A bedroom carpet is £36 and a living room £43; both are cleaned by hot water extraction using a portable machine. Any one-off carpet visit is at least £67.
The machine runs off an ordinary wall socket and takes its water from your kitchen tap, and the cleaner wheels it from room to room. Nothing is piped in from the street, so a fourth-floor flat with no lift gets the same clean as a ground-floor maisonette; it only costs the cleaner a few extra trips up the stairs.
Please keep the water, electricity and heating switched on. The heating counts for more than people expect, since warm air is what dries the pile afterwards.
Carpet cleaning prices by room
Every room, flight and hall carries its own price, and your quote is built from whatever you list.
| Area | Price |
|---|---|
| Bedroom | £36 |
| Living room | £43 |
| Through lounge (two rooms opened into one) | £61 |
| Flight of stairs | £41 |
| Hallway | £22 |
| Landing | £9 |
A lone bedroom comes to less than £67, the smallest one-off charge, so on its own it is priced from £67. Any parking the cleaner pays for near you goes on the bill at cost, £40 at most. Half the total, by card or bank transfer, reserves your day. If you cannot tell whether a carpet is wool or synthetic, or the house is big with an odd layout, a carpet inspection visit costs £22 and pins those details down before you commit.
Hot water extraction, room by room
A slow dry vacuum comes first in every room, since loose grit turns to mud the moment it gets wet. The cleaner then pre-sprays the traffic lanes, such as the grey track from the door to the sofa or the strip beside the bed, and lets the spray sit for a few minutes. After that the wand jets hot water into the pile and, in the same stroke, draws it back up with the loosened soil. Along the skirting a narrower hand tool does the edges. Work begins at the wall opposite the door and the cleaner backs out, so no one treads on a finished patch. Wool copes with less heat than nylon or polypropylene, so the water runs cooler on it. A label on an offcut in the loft, or your letting agent, can usually tell you which you have.
Marks that usually lift and marks that may stay
Most of what makes a London carpet look tired is everyday soil: pavement grit by the front door, the grey lane across the living room, mud and old splashes of tea or food. That sort of dirt usually lifts, and plenty of rooms dry a shade lighter. Some marks are for good, and the cleaner names them before starting. Bleach has removed the colour itself, so nothing is left to wash out. Hair dye, nail varnish, burns, rust rings from furniture feet and colour bled from a wet rug behave the same way. Pet urine that reached the backing can leave a ring, and its smell may come back as the carpet dries. Flattened or worn pile by a doorway looks like dirt and stays after cleaning. Tell us when booking what was spilt and anything you have already tried on it.
Stairs, halls and landings
A flight of stairs is £41. A flight means one run of steps between two floors: most two-storey terraces have one, and a three-storey town house has two with a landing part-way. Each landing is £9 and a hallway is £22. The floor wand is wider than a tread, so the cleaner goes up the stairs with a small hand tool, doing the riser and the scuffed front edge of every step. In a London flat the hall collects more grit than any room, so it gets the longest vacuum and the most pre-spray. Clear shoes, bags and post off the stairs. A hall carpet shared with other flats should be agreed with the neighbours or the managing agent first.
Getting a room ready
Pick up shoes, toys, laundry baskets, plants and anything with a cable trailing across the floor. Light things such as kitchen chairs or a coffee table can be lifted out of the way. Beds, wardrobes, loaded bookcases and pianos are too heavy to shift, so the cleaner works round their edges; if you want the carpet under a bed done, move the bed yourself beforehand. Nothing heavy should go back into a cleaned room until the pile has dried. If a cabinet must return straight away, set its feet on squares of foil or plastic so wood stain and rust cannot print onto the damp carpet. Shut pets in another room for the afternoon, mostly to spare the floor their paw prints.
Questions about carpet cleaning
How soon can we walk on the carpets?
Usually after a few hours, and sooner if you open a window or turn the radiators up. Thick wool and old felt underlay soak up more water and take longer. Keep outdoor shoes off until the base of the pile feels dry under your fingers.
Can carpets be cleaned at the end of a tenancy?
Yes. Adding them to our end of tenancy cleaning puts both jobs on one visit, and carpets booked that way are priced lower than on their own. Choose a slot early enough that the pile has dried before the agent arrives for check-out.
Can a rug or an armchair be done on the same visit?
Yes, the machine is already set up. Loose rugs have two size prices on the rug cleaning page. Armchairs and dining chairs come under upholstery cleaning, and doing every carpet and rug in a home together is explained on carpet and rug cleaning.
Does someone have to stay in?
Only at the start and the finish: to open the door and show the cleaner which rooms are booked, and to walk round with them once the work is done.