House cleaning is usually priced by the hour of crew time, by home size and room count, or a flat price per visit. Whichever way you quote, check it against the real cost of the job. If you are weighing a flat price against an hourly rate, our guide to flat rate vs hourly pricing walks through when each one works.
House cleaning price table by home size
The table below prices a standard recurring clean for six home sizes. Every row uses the same method, so you can redo it with your own costs. These are illustrative numbers, not a price list. Your pay rates, your area and your service list will change them.
The hours come from minutes per room, added up and rounded to the nearest quarter hour. This guide uses these starting times for a home that is kept up: kitchen 45 minutes, full bathroom 30, half bathroom 15, bedroom 20, living or family room 25, dining room 10, and halls, stairs and entry 10 to 30. Time your own team on a few homes and swap in your numbers.
Every row uses $26 as the full cost of one cleaner-hour (wage plus payroll taxes, insurance and workers' comp), half an hour of drive time per cleaner, $15 for vehicle and fuel, and a 45% margin.
| Home (illustrative size) | Cleaning time | How the job costs add up | Job costs | Price at 45% margin | Per sq ft |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 bed, 1 bath, 700 sq ft | 2.25 h, 1 cleaner | (2.25 h + 0.5 h drive) × $26 + $8 supplies + $15 vehicle | $95 | $172 | $0.25 |
| 2 bed, 1 bath, 1,000 sq ft | 2.5 h, 1 cleaner | (2.5 h + 0.5 h drive) × $26 + $10 supplies + $15 vehicle | $103 | $187 | $0.19 |
| 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,600 sq ft | 3.5 h, team of 2 | (3.5 h + 1 h drive for two) × $26 + $12 supplies + $15 vehicle | $144 | $262 | $0.16 |
| 3 bed, 2.5 bath, 2,000 sq ft | 4.25 h, team of 2 | (4.25 h + 1 h drive for two) × $26 + $14 supplies + $15 vehicle | $166 | $301 | $0.15 |
| 4 bed, 3 bath, 2,800 sq ft | 5 h, team of 2 | (5 h + 1 h drive for two) × $26 + $16 supplies + $15 vehicle | $187 | $340 | $0.12 |
| 5 bed, 3.5 bath, 3,800 sq ft | 6 h, team of 2 | (6 h + 1 h drive for two) × $26 + $18 supplies + $15 vehicle | $215 | $391 | $0.10 |
Cleaning time is total cleaner-hours on site. A team of two cuts the clock time in half, but not the paid hours. To get the price, divide the job costs by 0.55 (one minus the 45% margin). Overhead, like the office, ads, software and your own pay, comes out of what is left.
Dividing by 0.55 is not the same as adding 45% on top. Adding 45% to $144 gives $209, which is only a 31% margin. Our guide to profit margin vs markup explains the difference in plain terms.
Two things stand out. Bathrooms move the price more than bedrooms, because they are the slow rooms. And the price per square foot drops as homes get bigger, because the drive and setup are the same no matter the size.
Adjust the time for first, recurring and deep cleans
The table above is for a home you clean every week. Most homes are not that. Instead of guessing a new price, multiply the cleaning time by a factor for the type of visit, then price the new hours the same way. The factors below are starting guesses for this guide, not rules. Replace them with real times from your own jobs as soon as you have them.
| Type of visit | Time factor | 3 bed, 2 bath cleaning time | Job costs | Price at 45% margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly recurring | × 1.0 | 3.5 h | $144 | $262 |
| Every two weeks | × 1.15 | 4 h | $157 | $285 |
| Every four weeks | × 1.35 | 4.75 h | $178 | $323 |
| One-time clean, home in fair shape | × 1.5 | 5.25 h | $192 | $348 |
| First clean or deep clean | × 1.75 | 6 h | $212 | $385 |
| Move-out clean, empty home | × 2.0 | 7 h | $238 | $433 |
Each row keeps 1 hour of drive time for the team of two and $15 for the vehicle. Supplies rise from $12 to $15 for the longer cleans. Notice that a deep clean takes 1.75 times as long but costs only about 1.5 times as much. The drive and the vehicle do not grow with the job. That is why a flat "double it for a deep clean" rule is wrong in both directions: too high on some homes, too low on others. For empty homes at the end of a lease, see how much to charge for move-out cleaning.
