Houses on the hill, and a lot of stairs
Howth isn't flat, and its houses aren't either. Homes on the slopes above the harbour and up towards the Summit are often built over several levels to follow the ground: a flight down to the bedrooms, another up to a living room placed for the view, and landings in between. Older houses near the harbour tend to have one tall staircase rising from a long hall. Either way, there's more stair carpet here than in most parts of Dublin.
That matters, because stairs take longer than rooms. Every tread is cleaned by hand with a small tool, with extra attention on the front edge where wear and grit concentrate, and each landing gets the main wand once the flight above it is finished. We start at the top of the house and work down. Our stair carpet cleaning page covers the method in more depth.
spotless.ieSteps from the road, and where the van goes
Plenty of Howth homes sit above or below the road, reached by garden steps or a steep drive. That's fine. The extractor is carried to the door rather than run on long hoses from the van, and it plugs into an ordinary socket inside. What helps is knowing in advance:
- How many steps there are between the road and your front door
- Where a van can stop to unload, even for ten minutes
- Whether the road is narrow or has double yellow lines outside
- Which floor has the most carpet, so we can plan the order
Around the harbour and the village, parking gets hard on fine weekends when visitors come for the pier and the cliff walk. A weekday booking is easier if you live close to the front.
What the harbour and the cliff path bring home
Grit is the main enemy of a Howth carpet. Sand comes in from the beaches on either side of the hill, mud and fine gravel come back from the cliff path on walking boots, and salty spray leaves a film on doorsteps that gets walked straight onto the hall. Left in the pile, grit cuts at the fibres with every footstep, which is why the hall and the bottom steps wear first.
We vacuum the worst areas thoroughly before any water goes down, so loose sand doesn't turn to paste in the pile. A pre-treatment then breaks down the oily film, and the hot rinse lifts the rest. A good mat outside the door and an absorbent one inside will make the result last much longer.
Send us the stairs, landings and the hall A photo from the bottom of each flight and one from each landing is enough for a fixed price, usually the same day.
Period houses near the harbour
The older houses close to the harbour and the village often have wool or wool-blend carpet, sometimes a runner on painted stairs, and big rooms with high ceilings. Wool cleans well, but it holds more moisture than synthetics and doesn't like heat or strong solutions, so we test a hidden spot first and keep the water under control. Our wool carpet cleaning page explains why.
Big rooms, cool walls and sea air can slow drying. Expect a few hours in normal conditions and longer on a still, damp day. Put the heating on, keep the doors open and only open windows if the air outside is dry. Our guide to carpet drying times has more.
Rugs, sofas and the rest of the house
Many hillside homes mix carpeted bedrooms with timber or tiled living areas and rugs on top. Rugs get a colour-run test before cleaning, and some, such as silk or viscose, are better sent to a specialist; see rug cleaning. A cleaned rug stays off the boards until it's fully dry, because damp trapped underneath can mark the timber.
Sofas and mattresses can be added to the same visit, and it often makes sense in a house where the machine has to be carried up a flight of garden steps anyway. Fabric sofas are checked for a care label and colour-tested first, and mattresses get a hand tool and a pre-treatment on any marks.
If family are coming for the summer or Christmas, book a week or two ahead, so the carpets are dry and the furniture is back in place well before anyone arrives.
Howth, Sutton and the Baily
We cover the whole peninsula: the village and harbour, the Summit, the Baily, and down through Sutton to Bayside. Further along the coast road towards the city, see carpet cleaning in Clontarf. If you're emptying a house before a sale or a move, our Howth house clearance page explains how that works, and carpets are quicker to clean once the rooms are bare.
Tall houses cost a little more than flat ones, because each flight and landing is priced alongside the rooms, rugs and upholstery. Whatever the total, you'll know it before anything is booked. All our work is insured, and Ciprian, who leads the carpet side of Spotless, did his Prochem training in 2018. There's more on the method on our carpet cleaning in Dublin page.
