Inner West · Sydney NSW
Inner West windows are old, tall and awkward. Sash frames in Victorian terraces, pressed-metal pelmets in Federation semis, and single drops over three metres in the warehouse conversions off Marrickville Road. Pro Clean Corp steams curtains, sheers and Roman blinds where they hang, right across the Inner West, so nothing is unhooked, carried down a narrow staircase or sent away for a week. Sheers are dry on the rod in about an hour, lined drapes in about two.
Marrickville, Tempe and Sydenham sit under an approach path, and the fine grit that comes with it does not stay outside. Very little of the older housing stock here has ducted air conditioning, so windows are open through summer and the particulate settles into the pleats rather than on the face of the fabric. That is why a sheer in a Tempe cottage looks fine from across the room and grey the moment you fold the leading edge back on itself.
The high streets add a second layer. Terraces and flats sit directly behind King Street, Enmore Road and Illawarra Road, where traffic runs slowly and brake dust hangs about. Restaurant and cafe exhaust does the rest. Inside the house, the kitchen in a terrace is usually at the back with one small window and a rangehood that vents into the room rather than out of it, so a greasy film builds on the curtains in the back half of the house even though nobody cooks near them.
Then there is damp. Workers cottages in Erskineville and Petersham sit on old brick with rising damp, lath-and-plaster walls hold moisture, and single-glazed sash windows run with condensation overnight through winter. The bottom hem of a lined drape is the last part of the room to dry out. Left long enough that turns into the black speckling along the hem that people usually ring us about, and it is a damp problem showing up on fabric rather than a fabric problem.
Terraces in Newtown, Enmore, Annandale and Stanmore have no driveway. The front door opens onto the footpath, the streets are narrow and often one-way, the kerb is under a resident parking scheme, and the loading zones on the high streets are timed. We plan for that before the day rather than discovering it on arrival. The equipment we bring is portable and carried in through the front door, so we are not running a hose forty metres down a shared side passage that belongs to two households.
Ceiling height is the other reason the work is done in place. Front rooms in Victorian terraces run well over three metres, and the tracks are fixed into hundred-year-old timber battens or straight into old plaster. Unhooking a heavy interlined drape from that hardware is how brackets get pulled out of the wall, and re-hanging it is worse. The warehouse conversions and sawtooth-roof buildings around Marrickville and St Peters make the point again — those are single long drops over industrial glazing, and taking them down means bringing in access equipment to put them back.
Flats need a different answer again. The 1960s and 1970s red-brick walk-ups through Ashfield, Summer Hill, Dulwich Hill and Croydon have no lift, so the gear goes up two or three flights by hand and we quote knowing that. The newer towers along the light rail and around Sydenham and Marrickville Metro are the opposite: there is a lift, but it has to be booked and the building manager wants a certificate of currency lodged first. Tell us which one you are in when you call and the visit is scoped properly.
The fabric mix in the Inner West is wider than in newer parts of Sydney. Unlined cotton and linen drapes in period rooms, wide polyester sheers, coated blockouts in the newer apartments, Roman blinds in kitchens and studies, and a fair amount of second-hand and inherited hardware holding all of it up. Every panel is colour-fast tested on a hidden fold before anything is applied to the visible face. Older cotton and cotton-blend linings are the ones to watch, because some of them will shrink against a heat source, and those are cleaned cooler and slower or not at all.
We would rather talk you out of a job than take money for one that will not work. A west-facing sheer that has been in the sun for a decade is already brittle in the fibre, and steaming will finish what the sun started — you will get holes along the fold lines. Mould that has been in a blockout hem long enough to break down the acrylic coating will lighten but will not return to white. Years of smoke absorbed into heavy drapes in a share house will reduce and will not disappear. In each of those cases we say so at inspection and quote replacement instead if that is the honest better spend.
What does respond well is ordinary accumulated soil, kitchen film, dust through the pleats and recent marks. Rods, brackets, chain drives and the top of the pelmet are wiped as part of the job, because a clean curtain re-hung against a dirty track picks the grime straight back up. If the clean is for an end-of-lease inspection — common through the Newtown and Marrickville share-house market — say so when booking, and we will schedule it far enough ahead of the inspection that nothing is still damp when the agent walks in.
curtain cleaning is available at every address below. Each suburb has its own page with local pricing, access notes and booking detail — 92 in Inner West in total.
No, and we prefer that they do not. Tracks in terraces and Federation semis are usually screwed into old timber battens or straight into aged plaster, and front-room ceilings here run over three metres. Unhooking a heavy lined drape from that hardware risks pulling the fixing out of the wall, and re-hanging it needs two people and a ladder in a room with no space for either. We steam both faces in place instead.
Yes. Converted industrial buildings around Marrickville and St Peters have single drops over sawtooth or full-height glazing, and those are quoted per drop rather than per window because a two-storey panel is not the same job as a bedroom sheer. We work them from a platform ladder or with extension gear from floor level, depending on what the floor below the window allows. Send a photo with the enquiry and the quote will be accurate.
It does not. Resident parking schemes, one-way streets and timed loading zones are the normal condition of working here, so we bring portable equipment that can be carried from wherever the van legally stops rather than needing a kerbside spot outside your door. We ask for the street and the nearest cross street when you book so we know in advance whether it is a carry-in job.
Sometimes. Speckling on the hem of a lined curtain in an Inner West cottage or terrace is condensation damage from single-glazed sash windows and damp brick, and how much lifts depends on how long it has been there. Recent spotting responds to a targeted treatment before steaming. Growth that has been in the fabric for years and has broken down a blockout coating will lighten but will not clear, and we will tell you that before we quote, not after.
You can stay, and nothing is disassembled while we work. On drying, we would rather you did not throw the sashes open — in Marrickville, Tempe and Sydenham that draws flight-path grit and street dust straight back into damp fabric. A ceiling fan or a pedestal fan moving air across the room works better. Sheers are dry in about an hour and lined drapes in about two.
Fixed-price written quote, no obligation. Tell us the address and what needs cleaning.
