How Much Does It Cost to Clean Carpet (+ What Works Best for Your Carpet)
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Your carpet already appears to be begging for mercy, but you don’t have time to do the cleaning?
If you’re a busy bee just like me, you either just want to savor every moment of reprieve from your hectic schedule or work more for the money than get your hands dirty.
So, how much does a carpet cost to clean by service companies?
The cost ranges from $60 to $550 flat rate, $0.10 to $0.40 per square meter, or $20 to $50 per hour.
The exact figures will still depend on several factors like the current state of your carpet versus your desired result, type of carpet, facility layout, obstacles when cleaning, whether residential or commercial, your location, etc.
In this article, I’ll be presenting how much to clean a carpet (plus what it depends on).
Average Cost of Carpet Cleaning
Table of Contents
Residential Cleaning
The cost of carpet cleaning ranges from $60 to $550. Pretty broad, right? Considering all the extensive factors mentioned above, understandable!
In terms of area, the cost to clean a carpet ranges from $0.20 to $0.40 per square foot.
If you don’t want to deal with a lot of measurements, a flat rate of $25 to $75 per small room sounds more comprehensible. However, it could go as high as $100, depending on how heavily stained or soiled your carpet is.
To give you an idea of how much to clean 1000 square feet of carpet or even bigger, here are a few price estimates:
- 200 to 400 sq. ft. – $80 to $130
- 1000 to 1500 sq. ft. – $200 to $300
- 2000 to 3000 sq. ft. – $400 to $550
No wonder minimalist, rug-free or area-rug style has become so popular these years!
Commercial Cleaning
How much do cleaning companies charge to clean office carpet, you may ask?
Well, companies charge commercial carpet cleaning in two ways: per square foot and per hour.
Ballpark estimates are as follows:
- 1,500 square feet – $0.20 to $0.25 per sq.ft.
- 50,000 square feet – $0.10 to $0.15 per sq.ft.
- $20 to $50 per hour per cleaner
Types of Cleaning
Hot Water Extraction
Hot water extraction has been the most common method that it’s almost eponymous to the carpet cleaning service itself. Like it’s the default method. Want something else? Specify.
The process involves the application of hot water in the carpet while the tool scrubs work to loosen the dirt and stains. Others use solutions to help with the deep-seated dirt.
Next is rinsing off of the dirt and solution using hot water. The machine will then suction the resulting dirty water back into the machine.
Since this uses a lot of water, you might need up to 24 hours before the carpet becomes completely dry. Not up for the long wait? Rent a dryer.
The average cost for hot water extraction carpet cleaning ranges from $100 to $500. But if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, you can rent a Rug Doctor and pay $30 per day and up, plus cleaning solutions.
Steam Cleaning
Steam cleaning involves heating water to a temperature high enough to create steam. Yes, scalding hot!
It’s actually the steam that does the cleaning. This is different from hot water extraction that uses, well, hot water and chemicals.
Using steam is more eco-friendly and can help kill germs and reduce allergens. However, it wasn’t as effective in removing soiling and stains on carpets.
How much does it charge to steam clean carpet? Expect the figure somewhere around $100 to $500.
By the way, that’s exactly the kind of money you’d need to pay for an all-purpose steam cleaner that’ll clean your carpets, tiles, bathroom, upholstery and clothes for years to come. Just saying!
Dry Cleaning
Contrary to the notion, dry cleaning doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not using water. It actually does, but definitely less than what you would use in hot water extraction.
Perhaps that’s the reason why other people prefer to call it Bonnet cleaning.
The actual process involves diluting cleaning powders and chemicals into hot water.
Brushing this mixture into the carpet is next. Then, suction the debris through a vacuum afterward.
If you need a quick cleaning fix, this will be perfect. How do you like your carpet ready after just 20 minutes of downtime?
However, because it’s not as labor-intensive compared to hot water extraction, expect it not to be as effective. That is, expect less dirt and stains removed.
