How our estimates work

Last updated 2026-10-20

Every price on CleanPricer is calculated in your browser from two kinds of numbers: published data (with its source and date, listed below) and our own assumptions (named as such, so you can judge them and, in the business tools, change them). The same code is tested against the published tables before each release.

Our results are estimates for planning and comparison. They are not quotes. A local company may charge more or less for good reasons: its own costs, travel, the condition of your home, demand in your area and the season.

Sources and dates

Thumbtack’s figures come from jobs and quotes on its platform across the US. We use them as published national ranges; we do not have, and do not claim, city-level price data. We check the sources every six months and update the date above when a number changes. BLS publishes a new year of wage data each spring.

House cleaning: time × rate

1. Cleaner-hours for a standard clean (one cleaner, home in average condition) = 1.5 hours per visit + 0.0008 hours per square foot + 0.25 hours per bedroom + 0.6 hours per full bathroom + 0.3 hours per half bathroom. Our assumption. For a 1,600 sq ft home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms that is 4.73 hours.
2. Type of clean. A deep clean takes 1.31 × and a move-out clean 1.40 × the time of a standard clean. These are the ratios between the middles of Thumbtack’s national ranges: deep $190–$265 and move-out $200–$286 against standard $146–$202.
3. Recurring visits take less time than a first clean: weekly 80%, every two weeks 85%, monthly 90%. Condition: light 90%, heavy 125%. Pets: +10%. Extras add fixed time (inside oven 0.75 h, fridge 0.5 h, cabinets 1 h, interior windows 1 h, walls 1 h, baseboards 0.5 h, laundry 0.5 h, garage 1 h). All our assumptions.
4. Company rate per cleaner-hour = cleaner wage × 2.5. The wage range uses the BLS 25th and 75th percentiles ($14.59 and $19.03) scaled to the state’s median, so the US-average company rate is $36.48–$47.58 per hour. The 2.5 markup (our assumption) stands for what a company pays on top of wages: payroll taxes, insurance, unpaid travel time between homes, supplies, equipment, office costs and profit.
5. Price = hours × rate. More cleaners make the visit shorter, not cheaper.

Check against the published data: for typical 1- to 6-bedroom homes our US-average range overlaps Thumbtack’s national range for every bedroom count, and the middles are within 25% of each other (the site’s tests fail if this stops being true). Our model is lower than Thumbtack’s for 1-bedroom homes, where minimum charges matter most.

State adjustment

Prices are scaled by the state’s median hourly wage for the occupation divided by the national median (maids and housekeeping cleaners $17.07; janitors and cleaners $17.71; BLS, May 2025). For house cleaning the whole company rate is scaled. For the specialty services (carpet, windows, ducts, dryer vents, gutters, pressure washing, chimneys, rugs, upholstery) only the labor share of the price moves with wages; we assume labor is 60% of the price, so a state with wages 20% above the national median gets prices 12% higher. The 60% is our assumption. Wages are a good signal of local price levels but not a perfect one: rent, travel distances and competition also differ, and prices inside a state differ between cities and rural areas.

Specialty services

• Carpet: by number of rooms, 80%–125% of Thumbtack’s average for that room count (1 room $130 up to 6 rooms $342), plus $63 per room above six; or by area at $0.53–$0.98 per square foot with a $91 minimum. Dry cleaning × 0.974 (ratio of Thumbtack’s dry and steam ranges).
• Windows: Thumbtack’s ranges for 1–5, 6–10, 11–15 and 16–20 windows, interpolated between and extended beyond 20 at the same slope. Outside only = 75% (one company’s $3-of-$4 split). Tracks add $1 a window.
• Air ducts: Thumbtack’s ranges by home size or by number of vents, multiplied by the ratio of the building type to a house (condo 0.82, townhome 0.86, business 1.10) and of smoking to non-smoking homes (1.085). A dryer vent added to the visit is one company’s $65 bundle price.
• Gutters: Thumbtack’s ranges by home size, multiplied by the one- or two-story range relative to their average (0.91 or 1.09); three stories = two stories × 1.15 (our assumption). Linear-foot mode uses the price per foot you enter.
• Pressure washing: house by size and stories plus each surface you tick (driveway, patio, sidewalk, roof), each at Thumbtack’s national range, added together.
• Chimney: Thumbtack’s national range for a sweep; each extra flue on the same visit adds 50% (our assumption).
• Rugs: Thumbtack’s per-rug ranges by size; other sizes at $1.25–$5.00 per square foot (the rate in every rectangular row of that table); stain and odor removal per rug.

Commercial cleaning and bids

Production rate = square feet one cleaner cleans in an hour on a routine visit. Our defaults: office 2,000; medical or dental 1,200; retail 2,500; school 2,000; warehouse 4,000; restaurant 1,200; gym 1,800; church or event hall 2,500. For the area-by-area bid sheet: offices 2,000; restrooms 300; break rooms 1,000; lobbies 1,500; hallways 3,000; conference rooms 2,500; warehouse floor 5,000; stairwells 800. All our assumptions, chosen as conservative starting points; every bid tool lets you replace them. For comparison, Thumbtack quotes one company cleaning a 10,000 sq ft office in 6 hours (about 1,670 sq ft per hour).

Cost estimate (what a business should expect to pay): hours × janitorial company rate (janitor wage × 2.0, our assumption; US average $31.00–$42.36, middle $35.42, close to the $35 an hour in Thumbtack’s example) × 1.05 for supplies. A month is 52 ÷ 12 weeks.

Bid (what a contractor should charge): direct labor = hours × wage; payroll burden = labor × burden %; supplies and overhead = (labor + burden) × their percentages; bid = total cost ÷ (1 − profit margin). Defaults 20%, 5%, 10% and 15% are starting points, not industry standards.

Business tools

• What to charge: profit needed = the pay you want ÷ (1 − 0.9235 × 15.3%), because self-employment tax is 15.3% on 92.35% of net earnings (IRS); sales needed = (profit + business costs) ÷ (1 − savings share); hourly rate = sales ÷ billable hours. Income tax is not included.
• Airbnb cleaning fee: fee = turnover cost ÷ (1 − host fee), with the 3% split fee or the 15.5% host-only fee that most hosts pay according to Airbnb, so the payout still covers the cost.
• Business plan projection: clients grow evenly to your goal; sales = visits × price; labor = visits × hours × wage × (1 + burden).
• Templates: totals are added line by line in whole cents. Contract wording is our own plain-English starting point and is not legal advice.

What we do not do

We do not collect prices from companies, rank or recommend cleaners, or take referral fees. We do not show city or ZIP-code prices, because we do not have published data at that level. If you find a mistake or have better public data, please tell us.