From deep cleaning the carpets to disinfecting under the kitchen appliances, your home occasionally needs a good cleaning.
When that becomes necessary, paying for professional cleaning services can save you time and give you a better result – sometimes restoring old and dinghy furniture and upholstery to like-new.
Deep cleaning means digging into everything to remove layers of dirt, grease, and stains that you wouldn’t touch during a normal clean – and professional tools and cleaning agents can be extremely helpful in achieving the look you want.
The average cost of a deep house cleaning service in the UK is £20 per hour. That can be as low as £15 and as high as £40 depending on your location and the agency. And, that works out to an average of £60-£100 per room – although kitchens and carpets will take up the bulk of that time. So, on average you can expect a deep clean of your entire house to start at around £180 and end at around £500.
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What Is A Deep Clean Service?
A deep clean means taking more time to clean your home, scrubbing, disinfecting, and restoring every surface. That’s especially valuable if you have upholstery (couches, curtains, carpets, rugs), but necessary in kitchens and in bathrooms.
Here, deep cleaning services may involve:
- Shampooing and steaming upholstery
- Cleaning, bleaching and polishing tile
- Cleaning grout
- Disinfecting and cleaning under kitchen appliances
- Removing everything from cupboards and cabinets to clean them
- Cleaning window sills
- Emptying and cleaning the refrigerator
- Cleaning the oven
- Disinfecting the extractor hood
- Cleaning the washing machine and dryer and filters
- Dusting the walls and ceiling
In some cases, a very deep clean may also include services like shampooing and cleaning mattresses – although not all cleaning services will include this.
The biggest difference between a deep clean and a “standard” clean is that a standard clean normally takes 1-4 hours. On the other hand, a deep clean is usually 6-8 hours – or a full day of work for 1-2 cleaners.
House Deep Cleaning Cost Estimates*
The cost of cleaning your home will always depend on how bad it is.
If your home is in relatively good condition and you’d just like it to be spotless, you can expect costs to start at around £200. On the other hand, if you want to deep clean your family member’s home after they’ve been hoarding, costs could be in the thousands.
However, in most normal scenarios, costs look something like this:
| Room | Time | Costs |
| Kitchen | 2-4 hours | £60-£200 |
| Bathroom | 1-3 hours | £15-£150 |
| Water Closet | 1 hour | £15-£50 |
| Living Room | 1-3 hours | £15-£150 |
| Hallway | 20-40 minutes | £10-£30 |
| Bedroom | 20-120 minutes | £10-£100 |
| Basement/Loft | 1-4 hours | £15-£200 |
*Please keep in mind that these costs are based on quotes at the time of writing in May 2023. Actual costs are subject to change and may be different at the time of reading.
It’s also important to keep in mind that costs heavily depend on what kind of cleaning the agency is doing. For example, if they come in expecting a normal clean, costs will be lower than if they expect a lot of mess and grime.
Cleaning After a Party
Here, your cleaner most likely expects that they have superficial cleanup to do. This typically involves waste pickup and removal, shampooing carpets, and tidying up.
You can typically expect standard rates of about £18-£20 per hour or £40 if you’re in London. In addition, you may only need services in some rooms of your home – so expect to pay for 2-4 hours per room the party was held in.
End of Tenancy Cleaning
End of tenancy cleaning is a bit heavier than normal cleaning. Here, you normally want to remove glue, paint, stains, and other issues that could detract from your deposit.
You’ll also want to remove any builders’ waste or leftover trash from the move. For this reason, you can normally expect to pay £20- £30 per hour.
In addition, total costs will normally be about 2 hours per room – although the kitchen may take 4-5 and the rest of the rooms much less time.
Cleaning for Hoarders/Specialty Cleaning
If you want to clean up after hoarding or you want to empty a house, you can expect cleaning to take much more time.
Here, you’ll normally pay £20-£40 per hour plus waste disposal, with an average of £70-£150 per load – unless you can arrange to have goods removed from the house to be sold to or given to a local charity shop.
This means that this kind of cleaning can cost several thousand pounds –with an average of £2,500-£3,500.
Cleaning After an Illness
If you or your loved one have been physically or mentally ill, it can greatly inhibit your ability to clean. This may mean that your home is significantly dirty and difficult to clean.
Your cleaner may offer you either standard rates but set expectations that it take longer or charge higher rates because the work is heavier. For example, if you haven’t cleaned in months and have trash everywhere, it’s very possible that you’ll have two cleaners spending 2+ days on the work.
They may also want to charge £30-£50 per hour to account for the work being harder. This means you could pay as much as £1,500 to deep clean a home in that condition.
6 Deep House Clean Price Factors
The cost of deep cleaning a home can vary quite a bit. Often, those price factors include the condition of the home, what has to be removed, the hourly rate, the number of people and, of course, how much time cleaning takes.
1. Condition of the Home
If your home is generally clean, a deep clean will be relatively affordable. For example, if you want to spring clean and don’t want to take your entire weekend to deep clean your home. A professional cleaner ensures your home is disinfected and clean and that all of the details are taken care of.
On the other hand, if deep cleaning is a remediation measure, as in cleaning that hasn’t been done for a long time, it can take much more time.
For example, cleaning a relatively clean kitchen will take a few hours to do well. If you haven’t cleaned your kitchen and you have grease pooling under the stove and mould under the kitchen appliances, you can expect to add several more hours to the job.
