Most homes in Surprise and Avondale, and nearly half in Peoria, were built in 2000 or later. Here is how to care for new finishes, big glass showers and master planned living in the West Valley.
Central Phoenix is full of older houses, but drive west and the picture flips. Census estimates show that about 75 percent of Surprise homes, 59 percent of Avondale homes and 47 percent of Peoria homes were built in 2000 or later. Whole communities went up in a few years, and many are still filling in.
A newer house is not automatically easy to clean. It tends to be larger, with more bathrooms and more glass, and its finishes are new enough that the wrong product can mark them for good. This guide covers what newer West Valley homes need.
Surprise is the clearest case. It grew from about 117,500 residents in 2010 to 143,148 in 2020, about 86 percent of its homes are single family detached houses, and three quarters date from 2000 or later. Sun City Grand alone, a 55 and over community founded in 1996, finished its last homes in 2005.
Peoria followed a similar path to the north, where Vistancia is a master planned community with a 55 and over section and a private gated golf neighborhood. About 74 percent of Peoria homes are detached houses. In Avondale, roughly 59 percent of homes were built in 2000 or later.
Glendale is older on the whole, but Arrowhead Ranch shows the same pattern from an earlier era: a former citrus farm bought for development in 1978, annexed in 1979 and built out by phases, each with its own homeowners association.
Builders usually hand over a home after a construction clean, which removes the worst of it but often leaves fine drywall dust on ledges, inside window tracks and on top of door frames. Desert dust blowing in during the final weeks of work adds to it.
A Moving Clean before the furniture arrives is the simplest way to start fresh. The Moving Clean covers everything in the deep clean plus the inside of the oven, refrigerator and cabinets, which in a new kitchen is where sawdust and packaging bits hide. It does not include construction debris, leftover materials or anything else the builder is responsible for; ask the builder to clear those first.
New homes come with surfaces that look tough but mark easily:
Hard water does not care how old the home is. The City of Phoenix reports hardness of 10 to 17.6 grains per gallon, and the city notes that hard water scales faucets and showerheads. A brand new frameless shower can turn cloudy within months if the glass is never dried.
The easiest time to stop it is at the start. A squeegee after showers and a recurring wipe of glass and fixtures keeps spots from bonding, while scale that is allowed to sit for a year or two can etch the glass permanently. If your home sits outside Phoenix city limits, check your own water provider's report for its numbers.
Master planned communities such as Vistancia, Sun City Grand and the Arrowhead Ranch phases have associations with their own rules, usually covering exterior upkeep, trash bins and parking. Check your association's guidelines for where a cleaning vehicle can park and how trash should be set out after a visit.
Inside, size is what drives cleaning in a newer home. Sun City Grand alone counts 9,550 houses and 252 condos, and across the newer West Valley most homes are detached houses with several bedrooms. A larger home means more bathrooms and more floor, so a Recurring House Clean is priced on a higher row. See what cleaning will cost and the recurring cleaning guide.
The questions Phoenix homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Phoenix and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
