domestic
Deep cleaning and one-off cleans
A deep clean costs £180 to £400 for a typical house and takes two to three times as long as a regular visit, which is why most companies send two people rather than one. It is not a regular clean done harder: it reaches what a weekly visit deliberately never touches, and it sets the standard that the weekly visit then maintains.
What this covers
What it costs. A deep clean costs £180 to £280 for a one-bedroom flat, £220 to £350 for a two-bedroom and £280 to £450 for a three-bedroom house. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Inside the oven, the fridge and every cupboard and drawer
- Limescale off shower screens, taps, tiles and the WC
- Skirtings, door frames, switches, sockets and extractor grilles
- Behind and underneath furniture that can be moved safely
- Window frames, sills and the inside of the glass
What is involved
This page is about buying one. What is actually in a deep clean, room by room, is set out in the guide to what a deep clean includes, and it is worth reading before you ask anybody for a price, because the scope is what the price is made of.
Two people rather than one is the norm, and the reason is the hours. A deep clean is two to three times the hours of a regular visit, and two cleaners working five and a half hours each hold the same standard from the first room to the last. It also means the property is back in use the same day.
The timing that gets the most out of it is before a regular cleaner starts rather than after. The weekly hours then go on maintaining the house instead of catching up with it, and both sides have seen what the property looks like when it is right, which gives both sides the same picture of the standard to keep to.
What the evidence says
Standards and published measurements, cited so they can be checked.
What a disinfectant claim actually promises
A product sold as bactericidal has been tested to reduce a bacterial population by five orders of magnitude, and it has been tested at a stated contact time, commonly five minutes at twenty degrees. The number on the label is earned under those conditions and not others. Spraying a worktop and wiping it dry in fifteen seconds uses the product without the contact time its test assumed, so the surface is cleaned rather than disinfected.
BS EN 1276:2019. Chemical disinfectants and antiseptics. Quantitative suspension test for the evaluation of bactericidal activity in food, industrial, domestic and institutional areas.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask how many cleaners and for how many hours, because that is what you are comparing. One person for six hours is six hours of work; two for five is ten.
Ask what happens if it runs over: who absorbs it on a fixed price, and what the cap is on an hourly one. On a property the company has not yet seen, that is the question the price really turns on.
Ask for the scope room by room and in writing. A deep clean quoted as one line is a number rather than a scope, and the scope is the entire difference between two quotes.
Worth reading first:
Common questions
How many cleaners will come?
Two on most properties. A deep clean is two to three times the hours of a regular visit, and two people working five and a half hours each keep the standard up better than one working eleven.
Can I book it at short notice?
Usually a few days, and longer at the end of the month when tenancies turn over. It is a half or full day of two people's time rather than a slot.