2. Trash Removal
Picking up and removing waste and trash can be considerably time consuming. For example, if you’re cleaning up after a hoarder, a big party, or piles of trash, the first part of the job is coming in to pick that up.
Just removing trash can take several hours depending on how bad the issue is. In addition, it means disposing of that trash, which may not be possible in your local bins.
Finally, if you have heaps of trash or belongings across the room, you don’t know what’s under it. You could move stacks of pizza boxes to discover mould. You could empty a cabinet that hasn’t been touched to discover a cockroach colony.
So, the more piled up clutter and waste there is, the more time cleaning is likely to take.
3. Services Required
Deep cleaning of a home can involve a lot of services. However, they can vary. For example:
- Oven cleaning
- Defrosting and cleaning refrigerator
- Steaming and shampooing carpets and sofa
- Cleaning curtains
- Steaming and shampooing mattresses
- Emptying cabinets and cupboards
- Cleaning closets
- Moving appliances such as stoves and refrigerators
- Picking up and throwing away debris
- Helping you empty a room after someone has moved out or passed away
- Removing stains
- Cleaning grout or bleaching grout
- Cleaning mould or mildew from filters and ventilation in bathrooms
- Decalcifying faucets and shower heads
Essentially, there are a lot of different cleaning services you might need. If you have a tub, you’ll want to have that cleaned and potentially bleached. If you just have a shower, you won’t have to worry about that.
Or, for example, if you live on the ground floor, you can expect you’ll want to include cleaning the outside windows and frames – but if you live in a flat, that won’t be necessary.
4. Time Required
The more time required for cleaning, the more you’ll pay. That’s so true that many cleaners negotiate cleaning by the number of hours.
For example, you pay for 6 hours of cleaning, the cleaners show up and assess what they can do in 6 hours, and then they do that. On the other hand, you might simply pay them to work until the job is done – which can be harder to predict.
5. Location
Your location will directly affect the hourly rate you pay for cleaning services. In London, Wales and most of East England, you can expect rates close to £40-£50 per hour. In most of the country, those rates are £20 or much lower.
However, exact rates also depend on what you’re paying for – as cleaners do charge more when they expect a job to be difficult, disgusting, or require special expertise.
6. Number of Cleaners
You may need more than one cleaner if you intend to have appliances moved, mattresses turned and do other similar work. That means paying double the hourly rate – without doubling the rate of work being finished.
However, if you hire two cleaners, you should definitely finish deep cleaning in one day – unless the house is particularly bad.
What’s Included In A Deep House Clean?
You’ll have to discuss what you want as part of your deep house cleaning to settle on details. Many cleaners will offer a deep house cleaning package. However, you may want additional services.
Therefore, you should always ask and get a list, add to it if you want, and make sure the details are clear before you make a hire.
- Shampooing and steaming upholstery – 30-120 minutes
- Cleaning, bleaching, and polishing tile – 1-2 hours
- Cleaning grout –30-60 minutes
- Disinfecting and cleaning under kitchen appliances – 20-30 minutes
- Removing everything from cupboards and cabinets to clean them – 1+ hours
- Emptying and cleaning the refrigerator – 30-60 minutes
- Cleaning the washing machine and dryer and filters – 20+ minutes
- Dusting the walls and ceiling – 15+ minutes per room
- Oven cleaning – 1-3 hours
- Cleaning curtains – 30-60 minutes
- Steaming and shampooing mattresses – 30-60 minutes
- Cleaning closets – 1+ hours
- Picking up and throwing away debris – 30+ minutes
- Removing stains – 1+ hours
- Cleaning door handles – 15-20 minutes
- Removing mould or mildew – 30+ minutes
- Decalcifying faucets and shower heads – 30+ minutes
- Polishing wood or tile – 20-60 minutes
- Cleaning windows and frames – 20-40 minutes
Of course, actual timelines will also depend a lot on how big your home is and how bad the actual issues are. And, in many cases, your cleaner can set something to soak or clean and go to do something else – which means you don’t use the full extent of time needed to clean something on just that thing.
Cleaner Hiring Checklist
Hiring someone to clean your home means inviting someone into your space. That should mean looking for someone with an agency, experience, and the tools to do the job well.
- Do quotes compare favourably with alternatives.
- What are hourly rates?
- How long does it usually take you to clean a home of this size?
- Are there separate rates for deep cleaning?
- What’s included in deep cleaning?
- Is liability insurance included?
- What about worker’s compensation?
- Who is supplying cleaning products?
- If there’s trash or waste, who is responsible for disposing of it?
- Do your cleaners pass DBS/CRB checks?
- What training do cleaners have?
- Do you have reviews or references I could check?
In most cases, if a cleaner can do work within a reasonable time, offers good quotes, and has good reviews online, it’s a good sign. Here, timelines are also important.
If you’re having a big party and want your home to be spotless for it and then cleaned immediately after (e.g., for a wedding) you need a cleaner that can work with that. On the other hand, if you’re just spring cleaning, it’s easier to work around someone else’s schedule.
What’s Next?
A deep clean of your home can help you with a spring clean, help you restore order after you’ve been unable to clean, or help you to prepare a house for new tenants or owners. Often, it means going through everything and getting the home as clean as possible. This means your cleaners will usually take at least 6 hours on the job. For that reason, the costs of a deep clean average £180 or more.
If you want a deep cleaning of your home, the best first step is to compare quotes from cleaners. Use the form at the top of the page to request quotes, and we’ll help you compare and find the best one.