tired, remember wear and tear isn't your problem — dirt is.
5. Wall-mounted gas or electric heaters
Half the deco blocks in Elizabeth Bay still have them. The grille, the recess behind it, and the scorched wall above all get checked after a Sydney winter.
6. The hallway kitchen: behind and under the freestanding stove
Deco kitchens rarely have integrated appliances. The stove pulls out, and what's under it is the single biggest flag we see. Grease, dropped pasta, and the vinyl underneath needs degreasing too.
7. Tiled splashbacks and the original grout
Those small square 1930s tiles have four times the grout line of a modern slab splashback. Grout pen touch-ups are fine; agents care about grease, not age.
8. Bathroom: chrome tapware, soap dishes and the terrazzo or mosaic floor
Recessed ceramic soap holders and toothbrush niches are deco signatures and they collect scum in the bottom corner. Mosaic floors need a grout brush, not a mop.
9. Brass hardware, door plates and window stays
Tarnish itself is usually acceptable. Fingerprints, verdigris and old Blu Tack aren't. A light Brasso pass on door plates lifts a whole inspection, honestly — it's the detail that tells an agent someone cared.
10. Built-in wardrobes and the high shelf
Deco robes have a deep top shelf that nobody has wiped since the Howard years. Agents open the door and look up.
11. Balcony, sunroom or enclosed porch
Many of these apartments have a small curved balcony or glassed-in sunroom. Concrete floors need scrubbing, not sweeping, and the railing base collects pigeon mess. Strata rules on washing water running onto the unit below apply — worth reading how strata rules affect bin rooms, balconies and car spaces before you start hosing anything.
12. Your section of the shared stair landing
This is the one that surprises people. If your removalists scuffed the terrazzo stairs or left cardboard in the landing, the building manager tells the agent, and it lands on your exit report even though it's common property.
How much does an exit clean cost in a Potts Point walk-up in 2026?
Prices below are September 2026 and reflect what we're actually quoting across the 2011 and 2010 postcodes. Deco stock carries a small loading for the reasons above; a top-floor walk-up with no lift adds a little more because everything gets carried.
| Apartment | Deco walk-up (2011/2010) | Modern equivalent | Typical hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | $290 – $360 | $260 – $310 | 3 – 4 |
| 1 bed, 1 bath | $320 – $520 | $300 – $400 | 4 – 6 |
| 2 bed, 1 bath | $450 – $640 | $390 – $520 | 5.5 – 7.5 |
| 2 bed + sunroom/study | $520 – $720 | $450 – $580 | 6.5 – 8.5 |
| Carpet steam clean (per room) | $45 – $70 | $40 – $60 | Dry 2 – 4 hrs |
Add roughly $40–$70 if there's a wall oven with a heavy build-up, and $25–$45 for a balcony or sunroom. Those numbers sit above a Chatswood two-bedder for the same reason Bondi does — access, parking and stock age. We broke that down in detail in why the same two-bedder costs more in Bondi Junction than Chatswood, and the logic applies almost perfectly to the Potts Point strip. You can also run your own numbers on our pricing page and instant estimate calculator before you commit to anything.
Pro tip from our crews: photograph the casement window channels, the picture rails and under the stove after the clean, with the date stamp on. Inner-east agents inspect fast and sometimes from memory. Dated photos have settled more disputes for our clients than any argument ever has — and if your agent does flag something, we're back within 72 hours at no charge.
What about parking, access and the no-lift problem?
Potts Point and Elizabeth Bay are brutal for a cleaning van. Resident parking only on most streets, two-hour limits where there isn't, and loading zones that are full by 8am. Practical things that genuinely help us and shave time off your job:
- Book a loading zone or ask the building manager about the service bay if the block has one.
- Leave a visitor parking permit if your building issues them — Woollahra and City of Sydney both run schemes.
- Tell us the floor and whether there's a lift when you book. A third-floor walk-up with a carpet machine is a different job to a ground floor.
- Confirm water access. A handful of older blocks turn off the laundry tap between tenancies.
- Leave power on. Sounds obvious. We've arrived at a Kellett Street flat with the electricity already disconnected more than once.
If the timing is tight and you've only just realised handover is Friday, booking a same-week exit clean in Sydney is usually still doable outside the late-October peak — but not on a Saturday.
Do you need carpet steam cleaning if the apartment has original timber?
Most deco walk-ups have timber through the living areas and carpet in the bedrooms, or carpet laid over the boards entirely. The NSW rule of thumb still stands: if carpet was professionally cleaned at the start of your tenancy, or your lease has a clause requiring it, you need a receipt. Agents in this pocket ask for it routinely.
Hot water extraction is the standard they accept — not a hire machine from the servo, which most inner-east property managers can spot within a fortnight when the wicking stains reappear. Our carpet steam cleaning service comes with a dated receipt in the agent's name and dries in two to four hours, which matters when your handover is the same afternoon. Where there's no carpet at all, spend that money on the floors and the window reveals instead.
One deco-specific warning: carpet laid over old boards can trap moisture underneath, and in a ground-floor Darlinghurst flat with a damp wall you'll get a musty smell that no amount of extraction fixes. If that's you, deal with the mould before the inspection rather than after the report lands.
Should you DIY a deco exit clean or book it out?
Honest answer: a studio in good condition is DIYable if you've got a full day, a step ladder and patience for the cornice. A two-bedroom deco flat with a wall oven, tessellated entry tiles and thirty window panes is ten to twelve hours of solid work for one person, and that's before you've hired a carpet machine.
The cost gap is smaller than people assume once you price the sugar soap, the oven kit, the extension pole, the machine hire and the tip run. We've run the maths in a full DIY versus professional bond clean comparison, and the deciding factor is usually the re-clean risk rather than the dollars. If an agent flags three items on a $3,200 bond and you've already handed the keys back, getting back into the building is its own negotiation.
If you'd rather it just be handled, our end of lease cleaning service is fixed-price, confirmed before we start, and backed by the free 72-hour re-clean. We bring our own water and power leads, we know which Macleay Street blocks need the service lift booked, and we don't charge extra for the picture rails.
What should you do in the last 48 hours?
- Two days out: furniture gone, rubbish gone, including anything stashed in the storage cage. Building managers check cages.
- Day before: clean happens. Windows, oven, bathroom, floors, all twelve items above. Leave the balcony until the concrete can dry.
- Morning of: final walk-through with your ingoing condition report open on your phone. Compare room by room.
- Handover: all keys, both remotes, mail key, intercom fob, meter reads photographed, forwarding address confirmed in writing.
That last step catches people out more than the cleaning does. Deco blocks have odd key sets — a Lockwood for the flat, a barrel key for the main door, a mail key, sometimes a laundry key nobody's seen since 2019. Missing one delays your bond release by a fortnight.
We cover Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Darlinghurst, Rushcutters Bay, Woolloomooloo and the rest of the inner-east — you can check the full list on the suburbs and areas we cover. If you'd like a fixed price for your building, send through the floor plan or just the address and the number of windows, and we'll get you a free quote the same day.
More on this: End of Lease Cleaning in Sydney.
