End of lease car clean across West London and Heathrow

The sheet

What gets written down at a West London hand back, corridor by corridor

Alloys, on the M4 corridor. Slough's company cars have done three years at the junction of the M4, the M40 and the M25, and the brake dust has rusted into the wheel faces as a brown shadow that goes on the sheet as kerbing. The iron remover in the Exterior Detail dissolves it a week before; the End of Lease clean finishes clean wheels.

Paint, under the approach. Three years of the airport's oily film in Hounslow, Feltham and Southall leaves the car grey in daylight, which reads as faded or oxidised paint. The decontamination and clay take it back to the colour it was, so the inspector records what is actually there.

Carpets, on the A40 and by the river. Ealing's family cars carry three years of park and school run; Staines's carry three wet winters of salt tide marks and a damp note the inspector's nose catches before the torch does. The shampoo add on lifts what has soaked in; without it, a vacuum flattens the marks and the torch finds them.

Roofs, in Harrow. Sap etching from a century old avenue reads as paint damage until the paint is decontaminated. The Exterior Detail first, then the End of Lease clean, with the photographs taken on the drive before the car leaves it.

What the clean leaves alone. A scratch is a scratch and a dented door is a dented door, and no amount of shampoo changes either. What the dated photographs do is fix their size: a chip recorded at collection as a chip cannot grow into a respray on the invoice.

The week

Counting down from the collection date

Start with the date on the collection letter and count backwards. A week before it, decide whether the paint and the cabin need their own jobs: run a hand over the roof after a wash, look at the colour of the alloys, open the boot and breathe in. Gritty paint or brown wheels mean the Exterior Detail that week; a dog, children or three years of airport shifts mean the Full Interior Detail the same week. Then, with three to five days to go, the End of Lease clean itself, booked into a morning window now that the clocks have gone back so the shampooed carpets have an afternoon to dry with the windows cracked. From then until the driver arrives the car stays off the mud and, as far as a working week allows, out of the rain, because the photographs that matter are already in your wash report. The hand back happens on a dry day from the drive; nobody from Yikes goes to the dealer, the Trading Estate or the airport's staff car park.

Booking takes a minute. The postcode goes in and the page confirms a Network washer covers it, the price for the car's size appears, and the shampoo add on is a tick box. A drive in Harrow or Ealing is the simplest place to work; a permit bay in Hounslow, a Southall terrace at a quiet hour or a covered bay under a block all do, provided every door can open, and the washer arrives with water, power and light.

Lease cars we see handed back across the west

• Slough company car, three years on the M4: Exterior Detail for the wheels and the tar, then the End of Lease clean.
• Feltham salary sacrifice car under the approach: Exterior Detail for the airport film, so the paint is recorded as its real colour.
• Ealing family PCP car: End of Lease clean with the shampoo add on, for the park and the dog.
• Harrow car under the limes: Exterior Detail for the sap etching, then the End of Lease clean.
• Staines car after three wet winters: End of Lease clean with the shampoo add on, on a dry morning.
• The car you are buying out at the end: skip this page; the Super Valet is the one for a car that is now yours.

More on this: end of lease cleaning in Hillingdon and exterior detailing across West London.