Guide
What is actually in a deep clean
A deep clean reaches what a regular clean never touches: inside appliances, behind and under furniture, limescale, extractor grilles and skirtings. It takes two to three times as long and is normally priced by the job.
The difference from a regular clean
A regular clean maintains a standard. It works on surfaces that are used every week, in the time available, and it deliberately does not move furniture or open appliances, because doing so would use the whole visit.
A deep clean sets the standard that the regular clean then maintains. It goes behind and underneath, opens what is normally shut, and deals with the build-up that accumulates so gradually nobody in the house can see it any more. Most households book one when they move in, after building work, once or twice a year, or before a regular cleaner starts.
Room by room, what gets added
Kitchen. Inside the oven including the door glass and the shelves, the extractor filter, inside and behind the fridge, inside cupboards and drawers, descaling the kettle and the taps, the grout, and the tops of the wall units.
Bathroom. Limescale off the shower screen, head and taps, the grout and the silicone, behind the WC and the cistern pipework, the extractor grille, and the plugholes.
Everywhere else. Skirting boards, door frames, light switches and sockets, radiators including between the fins, window frames and sills, picture rails, and under and behind the furniture that can be moved safely.
What it does not include unless you ask
Three jobs are separate trades with separate equipment, and none of them is normally in a deep clean quote: carpet and upholstery cleaning, which needs an extractor; exterior windows above the ground floor, which needs a pole or a ladder; and oven racks taken away to a dip tank, which some oven specialists do and most general cleaners do not.
Mould is the other one worth naming. Surface mould on silicone or grout will usually clean off. Mould coming back within weeks is a ventilation or a damp problem, and cleaning it is treating the symptom.
How long it takes and what it costs
A deep clean runs two to three times the hours of a regular clean of the same property. A two-bedroom flat is typically five to eight hours and a three-bedroom house eight to twelve, which is why most companies send two people rather than one.
It is nearly always priced by the job rather than by the hour, from about £180 for a small flat to £400 or more for a large house. Ask what happens if it takes longer than quoted, because on a property nobody has seen that is the question the price actually turns on.
Common questions
How often does a house need a deep clean?
Once or twice a year for most households with a regular cleaner in between, and more often where there are pets, smokers or a lot of cooking.
Is a deep clean the same as an end of tenancy clean?
They overlap heavily, but an end of tenancy clean is done to an inventory and on an empty property, and it is judged by a check-out inspection rather than by the householder.
Should I be in the house while it is done?
It is easier if you are not, because rooms have to be worked through without interruption. Most companies are used to a key or a code, and it should be written into what you agree.