How Do You Calculate Cleaning Costs?

One of the first questions you will ask yourself when you have decided to hire a professional cleaning business for your home is: 'How much will it cost?' Cleaning prices widely differ due to some factors. Understanding what it takes to determine the cost of a cleaning service will ensure that you set your budget right and run into a proper fit of cleaning business in terms of need and price. Here's an overview of the biggest factors that affect house cleaning prices:

How Do You Calculate Cleaning Costs?

Home Size and Number of Rooms

The cost to clean a house depends potentially upon the size of your home and the number of rooms in it. When contacting a company, most of them ask about your house's square footage and its number of rooms to provide you with a more accurate quote. In simple terms, bigger homes take more time to clean and require more cleaning equipment than smaller homes.

Residential cleaning services will often treat housings as studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom, 3 bedroom, and 4+ bedrooms in terms of pricing. Some charge depending on the number of rooms while others base their billing on total square footage. On average, expect costs like:

  • Studio apartment (500-600 sq ft): $60-90

  • 1 bedroom home (600-1000 sq ft): $80-120

  • 2 bedroom home (1000-1500 sq ft): $100-160

  • 3 bedroom home (1500-2000 sq ft): $140-190

  • 4+ bedroom home (200

Remember, these are ballpark figures. Bottom-line rates depend on your individual home's layout, services to be provided, and your location, which always factors into the local rate local cleaner's charge.

Level of Service

The amount of service you ask for has a substantial impact on your bottom-line rates. Most cleaning services will offer you various levels of service packages and frequency to choose from:

  • Standard cleaning: These tasks include the basics like dusting, wiping surfaces, vacuuming, mopping, and picking up. This all averages out around $100-$200.

  • Deep cleaning: As its name would suggest, it is more in-depth from top to bottom. It reaches areas that are hard to clean; this is recommended for your first time or every few months. It costs $200-$400.

  • Move-in move-out cleaning: When the house is vacant, a very detailed clean is done so that when moving in the home is sparkling inside and out. It could also be done after moving out. The price ranges from $200-$400.

  • Post-construction cleaning: This removes the dirt and grime which builds up, during renovations or building, of homes. The usual cost is from $300 to $600.

  • Recurring cleaning: Will involve visiting home for a cleaning service on a routine basis. Scheduling this cleaning service in most cases weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly should get a discounted rate of $75-$200 per visit.

Now these are all just estimates, to get a more accurate pricing on the kind of cleaning you need, visit https://seattlegreencleaningfairy.com for more information.

Cleaning Products and Supplies

Other cost factors are the cleaning products and equipment. Some cleaning services bring their own supplies, which is very convenient but may drive the price up a tad. Others expect you to provide the necessary products and tools. If you have specific product preferences, such as using cleaners that are friendly to the environment or do not have fragrance, this could also affect the cost.

Specialty equipment may also drive up costs, such as high-powered vacuums, steam cleaning units, and floor buffing/ waxing machines. However, in most cases, the cleaning company can offer the service at a lower price by using their premium equipment compared to buying or renting that equipment from a store.

Location and Cost of Living

Like all services, the price of cleaning houses varies by location. Any cleaning service will be more expensive in areas that are more expensive to live in. To hire a cleaner in New York City or San Francisco will be more expensive than to hire a cleaner in a small country town. Even within the bigger cities, there is generally a price distinction between more affluent neighborhoods and other areas.

Average cleaning rates per city:

  • Seattle, WA: $30-50 per hour

  • Austin, TX: $20-40 per hour

  • Chicago, IL: $25-45 per hour

  • Boston, MA: $35-55 per hour

  • Denver, CO: $25-40 per hour

Other Cleaning Services

Standard cleaning packages offer only the most basic of services, but most cleaning services offer add-on items available at an additional charge. These are typically more labor-intensive or require special supplies. The majority of add-on services:

  • Cost between $20 and $40 each for oven and refrigerator

  • Cost between $30 and $60 per hour for interior cabinet

  • Cost between $40 and $75 per hour for window interiors

  • Cost between $50 and $100 for patios and decks

  • Cost between $75 and $150 for each carpet

  • Cost between $20

Of course, specialty or deep cleaning might be an issue, but feel free to talk about it in the upfront discussion so that it can be otherwise included in a quote for cleaning purposes.

How often you have a professional cleaning done will affect both your per-visit cost and your total cleaning expenses. Deep cleanings on a periodic basis cost more each visit than maintenance cleanings on a regularly scheduled basis. Regular cleanings, on the other hand, will keep your house cleaner and likely reduce the time and cost required for each visit.

When accepting price quotes, ask for various schedule options to best value. Packaged deals for week or month services usually cost much less per visit than a one-shot cleaning. Further, many cleaning services also offer repeat customer and referral discounts.

Cleaning Companies Vs Individual Cleaners

Finally, costs can be different if it is a lone cleaner or small local cleaning company as opposed to a big cleaning company. The smaller ones tend to charge less, charging by the hour. A solo cleaner and small teams might charge about $15-25 per hour. However, more substantial cases of professional firms with bigger overheads have charges of $30-60 per hour.

However, professional cleaning services usually will offer more reliability, insurance, customization, and quality control that is worth a little extra. Professional cleaners can charge more, but there is less legwork and management on your end.

The best approach, really, to calculating your house cleaning cost is just to call a few of these local cleaning services and ask each of them to give you a realistic quote for what your house will cost. The more details you are able to tell them right away, the more accurate their bid will be. While it may take a little bit of research, you really can find an experienced house cleaning professional who will produce the spotless results you want at a price that you can afford.

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