How to price a deep clean without guessing
A simple way to price deep cleans by hours, size, and condition, so the number holds up when the job runs long.
Most cleaning businesses price a deep clean by looking at the last one they quoted. That works until a job runs three hours long and the number that felt fine on the phone turns into an afternoon you paid for.
Start from hours, not square feet
Square footage tells you how big a home is, not how long it takes to clean. A 1,400 square foot house cleaned every two weeks is a different job from a 1,400 square foot house nobody has deep cleaned in two years. Estimate the hours first: walk the rooms in your head, count the bathrooms, add time for the kitchen, and be honest about the condition.
Then multiply by your hourly target. If you need $55 an hour per cleaner to cover pay, payroll taxes, supplies, drive time, and profit, a six-hour two-cleaner job is $660, not “about five hundred”.
Charge for condition, not apologies
Build a condition multiplier into the quote, and say it out loud. Owners who skip this end up eating the difference, because it feels awkward to raise the price after seeing the house.
| Condition | What you'll find | Multiplier |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Cleaned in the last month | 1.0x |
| Heavy | Months of build-up, some clutter | 1.3x |
| Neglected | Move-out, post-construction, pets | 1.6x |
If you are consistently under on one service, that service is quietly funding the rest of the business.
Put the number where it can't drift
- Save the assumptions. Store the hours the quote assumed on the client's file, not just the price.
- Compare after the job. Quoted hours against tracked hours is the most useful number you will read all month.
- Review quarterly. Check your ten biggest jobs and adjust the service, not the individual quote.
Final thoughts
Pricing is not a number you find once. It is a loop: estimate the hours, track what actually happened, and close the gap. Owners who run that loop for a quarter stop guessing, and it usually turns out they were undercharging one service the whole time.
