Cost of Hiring a Professional Cleaner
Last updated 30th November, 2024
There has been a massive upward trajectory in the popularity of professional cleaning services in the UK for a whole host of reasons. The main reasons are largely convenience, time savings, and, ultimately, a much higher quality of cleanliness.
You will usually pay between £15-£25 per hour for a cleaner, but certain factors can change this cost.
Additionally, the service has become much more affordable across the board, which has led more people to utilise the option. In this article, we’ll explore everything you need to know about professional cleaning and, of course, how much it costs to hire a cleaner.
Table of Contents
How Much Does a Cleaner Cost?
The key question everyone has is - how much does a cleaner cost? Well, this all depends on what type of cleaning you require. First of all, let's understand what type of cleaning services are offered.
- Regular Cleaning: This is cleaning that can be booked in as often as you like and covers whatever general cleaning you want to do each week/fortnight. Typically, this will involve vacuuming, cleaning windows and surfaces, and doing anything else that doesn't require more intricate work. This is priced at an hourly rate, somewhere between £15-£25 per hour, depending on the company and location.
- Deep Cleaning: This is for everything missed during regular ongoing cleaning. Think about all the grimy areas of bathrooms and kitchens, skirting boards and under sofas and pretty much anything else hiding in a nook or cranny or hard-to-reach area. Wondering how bad this could be? Run a finger over the top of the nearest bookcase! Again, this is priced at an hourly rate, somewhere between £15-£25 per hour.
- End of Tenancy Cleaning: In order to receive back your tenancy deposit from a rental home, you usually need to hand back the property in very good condition. Landlords are notorious for taking a chunk of the deposit to cover a professional cleaning, and more often than not, you can get a better deal doing this beforehand! This type of clean is similar to a deep clean but with an empty property to ensure it is spotless for handover. This is priced at a fixed rate depending on the size of the property, usually between £100-£300.
- Commercial Cleaning: This is the same as regular cleaning but in a commercial setting. This is priced at the same rate of between £15-£20, but bear in mind that the size of the property to cover is usually much larger.
Benefits of Hiring a Professional Cleaner
Here are some benefits of a professional cleaner:
Convenience and Time Savings
For busy households, especially those households with children and working adults, cleaning the home to a good standard is, and always has been, difficult. Usually, these deep cleaning tasks are reserved for weekends when people would much rather be doing something much more fun. As such, these households have turned to professional cleaners to keep their home clean.
Outsourcing in Commercial Spaces
The majority of UK businesses now opt for outsourced cleaners to keep their offices and facilities clean. Previously, a full-time cleaner may have been employed, which comes with much greater expense and responsibility. Additionally, having specialised cleaning companies on hand becomes very helpful for companies to ensure they have a clear and actionable green cleaning policy for their ESR.
Employment and Economic Growth
By hiring and utilising professional cleaning services, you are helping a growing industry continue to grow and contribute to the economy. Since 2013, there has been a 21% increase in turnover for the cleaning services industry, and this number continues to increase.
The pandemic that the world faced only a few years ago raised awareness about the importance of cleanliness and hygiene. This has, in turn, led many businesses and people to prioritise this more frequently to ensure safe environments. As a result, cleaning companies have been much more in demand to help achieve this increased level of cleanliness.
Cost Considerations
There are a few things that can impact the price of professional cleaning services.
Firstly, the location of your home can impact the price of professional cleaning services. If you live in a rural area, there may be travel incorporated into the price, and large urban areas may have quite a lot of demand, which could drive prices up slightly.
Next, the size and condition of the space can impact the price. If there is a lot of ground to cover, you will need the cleaner for longer, and if there is a lot of clutter, it will take the cleaner longer to finish the job.
Lastly, the frequency of the service will affect the price, although some cleaning companies may offer deals for cleaning booked in bulk and guaranteed over a period of time.
Cleaner Prices
This table below breakdown the cost of cleaner prices:
| Type of Clean | Low Range | High Range | Average Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agency (per hour) | £15 | £25 | £20 |
| Independent (per hour) | £10 | £20 | £15 |
| Weekly Clean (3 hours per week) | £45 | ||
| End of Tenancy Clean | £79 | £199 | £139 |
| Clean a 3-bedroom house (1 session per week) | £30 | £50 | £40 |
| Clean a 4-bedroom house (1 session per week) | £40 | £60 | £50 |
| Clean a bungalow (1 session per week) | £25 | £40 | £32.50 |
| Clean a flat (1 session per week) | £20 | £30 | £25 |
Additional Costs
There are very few additional costs that could crop up with a professional cleaning service. The cleaners you employ will provide their own specialist equipment, cleaning equipment and chemicals, should they be required.
If you live quite far away from the company you employ, maybe in a rural area away from towns and cities, you may incur some additional travel expenses, but these will always be discussed upfront.
There may be some occasions when you want your regular service changed. For example, you may periodically want your carpets steam cleaned, maybe every 3 months. This will be in addition to the fee you pay, and again, the company you employ will provide you with a detailed price list for all of the additional options available to you.
Lastly, and this is completely optional, some customers like to leave a small tip to a regular cleaner around Christmas time. But this isn’t expected and is purely an optional tip.
Cost Breakdown Calculator
The total cost for cleaning a a 3-bedroom home per month: £220
Labour
£200
Travel
£20
Additional costs
£0
Labour Costs and Time Frames
Cleaning services are essentially entirely labour-cost-based as there are no materials to budget for. However, there are still some interesting differences between services and levels of service.
