House Cleaning Pricing Calculator
Quoting by the square foot is quick and quoting by the hour is honest. Either way the drive between jobs and the supplies have to be in the number, or the busy weeks are the unprofitable ones.
House cleaners pricing calculator
Recommended selling price
$0.00
per unit, before sales tax
Where the price goes
- Costs $0.00 0%
- Fees $0.00 0%
- Profit $0.00 0%
| Line | Per unit | Order total |
|---|---|---|
| Materials / product | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Labor | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Other costs | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Overhead | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Total cost | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Payment processing fee | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Profit | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Base selling price | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Sales tax | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Customer pays | $0.00 | $0.00 |
- Profit margin0%
- Markup on cost0%
- Cost per unit$0.00
- Quantity1
Show the math
Results are estimates based on the information you enter. Actual taxes, fees, and business expenses may vary.
How to price a cleaning job
Square footage is a shortcut, not a price
Per-square-foot quoting is fast and it is how most of the market talks, but a 2,000 square foot house with two occupants and a 2,000 square foot house with three children and two dogs are not the same job. Use square footage to estimate the hours, then price the hours. Ask about pets, occupants, the number of bathrooms and when it was last cleaned properly — those four questions predict the time better than the floor area does. Quote the client a flat price if they prefer one; just make sure it came from an hours estimate rather than a rate card.
Drive time is unpaid labour unless you price it in
A three-hour clean with forty minutes of driving either side is a four-hour-plus commitment, and a schedule built from tight clusters is worth considerably more per day than one spread across a county. Put the mileage in as a job cost and consider whether the drive time belongs in your hours too. The practical version for most cleaners: set a minimum job value that makes a trip worthwhile, and price jobs outside your normal radius higher. Businesses that never do this end up busiest in the months they earn least.
The first clean is not the same job as the recurring one
A deep or initial clean on a house that has been neglected can take twice the hours of the fortnightly visit that follows, and quoting it at the recurring rate is the fastest way to lose money on a new client. Price the first clean separately and say so up front: an initial clean at an hourly rate or a fixed higher price, then the recurring schedule at the ongoing rate. Clients accept this readily when it is explained at the quote stage and resent it enormously when it appears on the first invoice.
Overhead is what makes the difference between a job and a business
Insurance, bonding, a vehicle, equipment replacement, laundry, advertising, a booking system, fuel for the machine as well as the van. Spread across the jobs you complete in a month, this is a real per-job number and it is the one solo cleaners most often treat as zero. A cleaner charging what feels like a good hourly rate, with no overhead in the price, is effectively funding the business out of their own wage — which works until the vacuum dies.
The formula behind the calculator, including why the margin is divided rather than multiplied, is written out step by step on the pricing calculator.
What house cleaning businesses have to price in
Cleaning has thin margins and high frequency, so a cost missed on one job is a cost missed several hundred times a year. Every item here belongs in the calculator.
- On-site hours at a real rate
- What you would have to pay someone to do this job, even if the someone is you.
- Drive time between jobs
- Either as hours or built into a minimum job value. It is time you cannot sell to anyone else.
- Mileage and fuel
- At the standard rate or actual cost. A day of scattered jobs costs meaningfully more than a clustered one.
- Cleaning products and consumables
- Chemicals, cloths, sponges, bin liners, gloves. Per-job cost, and higher on a first clean.
- Equipment replacement
- Vacuums, mops, steamers and machines wear out. Spread the replacement cost across the jobs they will do.
- Laundry
- Washing cloths and microfibre between jobs. Small per job and substantial per year.
- Liability insurance and bonding
- Non-negotiable for working in other people’s homes, and a genuine monthly overhead.
- Booking and payment systems
- Scheduling software, a card reader, per-transaction processing fees, reminder messaging.
- Advertising and lead generation
- Directory listings, local advertising, referral incentives and the site people find you on.
- Key handling and access
- Lockboxes, key cutting, and the admin of holding client keys safely.
- Sick and holiday cover
- If you take no paid leave, the margin is what funds your time off. Price it in or you never take any.
- Cancellations and no-access
- A slot lost at short notice is an unrecoverable cost. A cancellation policy and a margin that anticipates some loss both help.
A cost you leave out does not disappear — it comes out of your profit instead. Put every one of these into the calculator above, even the ones that feel too small to bother with.
A worked example: a recurring three-bedroom clean
A fortnightly clean on a three-bedroom house, three and a half hours on site, with supplies, the drive and a per-job share of running the business. Quoted to the client as a single flat price, built from the hours rather than the floor area.
| Hours on site | 3.5 | Time actually in the house. Drive time is priced separately below. |
|---|---|---|
| Labour rate | $38.00 | What the hour costs the business, whether you do it or you pay someone. |
| Products and consumables | $14.00 | Chemicals, cloths, liners and consumables used on this job. |
| Travel | $12.00 | Mileage and drive time either side of the visit. |
| Overhead share | $45.00 | Insurance, equipment replacement, laundry, advertising and booking software, per job. |
| Target margin | 25% | What is left after everything above, including your own paid hours. |
| Card processing | 2.9% | Card payment. A bank transfer removes this line. |
| Materials | $14.00 | What the physical inputs cost you. |
|---|---|---|
| Labor | $133.00 | Hours on the job at your own rate. Charge for it or fund it yourself. |
| Other job costs | $12.00 | Travel, consumables, subcontractors, anything bought for this job alone. |
| Overhead | $45.00 | The share of running the business that this job has to carry. |
| Total cost | $204.00 | What the job costs you before you have made a penny. |
| Payment processing | $8.21 | Taken off the top by the processor, so the price has to cover it. |
| Profit | $70.73 | What is actually left, at the margin you asked for. |
- Price per unit $282.94
- What the customer pays $282.94
- Profit margin 25%
- Equivalent markup 34.67%
The labour alone is $133, but the job really costs $204 once products, travel and a share of the overhead are counted — and the price lands at $282.94. A cleaner quoting $133 because that is what the hours are worth is giving away the $45 of overhead and the $70.73 of profit on every single visit, which across a fortnightly client is a substantial sum over a year.
Run your own figures through the calculator above — the numbers here are an illustration, not a benchmark, and local rates vary enormously.
House cleaners pricing questions
Should I charge by the hour or by the job?
Quote by the job and cost by the hour. Clients strongly prefer knowing what a clean costs, and a flat price stops you being penalised for working efficiently. What makes flat pricing dangerous is guessing the hours, so estimate them from the things that actually drive time — occupants, pets, bathrooms, and when it was last done properly — then cost those hours, add supplies, travel and overhead, and apply your margin. Keep an hourly rate for one-off extras such as ovens, windows and inside cupboards.
How do I price a deep clean versus a regular clean?
As two different jobs, and say so at the quote. A first or deep clean on a neglected house can take twice the hours of the recurring visit, because you are catching up on months of work rather than maintaining a standard. Price the initial clean at an hourly rate or a fixed higher figure, then quote the ongoing schedule separately. Clients accept this without complaint when it is explained up front; the same conversation after the first invoice damages the relationship, and it is a very common reason new cleaning clients do not continue.
What should I do about cancellations?
Two things. Write a policy — typically twenty-four or forty-eight hours notice, with a charge for later cancellations and for no-access — and state it when the client books rather than when it happens. Then accept that some loss is inevitable and let your margin absorb it. A slot lost at short notice usually cannot be refilled, so it is a complete loss of a day’s earnings for that hour, not just the profit on it. A business running at a 10% margin has no capacity to absorb that; one at 25% does.
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