How to price a deep clean (and the first clean of a new regular)

Almost every new customer asks some version of the same question: why does the first clean cost more than the ones after it? If the answer is "it just does," you either lose the job or you drop the price and spend five hours doing work you quoted at three.

A deep clean is not a standard clean that happens to take longer. It is a different list of work. Price it that way, and both the number and the explanation get a lot easier.

Decide what "deep" means before you price it

The biggest pricing mistake with deep cleans is that the word means something different to everyone. To one customer it means the baseboards. To another it means inside the oven, inside the fridge, every cabinet, the blinds, and the grout. If you quote "a deep clean" without saying what is in it, you will find out what the customer meant on the day of the job.

Write down your own definition and use it every time. A simple way to do that is to start from your standard clean and list what you add on top:

• Always in a deep clean: baseboards, door frames and doors, light switches and outlet covers, the tops of cabinets and the fridge, ceiling fans and light fixtures, window sills and tracks, buildup on tile and grout you can reach with normal tools
• Add-ons you price separately: inside the oven, inside the fridge, inside cabinets and drawers, inside windows, blinds slat by slat, walls
• Not included: anything that needs a ladder you don't carry, mold remediation, post-construction dust, biohazards

You can draw those lines wherever you like. What matters is that the lines exist, that they are on the quote, and that your crew is working from the same list.

Estimate the time task by task

Once the scope is written down, the time stops being a guess. Take your standard clean estimate for the property, then add minutes for each extra task, room by room.

Say your standard clean for a particular house is about 3 hours. Walk through what the deep clean adds: baseboards in every room, the door frames, the fans, the sills and tracks, the kitchen cabinet tops, and real time on the shower glass and grout. Put a time on each one. If those add up to another 2 hours, your deep clean is about 5 hours before condition comes into it.

Those numbers are an example, not a benchmark. Use your own times. If you don't know them yet, time your crew on the next few jobs and write it down. A month of real numbers beats any rule of thumb you will find online.

Adjust for condition, honestly

A house that was cleaned professionally six weeks ago and a house that hasn't had a real clean in a year are not the same job, even with the same square footage and the same task list.

Look at it in person if you can, or ask for photos if you can't. Then adjust:

• Light: recently cleaned, little buildup. Your base estimate is probably close.
• Standard: normal wear. Use your base estimate.
• Heavy: real buildup in the kitchen and bathrooms, pet hair everywhere, clutter you have to work around. Add time, often a lot of it.

Be careful with the heavy cases. The kitchen and bathrooms usually carry most of the extra time, because grease and soap scum don't come off faster just because you're in a hurry. If a job looks like it might be far past heavy, it is fine to quote it as hourly with an estimated range, or to say you'll confirm the price after the first hour. That protects you and is more honest with the customer than a flat number you are not sure about.

Turn the hours into a price

Add your base time, your extra tasks, and your condition adjustment. Round up to the increment you bill in, multiply by your hourly rate, and add any fixed charges like travel or supplies.

Two things worth checking before you send it:

• Crew size doesn't change the labor. Two cleaners for 2.5 hours is still 5 hours of labor. Price the labor hours, then decide how many people to send.
• Your rate has to cover the real cost. Your hourly rate should cover wages and payroll costs for the people doing the work, plus your overhead and profit. If a deep clean only looks profitable at a rate you'd never charge, the estimate is telling you something.

If you charge by the square foot instead of by the hour, the same thinking applies. Use a higher rate per square foot for a deep clean than for a standard clean, and work out that rate from the extra time, not from a feeling.

If you want a quick sanity check before you build the full quote, our free cleaning quote calculator sketches a low-to-high range from bedrooms, bathrooms and square feet, with a heavier factor for a deep clean. It is a starting point, not a price to send.

The first clean of a recurring customer

A lot of deep cleans are really the first visit of a customer who wants weekly or every-other-week service. This is where many companies lose money without noticing. They quote the regular price for every visit, then spend the first visit catching up on months of buildup.

Don't hide the catch-up cost inside the regular price, and don't eat it. Quote two numbers:

• The first clean, which includes the deep clean tasks and the condition adjustment
• The regular visit, which is your standard clean for that property at the frequency they chose

Then say why, in one sentence: "The first visit is bigger because we're getting everything to a level we can keep it at. After that, the regular price is what you'll pay." Most customers understand that right away, because it's true. It also makes the regular price look reasonable next to the first one, instead of making them wonder why it went up.

Tie the regular price to the schedule. If a weekly customer drops to monthly, the house won't stay at that level between visits, and the regular price should change with it. Say that on the quote, not in an awkward conversation three months later.

Put it all on the quote

A deep clean quote that holds up should say:

• What is included, task by task or room by room
• What is not included, and what the add-ons cost
• The condition you priced for, so a surprise isn't on you
• For a new recurring customer, the first clean price and the regular price, side by side
• How long the price is good for

When all of that is written down, there is not much left to argue about. And if the job turns out to be different from what you were shown, you have something clear to point to.

Where BlastoClean fits

We built BlastoClean so the first clean and the regular visits live on one quote. On any plan, you can price the first clean of a recurring quote separately by adding a set amount or a percent, and mark tasks like baseboards or inside the cabinets as first visit only. The customer sees both prices on the same quote, and when you book the schedule the first visit uses the first clean price and every visit after it uses the regular price.

If you want to try it on your next deep clean, you can start free here, and we're happy to walk you through setup on a free 30-minute call.

Call or text (585) 200-6753.