Ben Giles, a 49-year-old veteran of the extreme clean from Cardigan, Wales, has spent 25 years tackling the messiest of jobs, from murder scenes to whale blubber. His company, now part of Atlas Group, handles everything from human waste at West End theatres to solidified phlegm in residential properties.
Giles began as a window cleaner in his 20s, earning 50p a pane. A pivotal moment came when a client asked him to clear a vacated property with a bathtub full of excrement. He quoted £2,000, later realising he could have asked for more. This experience led him to launch Ben Giles Cleaning in the late 1990s, later rebranded as Ultima.
Over the years, Giles developed expertise in removing stains from spills, collisions, protests, and more. He learned when to scrape, sand, soak, or fog, becoming a self-taught stain savant. In the 2010s, he and his deputy Mark Baxter established a training academy, which now has about 600 freelance cleaners for rapid deployment.
One recent job involved a person defecating outside the Dominion Theatre in London's West End. The mess was splattered on doors just before a performance of The Devil Wears Prada. Giles's team arrived within an hour and cleaned it up before the queue formed at 6pm.
Now in partial retirement after selling Ultima to Atlas, Giles keeps a herd of Highland cows and an Italian restaurant in Cardigan. He remains a chief consultant and has published an autobiography, offering tips and fixes from a lifetime of cleaning.