How much to charge for house cleaning per hour
Start with the floor. If one cleaner-hour costs you $26 in full, and you want a 45% margin, that hour must bring in at least $26 ÷ 0.55 = $47.27. That covers labor only. It does not cover supplies, the vehicle, or the drive between homes.
Drive time is the part that catches owners out. Cleaners are paid while they drive, but customers only see time spent in their home. In the table above, the 3 bed, 2 bath home brings in $262 for 3.5 cleaner-hours on site. That is about $75 per cleaner-hour in the home, or about $58 per paid hour once the drive is counted. Both numbers come from the same price.
So if you quote by the hour, quote a rate per cleaner-hour on site that is well above your labor floor. Then set a minimum visit, such as three cleaner-hours, so short jobs still pay for the drive. A two-person team billed by the hour should be quoted per cleaner, not per team. Write it as "$X per cleaner per hour" so the customer is not surprised when two people show up. To work out your own full hourly cost, use the labor burden calculator.
How much to charge per square foot for cleaning
A rate per square foot is quick to quote, and customers understand it. But it is a shortcut, not a method. In the table above, the same cost math gives $0.25 per square foot for a small condo and $0.10 for a large house. A single rate would overcharge one and lose money on the other.
Use square feet as a cross-check, not the price. Work out the price from the rooms and the time. Then divide by the square feet and compare it with the rate you usually see. If the two numbers are far apart, ask why. It is often the bathroom count, pets, or how long since the last clean. Set a minimum price per visit too, so small homes still cover the drive.
Price the time first, then check the home size
Square footage is a handy first guess. But two homes of the same size can take very different time. What really sets the hours is the number of bathrooms, the state of the kitchen, the flooring, the clutter and the pets.
Bathrooms and kitchens are the slow rooms. Bedrooms and halls are quick. Estimate cleaner-minutes by room type and add them up. Add the drive time for each cleaner. Multiply those cleaner-hours by the full cost of one cleaner-hour, then add supplies and the vehicle. That is your job cost. Divide it by one minus your margin to get the price.
Ask a few plain questions before you quote: how many bathrooms, any pets, when it was last cleaned, and whether the floors are hard or carpet.
Recurring, one-time and deep clean are three different jobs
- Recurring. The home is kept up, so each visit gets faster once the first few are done. A lower price per visit can work. But a monthly client lets dirt build up, so their visit takes longer than a weekly client's. Price the gap between visits, not just the home.
- One-time. There are no future visits to make up for a low price. The price must cover the job on its own, plus the effort of booking, travelling and invoicing for one visit.
- Deep clean. Baseboards, inside appliances, grout, vents, blinds and cabinets. This is slow, detailed work. Estimate it by the hour with a longer time, never as a normal clean with a small markup.
Move-out and pre-sale cleans belong with deep cleans. They have a deadline and a higher standard.
How much to charge for a deep clean
A deep clean is a standard clean plus a list of detail tasks. Price it the same way: estimate the extra minutes, add them to the standard time, and price the new total. Write the list down and show it to the customer, so they know what the higher price buys.
Here are illustrative extra times for a 3 bed, 2 bath home, on top of its 3.5 hours of standard cleaning:
| Deep-clean task | Extra cleaner-minutes |
|---|---|
| Baseboards through the whole home | 30 |
| Inside the oven | 30 |
| Inside the fridge | 20 |
| Cabinet fronts and handles | 20 |
| Blinds and window sills | 20 |
| Grout, shower glass and tub detail in two bathrooms | 20 |
| Vents, light fixtures, switches and door frames | 10 |
| Total extra time | 150 minutes (2.5 hours) |
That turns 3.5 cleaner-hours into 6, which is the worked example further down this page: $212 in job costs and a $385 price at a 45% margin. Notice the extra 2.5 hours of work added $123 to the price, not a fixed percentage.
A few rules keep deep cleans profitable:
- Ask about the last clean. A home that has not been cleaned in a year can take far longer than the list above. Ask for photos of the kitchen and bathrooms before you quote.
- Quote a range or a time cap for unknown homes. For example, "up to 7 cleaner-hours; extra time billed at $X per cleaner-hour, and we will call you first."