Firstly, independent cleaning services and agency cleaning services differ in price slightly. Agencies have a bank of cleaners in employment, meaning they usually have better availability, particularly for late notice cleans or additional requirements.
The reason this is more expensive by a small margin is due to the admin team that drives the bank of cleaners, such as reception staff, schedulers, financial teams and others, not to mention marketing campaigns and other similar expenses.
Now, independent cleaning services are often cheaper because they have such a smaller team with fewer overheads and outgoings. While you may struggle with any late notice bookings, you will get a cheaper and more personal service from the same person each and every time.
When you book a cleaning service, they will be very clear about what is included in the price they provide at the quotation stage. It is at this stage that you can outline the regular jobs that you want to complete, and they will work out the likely time that this would take.
They may require a rough size of the home and rooms and may even do this in person to provide the most accurate price. Of course, at this stage, the price can change as you agree with the cleaning company on what jobs you want to complete each week.
DIY vs Professional Cleaning
Of course, you can always opt to clean your home yourself and save yourself some money each week. However, many people find that the price they pay is more than worth it for the time and effort they save.
It’s very similar to washing a car. It’s incredibly possible to do this yourself, yet so many people choose to instead pay £10 for a car wash by someone else, and almost always, they receive a better result than they would have if they had chosen to do it themselves.
On this point, the level of cleaning that professional cleaners can achieve far exceeds that of non-professionals. Not only do they possess the skills to clean more extensively, but they also do it much quicker and more efficiently.
In some scenarios, cleaning your home DIY is just not tenable. For example, if you are moving house, you have so many jobs to complete, from packing, unpacking, decorating, contracts and much more, all while juggling work and maybe children and animals. Extensive cleaning of a home you are leaving, or even one you are moving into, is just out of the question.
Ultimately, it is a very small price to pay to save a lot of time and effort while also receiving a much higher level of cleanliness.
Compliance and Regulations
You may be surprised to find out that in the UK, professional cleaners are subject to quite a few regulations and certification requirements in order to achieve a high standard of service and safety.
While not a legal requirement to possess certain qualifications, several best practices and industry standards are adopted by professional companies and often laid out by organisations like the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc), the Cleaning & Support Services Association (CSSA), and the British Cleaners Association (BCA).
Here are some of the key regulations and certifications that apply:
- Health & Safety: Professional cleaning businesses in the UK must adhere to the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) regulations. This regulation requires cleaning companies to control risks associated with any of the chemicals that they may use. The purpose of this is to ensure the safe handling, storage, and disposal of chemicals.
- Insurance Requirements: Professional cleaning businesses must have public liability insurance to cover any potential third-party claims and employer’s liability insurance if they employ staff. Essentially, these insurances protect against claims of property damage or injury and are essential for avoiding financial risks for both the customer and the business or person providing services.
- Industry Certifications: Now, this one isn’t mandatory. However, certifications from BICSc or membership with CSSA or BCA can enhance a company’s credibility, so you may find that many advertise that they possess them. BICSc offers a “Cleaning Professionals Skills Suite,” which outlines competency standards for cleaning tasks, and CSSA membership, which requires adherence to a code of practice. It also offers resources to support industry best practices.
FAQs
Include a section with frequently asked questions, such as:
If you have a larger home, some people tend to have different rooms cleaned on different days to break it up slightly. Especially if they regularly have people around on the weekends for dinner parties or socialising. It really is up to the customer in this regard, and you can speak to a cleaning company to find out how much time your home would likely need, what the availability for the cleaners is like and how much they charge. From here, you can work out what you need and what you can afford.
However, one-off services are always available, especially for things like deep cleans, end-of-tenancy cleans and commercial cleaning. Ultimately, cleaners are always happy to have your business and will work to whatever your requirements are, both for the cleans themselves and for times that you need them.
Finding and Hiring a Cleaner
Finding and hiring a cleaner is probably the most important aspect of the journey. You need to make sure that you pick someone that you get a good feeling with, has great references, and you are comfortable having in your home.
Nowadays, it's really easy to find a cleaning company to service your home due to the massive amount of resources available online. Firstly, you can use websites like Trustpilot and Yell, amongst others, that will provide you with companies that service your area along with helpful customer reviews, ratings, and services offered, and you can filter the results based on a number of things.
As mentioned earlier, keep an eye out for professional affiliations such as BICSc or the CSSA. Memberships with these organisations often mean that the company or individual adheres to specific standards and codes that will assure quality.
There are many helpful apps and websites like Helpling and Housekeep that will make it easy to book vetted cleaners for residential services - you can even fill in a short form for a more accurate quote. For commercial cleaning, there are similar websites that can be found on search engines that provide the same resources.
Word of mouth can never be underestimated when it comes to finding services for your home. Personal recommendations are unbiased, and you can make them directly through social media platforms like Facebook.
An important thing to note is to get more than one quote. Don’t just settle for the first price you receive, as you may find that another cleaner suits your needs better or can offer a better price based on your area and requirements. It won’t take long to get 4-5 quotes using the tips above, so make sure you’re not paying more than you need to.
Sources
https://uk.indeed.com/career/cleaner/salaries
https://nationalcareers.service.gov.uk/job-profiles/cleaner
