What Is A "deep Clean?"

[Jo Galloway]

Oh I'm sure you do Michelle .... don't you just hate those door fronts with mouldings? I so much prefer those glossy shaker style doors.

 

[Katy Radcliffe]

Jo, the reason I don't want to charge hourly is twofold:

One: I expect jobs to become faster over time, as I get to know the house. While I don't believe in rushing through, I like it if I can leave in 95 minutes and not worry that I'm cheating the client by 25 minutes. When a customer pays by the hour, then they'll expect you to stay in their home for the full time. If you get all the usual stuff done, then they'll expect you to find something else to do. Sometimes that works well, but other times I'm sort of looking around wondering what to do. I wouldn't want a future employee to have to make those sorts of decisions.

Two: I think that customers can get a bit bent out of shape if they think you're "making" £15 an hour. "FIFTEEN POUNDS AN HOUR?? FOR A CLEANER??" They don't take overhead into account, of course. I would rather try and avoid that situation.

But, hourly is easier to calculate and bill, etc.

 

[Jo Galloway]

Thats interesting Katy, thanks.
An hourly rate works well for me at the mo and also my staff member but I'd be interested to see how a different pricing structure works for you in the future.

 

[Katy Radcliffe]

Oh, it is so tempting to just charge an hourly rate. It really is. Because it would be simpler.

I intend to charge based on £12.50 an hour, but maybe as high as £15 an hour. I am also planning to work alongside my husband, so it could be billed as man hours.

 

[Joe Hatton]

Katy
If you take on an employee and let her be the judge of when a job is done then you will soon have an headache.
There is always something to do in a house. Two hours or three hours per week will not clean a whole house. You may thinks so, but you do the job and think you finished, I could come along and find something to do.

If you charge for a job, the client will soon get to know how long you there even if they are not there. Then they will be saying £30 and she is only here for 1.5 hours, thats £20 per hour! You cant win, except by working steadily for the full 2 hours you being paid for.

 

[Katy Radcliffe]

I agree that I can't clean a whole house in 2 or 3 hours, so that's another argument in favour of the hourly model.

What's the answer, then, to a job getting faster and faster over time? Rotating other duties in as "occassional?" I don't think an employee should have to look around and think of what to do. But, how about an agree-upon list of things that can be done once in a while?

I think there are clients who would say that going around with the vaccuum attachment into every corner is a great idea once in a while, and others that would say "Excuse me?? I would expect that to be done every week!"

I have a client where I sometimes move every single nick-nack and dust her many shelves, and sometimes I go around and hoover the ceilings/moldings/light fixtures with a brush, and sometimes I clean the baseboards with a rag and sometimes I scrub the kitchen floor with a stiff brush before mopping. If she wanted all of those things done every week, it would be another couple of hours of work.

 

[Kevin Taylor]

I would say to get a semi pro job on a 1 year old single oven that's never been cleaned about allow 2.5hr for a domestic cleaner
With below average result meaning not all carbon removed

A single oven 2-3 years old that's never been cleaned 4 hrs minimum for domestic cleaner using oven pride bags

And when you go to 3 and 5 years old that's never been cleaned 6-8hr and over night soak with racks if using oven pride bags

Although you could set up the oven to soak and clean other parts of the house , but then have you left plenty of time to complete the oven

A pro cleaner can do a 3-5year old single oven that's never been cleaned between 1hr-1hr 15min

Doubles thats oven+grill 1.5hr 2hr. Times will also depend on make of oven , some are easy others hot point smeg can take longer

Range cookers 2 ovens +grill 3-5 year old never cleaned 3-4 hours with hob like new ( pro )

Range cookers 3-5 year old never been cleaned domestic cleaner 2 days hob will look the same as when you started,

It would be a good idea to get your 1st initial clean by a pro then you could then offer to keep it clean once a week, a simple wipe out would all that is needed

 

[Katy Radcliffe]

I think that doing ovens would only make sense if it's a deep clean and I can use Oven Pride to soak while doing other things. Then, I could come back and spend a couple of hours actually scrubbing the oven. However, that would only work if the oven wasn't too utterly filthy. Otherwise, I think the thing to do is call in a subcontractor to do it with the dip tanks, etc. I don't know if that happens very often or what an oven cleaning company would think of being asked to do that. Would they welcome it?

 

[gareth grace]

Interesting read ....



Our eot cleans are everything internal - excluding oven this is priced separate as this can take time to clean depending on condition . You can go view one and think Its not too bad there empty but when you start the job you see everything so make sure you price well for eot's they can take some time even being empty houses .

Katy

If you work alone i would just do the eot clean leave out the oven and price that separate and go back the next day to do the oven if possible or sub it out while you do the clean they can do the oven .
Or do an oven course they show you how to take doors off different types of ovens and fans if there a fan oven etc.
I use a box like some others do on here with hot water and degreaser for the racks and let it soak while i do the oven.
Its not hard work and they come up like new if you use the right tools . Dip tank would be more ideal but they cost too much for the amount we do at the moment .

 

[Robert Bailey]

We only do deep cleans, and only quote on seeing the job, I won't even give a ball park figure over the phone. Our deep cleans include descaling of toilets, showers and sinks, top to bottom of whole house.hardfloors are washed and carpets vacuumed, if they want those cleaned properly then obviously price goes up. Ovens I always pass on to a pro that I know who is always willing to do it and he can get repeat biz out of it. I just give a price for the whole job. It's always worked for me and I get loads of referrals from our work.