Tile and grout cleaning in Mawson Lakes

A new suburb with new-suburb grout

Mawson Lakes is one of Adelaide’s youngest suburbs, planned and built from the late 1990s on the old Levels campus and the land around it, with the UniSA campus, Technology Park, the rail interchange and the lakes themselves at the centre. Almost nothing here is more than twenty-five years old. That means very little of the stained-through, decades-old grout you find in the older north; instead the typical Mawson Lakes job is large-format porcelain tiles through an open-plan kitchen, dining and living area, laid with pale grey or cream grout that was spotless at handover and has been going darker with every mop since. Big tiles mean fewer grout lines, so the floor rate of $8/m² goes a long way, and because the grout is only lightly stained a clean usually brings it right back. A clear seal afterwards is worth it here more than almost anywhere: the grout is light, the tiles are big, and sealed lines stay even for years.

Townhouses, apartments and ensuites

A large share of Mawson Lakes is townhouses, courtyard homes and apartments, many of them rented to students, Technology Park workers and Defence families from nearby Edinburgh. Bathrooms are compact, there is nearly always an ensuite, and the showers are often fully tiled floor-to-ceiling with a frameless screen. The usual problems are soap scum and hard-water film on the lower rows, a pink film near the drain, and grout that has gone grey in the corners. A shower recess is $149, a bathroom $229, and the ensuite $179 at the same visit. For an apartment, tell us the floor, whether there is a lift, where a van can park and any body-corporate rules on working hours; the cleaner plans around it.

Recycled water and mineral marks

Mawson Lakes was built with a dual-pipe recycled-water system that supplies gardens and toilet cisterns from the purple taps. Recycled water carries more dissolved salts than mains water, so toilets on that supply can pick up mineral marks and a waterline faster than usual. That is a toilet-bowl issue rather than a tile issue, but it is worth knowing why the laundry and toilet floors ($69 when added to another job) and the surrounds pick up a chalky film. Adelaide’s mains water is hard in its own right, so showers across the suburb get the same limescale haze as the rest of the city.

Tenant changeovers

With so many rentals and leases that follow the university year, a lot of Mawson Lakes tile cleaning happens in the week between tenants. Tenants can book for the day before the bond clean; owners and property managers can book between tenancies and have the invoice sent to whoever is paying. Put the handover date in the notes and we will confirm whether it can be done in time.

What we do in Mawson Lakes

• Showers and bathrooms: mould, soap scum, hard-water film, $149 a shower recess, $229 a bathroom, $179 each extra bathroom
• Floors, splashbacks and alfresco tiles: $8/m² for living areas, kitchens, hallways and outdoor areas; splashback $69
• Grout cleaning on its own: every line pre-treated, scrubbed, rinsed and extracted
• Grout sealing: clear sealing from $5/m², colour sealing for stained grout
• Shower regrouting and grout repair: quoted after an inspection, done by a licensed tiler

Covers Mawson Lakes, Pooraka, Parafield, Parafield Gardens, Dry Creek, Cavan and Globe Derby Park. Every price is published.