Before we discuss how we charge at Linton's Carpet Cleaning let's go over the most common methods of pricing. This might be a real
eye-opener for a lot of people reading this article.

Methods Used To Price Carpet Cleaning In Vancouver

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In many carpet cleaning ads you see in the newspaper, in your mailbox, or
on the internet you see per room pricing.

While you can get really good cleaning using this pricing method; it is also the method that leads to the most confusion and to the most complaints as far as pricing methods.

Why is this?

Let's use this example to explain the number one issue with per room pricing.

You, the customer, has four rooms you want to have cleaned. A living room, family room, and two bedrooms.

These rooms are of various sizes. You see an ad in your mailbox that says the company will clean each room for $30 (which would actually, in most cases, be on the low side).

Let's use this example to explain the number one issue with per room pricing:

You, the customer, has four rooms you want to have cleaned. A living room, family room, and two bedrooms. These rooms are of various sizes. You see
an ad in your mailbox that says the company will clean each room for $30  (which would actually, in most cases, be on the low side).

So you call the company up and schedule a carpet cleaning with them thinking you are going to pay $120 for the four rooms to be cleaned.

They show up on the agreed upon date to do the cleaning, they take a look at the job, and suddenly the price goes up!

Obviously you are not happy about this and wonder why. Well here is why:

When they gave you a base price on $30 per room they had not seen the carpet,
they didn't know the details of the soiling conditions or the amount of stains.

Two of the rooms you want cleaned meet their conditions to charge you $30 per room, but the other two rooms do not meet their conditions for the $30 per room pricing they advertised.

What might be causing the company to hesitate in cleaning the other two rooms for only $30 each? Well there could be a few reasons, but the number one reason would be the soiling conditions in those two rooms and/or the amount of stains in those two rooms. Especially the amount of stains.

The third reason is because the company doesn't think those two rooms meet their room size requirements and now they want to consider one, or both, of those rooms as an  additional room and therefore charge you for six rooms of cleaning instead of four.

But the main issue that causes companies to balk at charging their advertised room price is the degree of soiling and the amount of stains.

A heavily soiled carpet takes longer to clean. A carpet with multiple stains usually takes longer to clean.

So what happens when the company is FORCED to honor their per room pricing? Well here is what happens far too often - the company doesn't take the required time to do a really good job. 

Because if they do take the time that is needed they will be on the job site longer than anticipated and not meeting their numbers they need to make.

What you, the customer, usually gets is very mediocre cleaning. It is not always this way, there are companies that do a really good job of cleaning your carpet based on per room pricing, but far too often it is per room pricing that leads to complaints.

These complaints are usually about poor quality cleaning or jacked up prices and sometimes both!

Square Foot Pricing

Square foot pricing is based on cleanable square footage of any carpet to be cleaned. Or at least it should be. What do we mean by "at least it should be?"

Let's say you have a 100 sq. ft. room to be cleaned, but that room has a bed in it and a desk in it and you do not want these pieces of furniture to be moved.

Well the cleanable square footage would not be 100 sq. ft, but probably about 60% of that, or 60 sq. ft.. Why would you want to pay for 100 sq. ft. of cleaning when you only had 60 sq. ft. to actually be cleaned?

You wouldn't.

So with sq. ft. pricing it is important that the company is ONLY quoting you on "cleanable sq. footage."

What are other issues with sq. ft. pricing? Well the issues with sq. ft. pricing are very similar to per room pricing.

A carpet that is heavily soiled and/or stained will take longer to clean 100 sq. ft. than a carpet that is not heavily soiled and/or stained. It all comes down to time.

There is nothing wrong with pricing by square footage if the company only charges for the  square footage that is actually to be cleaned and does a quality job of cleaning.

But if the carpet cleaning company doesn't actually see the carpet how can they know what the condition of the carpet is and how can they accurately know the square footage that is to be cleaned?

They can't, and therefore just pricing by the sq. footage can also lead to issues with clients not being happy about pricing and poor quality cleaning.

Time To Clean

This is the best way to have carpet cleaning priced for both the carpet cleaning company (although many do not know this) and for the customer. Why? Because this method of pricing basically forces the company to give an on-site quote, which is good for them and good for you - the customer.

Yes, sometimes an on-site quote is not convenient for the customer. But if you can get an onsite quote that is by far the best thing to do.

When a carpet cleaning company gives a "Time To Clean" quote they must look at the carpet and judge from logistics, to soiling, to staining and how long they think it is going to take to do the job properly.

This is good for you because the company will quote you a price based on THEIR view of how long the carpet will take to clean up properly and they will NOT be surprised by soiling or staining conditions - and therefore the prices they quote you are what they feel is fair to them and you in order to get your carpet cleaned properly.

So What Are Carpet Cleaning Prices In Vancouver?

The short simple answer is - it depends.

It depends on the company that is doing the pricing.

It depends on the method they use to price.

So to give an accurate view of carpet cleaning prices in Vancouver, Washington is hard to do, but there are some general guidelines.

If you are looking for high quality carpet cleaning you should expect to pay around $40 per room and up, and there would usually be a maximum size per room until one room is considered more than just a single room.

If the company prices by square footage then a good starting point for high quality cleaning would be around .35 cents a sq. ft. and up.

But the best way to get a quote, and get an accurate price for high quality cleaning, is to have the carpet cleaning company come out to your home, or place of business, and take a look at the carpet and then give you a firm written quote.

Carpets are an integral part of most homes and many businesses. It is important to keep them clean and looking good and the best way to do this is to vacuum regularly, do regular spot and spill cleanup,and to have your carpets cleaned at least once a year.

Don't be fooled by low price per room advertisements. Most of the time these companies do NOT actually honor the prices they show you in the ad (at least for good cleaning) and many times they will try to charge you double or triple the price of what you thought you were going to pay.