Also, it’s not suitable for all types of carpets and might create damage. The thought of the fibers of your most prized Moroccan rug pulled in the wrong direction could be your worst nightmare yet.
To answer how much you’ll need to pay for carpet bonnet clean, $80 to $350 on average would be a decent estimate.
Carpet Shampooing
This used to be very popular until encapsulation technology took over the industry in the 70s. However, there are still companies that offer this service.
Shampooing is more applicable to heavily soiled carpets that need a quick fix. As the name suggests, it involves using carpet cleaning detergents or shampoo that the machine will agitate.
This is often mixed with optical brightener and takes ultraviolet lights and transforms them into visible light. In effect, your carpet appears brighter.
The catch: the brightness seems only superficial.
Because the intention was not to rinse, expect significant wet foam residue to stick around for a while, attracting dirt faster than usual.
Due to this, most households use this as just a preparation for a deep carpet cleaning. Rinsing and suction of the water will cap off the whole process.Prepare to set a budget of around $80 to $400 for this service.
Encapsulation Cleaning
This process starts with encapsulating chemicals after vacuuming the carpet. A rotary agitation machine helps the carpet absorb the chemical.
What this does is that it absorbs and isolates the dirt. This makes it easier to vacuum the waste product away.
Since it has less moisture, expect this to be short and simple and won’t cause much downtime.
If you want an easy solution to high foot traffic households, or especially in commercial establishments, this is a perfect choice.
How much to clean commercial carpet using encapsulation method would be around $375 to $900 for offices measuring 1000 sq. ft to 5000 sq. ft.
That’s NOT All, Folks! Additional Costs
Stain Removal
Depending on the specific carpet cleaning you choose, stains can sometimes be left behind or not thoroughly eliminated. In some cases, you might still need to splurge on additional stain removal if the result still shows a patch of an eyesore, such as these:
- Pet stains
- Coffee stains
- Bloodstains
Stain removal typically costs $40 to $300, depending on the size and severity.
Repairs
Old carpets can look forlorn and lifeless, with their color fading over the years. But if this happens to yours at an early stage of its useful life, you may ask the carpet cleaning company to do color repairs.
Spot dyeing costs around $100 to $300 on top of the cleaning cost. But the treatment of a whole carpet discoloration or color fading will cost around $580.
Pretty hefty, huh? But for something you can’t let go of just yet, it might still be worth it.
Of course, you can try to DIY your way out of paying! I’ve never done it myself though, so I can’t really testify.
Furniture Moving and Cleaning
Site preparation includes moving some pieces of furniture away from the activity area or the machine when availing of carpet cleaning service. But for significant sizes, you will be charged extra, or you might need to call a separate company.
This typically costs around $20 to $50 per hour per staff.
Extra Cleaning
When you hire a contractor for cleaning or home improvement, you want to make the most of it to save some bucks, right? So why not include cleaning your stairs?
Most carpet cleaners consider the transportation cost and mobilization of the equipment when quoting prices. To avoid having these costs charged twice, you can just avail of more than one service in one go.
Expect this to have the same rate as the carpet cleaning you availed of in terms of size unless you specifically requested a different kind of cleaning.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Steam Cleaners Damage Carpets?
Scalding steam can potentially cause damage to the fiber of specific carpets and can even cause discoloration. But it’s not just the heat you’ll need to be cautious with.
Steam will wet your carpets. And if you don’t dry them ASAP, the moisture can promote growth of smelly mold and end up damaging your carpet.
How Do You Clean Carpeted Stairs?
Cleaning carpeted stairs doesn’t stray too much from what you would typically do with your carpet for the rest of the house. Perhaps the only difference is loosening hardened and embedded dirt and debris using a stiff brush.
Everything else would be the same, from vacuuming the loosened debris to shampooing to drying.
However, I recommend doing another vacuum run once the stairs have dried. Since stairs can be heavily soiled, vacuuming them once more ensures that the carpet has no residue of any debris.
