Carpet Cleaning's Average Cost: Jeff Bishop Responds

What’s the Average Cost of Carpet Cleaning?

I am grateful for the generous professionals who offer me their expert advice and information for this blog. Here’s a perfect example: I needed to find the average cost of carpet cleaning per square foot.

Here’s a response sent to me by Jeff Bishop, cleaning industry expert and consultant with Clean Care Seminars, Inc.

“The simple answer is: it depends! Here’s the longer and more complex answer:

Residential Carpet Cleaning Cost

• Carpet cleaning pricing depends on whether we’re talking residential, mainstreet commercial or institutional.

• Carpet cleaning pricing also depends on the geographical area and whether we’re talking rural or metropolitan. 

Specifically, residential carpet cleaning ranges from 25-35 cents per ft2, with variations based on the judgment of the estimator.

Commercial and Institutional Carpet Cleaning Cost:

Commercial and institutional carpet cleaning pricing is based on the residential price with discounts for:

Quantity – obviously, the more we can clean in one trip, the more economical, but the formula is broken down into 500 and 1000 ft2 increments.

Frequency – the more often we clean the carpet, the more familiar we become with it and typically the easier (more economical) it is to clean.

Furniture density – rather clean open carpet than carpet with wall-to-wall furniture.  Productivity is the issue here.

Soiling – is the carpet in an industrial work setting or a bank or office setting?

Other factors – what about daily building maintenance and cleaning?  Is the building well-kept or a pig sty? 

Specifically, considering what DuPont defines as an average commercial building (<10K ft2), pricing generally ranges from 15-20 cents per ft2.

Like I said, it depends.  For sure, however, considering IEQ issues and the replacement option (with ramifications), cleaning doesn’t cost; it pays.”

Well said, Jeff, and thanks for your help!

Bethany