- Split the inside-appliance tasks out as add-ons if customers often do not want them. That keeps your base deep-clean price easy to compare.
- Use the deep clean as the first visit for new recurring customers. It resets the home, so your recurring times are real from visit two.
Price the first visit differently
The first clean is almost always the slowest. You are learning the layout, finding where the supplies are and fixing months of buildup. If you quote it at the recurring price, you lose money on day one and often for a few visits after.
You have three sensible options:
- Charge the first visit as a deep clean, then drop to the recurring price.
- Add a first-visit fee on top of the recurring price.
- Quote a higher price for the first two or three visits and tell the customer why.
After the first few visits, check the real time and reset the recurring price from it. Do not keep an early guess for a year.
Add-ons, pets and the extras people forget
Extras are where free work sneaks in. Decide what is included, and put the rest on a short list of add-ons with their own time and price.
- Inside the oven, fridge or microwave
- Inside windows, blinds and tracks
- Laundry, dishes and bed changes
- Heavy pet hair or litter areas
- Cleaning supplies and vacuums if you bring your own
Count your supplies too. Cloths, chemicals, vacuum bags and equipment wear are small per visit and large over a year.
Pricing house cleaning when you run teams
A solo cleaner prices one person's time. A cleaning company with teams has more moving parts. The method stays the same, but these costs grow quickly.
- Two-person teams double the drive. Half an hour between homes is one paid hour for a team of two. Group your homes by area, and add a trip charge or a higher minimum for homes outside your usual routes.
- Use a blended hourly cost. If a team lead earns more than a helper, average the full cost of both. Price every cleaner-hour at that blended number, not at the lower wage.
- Price supplies per clean. Teams carry kits, and kits run out. Add up a month of supply spending, divide by the number of cleans, and put that amount on every job.
- Count the time no customer pays for. Loading kits in the morning, a team meeting, a re-clean when a customer complains. Either add a few minutes to every job or raise your full hourly cost to cover it.
- Watch the clock time, not just the cost. A team of two finishing in 1.75 hours can fit three or four homes in a day. A schedule with gaps between homes means paid hours with nothing to bill.
In CrewBrain, cleaners clock in and out from the crew app, hours are tracked by job, and the totals roll into payroll. That way you can compare real cleaning time with the time you quoted, home by home.
What profit margin does a cleaning business need?
The margin in this guide is what is left after job costs: cleaner time, supplies and the vehicle. It is not your profit. Rent, the office, booking staff, ads, software, insurance not already in your hourly cost, and your own pay all come out of it. So the margin you need depends on your overhead, not on what other companies charge.
Here is a simple way to find your number. Add up a year of overhead and the profit you want to keep. Divide it by the sales you expect for the year. That is the smallest margin that works.
| Illustrative company | Overhead for the year | Profit goal | Expected sales | Margin needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owner cleaning with one helper, no office | $25,000 | $15,000 | $140,000 | 29% |
| Three two-person teams, office manager, paid ads | $170,000 | $50,000 | $520,000 | 42% |
In the first row, the owner's pay is part of the hourly cost, because the owner is cleaning. In the second, the owner runs the business, so their pay sits in overhead along with the office manager. That is why team size usually pushes the margin you need up, not down. More teams bring more sales, but they also bring someone to book, schedule, train and handle complaints. If you grow from one team to three and keep a solo cleaner's prices, you may get busier and earn less.
For more on picking your target, read what is a good profit margin for a service business. To set prices for every service at once, see the cleaning business price list.
Mistakes that quietly cost you money
- Quoting by square foot with no questions. You price the average home, not the one in front of you.
- Discounting a recurring plan before you know the home. Give the discount after the first visits show the real time.
- Not paying for drive time in the price. Cleaners are paid between homes, so travel is a cost.
- Letting free extras creep in. "Can you just do the oven?" becomes a habit unless it has a price.
- Using the wage as your hourly cost. Payroll taxes, insurance, workers' comp and bonding (cover that pays a customer back if something goes missing) belong in the number.
- Never raising prices for long-term clients. Costs go up every year, and the old price stays the same.
When to say no or raise the price
- Extreme clutter or hoarding. The home needs tidying or clearing first. Decline or price it as a separate job.
- Mould, biohazards or pest problems. These need specialists and proper protection. Do not take them on as normal cleaning.
- A weekly price for a monthly visit. Dirt builds up between visits. Raise the price to match the gap.
- A deep-clean standard at a regular-clean price. Quote the real task or set expectations in writing.
- Homes far outside your route. Add a travel fee or set a higher minimum.
Review recurring prices each year. A small, planned increase is easier to explain than a big one later.
Test the price against your real cost
For each home type, write down the real paid hours from the first three visits, for every cleaner, including the drive. Multiply by the full cost of one cleaner-hour. Add supplies and the vehicle. Divide by one minus your target margin. If your price is below that number, you are paying part of the customer's bill yourself.
CrewBrain tracks the real cost of each job so you can see which jobs earn their price.
A worked example: a three-bedroom home getting a first deep clean
| Item | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | 2 people × 3.5 hours (including drive time) × $26 per hour | $182 |
| Materials | Supplies used on the job | $15 |
| Vehicle and fuel | Truck time and fuel for this job | $15 |
| Job costs | $212 | |
| Price at a 45% margin | $212 ÷ 0.55 | $385 |
| Left after job costs | $385 − $212 | $173 |
Where the price goes in this example
Every dollar of the price, split into the costs it covers and what is left over.
- Labor $182 (47%)
- Materials $15 (4%)
- Vehicle and fuel $15 (4%)
- Left after job costs $173 (45%)
The whole bar is the price the customer pays: $385. Illustrative numbers, built from the table above.
Hourly cost per person is the full cost of an hour, including payroll taxes and insurance, and the supplies line covers products, cloths and equipment wear for the visit. These numbers are an illustrative example of the method. They are not a price list, and not a promise of what your jobs will earn.
Try it with your own numbers
Job costs means crew time (with drive time), materials, vehicle and fuel. Hourly cost per person is the full cost of an hour, including payroll taxes and insurance, not just the wage. This is a simple calculator, not a quote.
Built for house cleaning: the house cleaning price calculator works from home size, bathrooms, extras (inside oven, fridge, cabinets), with example speeds you can change to your crew’s.
Keep going
- Office cleaning: how much to charge for a contract that pays
- CrewBrain for house cleaning companies: how the software handles quoting, scheduling and crew time for this trade.
- How to price a service job: the five-step method behind every page in this series.
- Job price calculator: the same calculator as above, on its own page.
- Price increase calculator: see how many customers you can lose before a raise stops paying.
- How to price carpet cleaning jobs
- How to price landscaping jobs
- How to price painting jobs
- What is a good profit margin for a service business?
- How to estimate labor hours for a job
- How to quote a job professionally
- All pricing guides by trade
Questions owners ask
How much should I charge to clean a house?
Estimate the cleaner-hours the home will take, including drive time. Multiply by the full cost of one cleaner-hour, add supplies and vehicle costs, then divide by one minus your target margin. Use square footage only as a quick cross-check.
How much should I charge to clean a 3 bedroom house?
Count the bathrooms first, because they take the most time. In this guide's illustrative example, a kept-up 3 bed, 2 bath home takes 3.5 cleaner-hours and prices at $262 for a weekly clean. The same home as a first or deep clean takes about 6 hours and prices at $385. Redo the math with your own costs.
How much should I charge per hour for house cleaning?
At least the full cost of one cleaner-hour divided by one minus your margin. That only covers labor, so your rate per cleaner-hour on site must sit well above it to pay for drive time, supplies and the vehicle. Quote it per cleaner, not per team, and set a minimum visit.
Should I charge more for the first house cleaning visit?
Yes, usually. The first visit is slower because of buildup and learning the home. Charge it as a deep clean or add a first-visit fee, then reset the recurring price from real times.
How much should a deep clean cost compared with a regular clean?
Do not use a fixed multiple of the price. Estimate the extra tasks, such as baseboards, appliances and grout, in minutes. Price the longer total job at the same hourly cost and margin. Because drive time and the vehicle do not grow, a deep clean that takes 1.75 times as long may cost only about 1.5 times as much.
Should recurring house cleaning be cheaper than a one-time clean?
It can be, because later visits are faster and you keep steady work. Only discount after you know the real time for that home, and keep the discount smaller for less frequent visits.