Carpet cleaning cost per room vs per square foot: how to work out your price
Ask three carpet cleaners what a clean costs and you can get three answers that are hard to line up: one quotes per room, one per square foot, one by the hour. None of them is wrong, but each one hides different things. Here’s how each pricing model works, how to measure your own home so you can check any quote, and what our published prices come to for common Metro Vancouver homes.
The three ways carpet cleaning is priced
Per room. The most common way for homes. It’s easy to understand, but the fine print matters: what counts as a “room”, whether a big living room counts as one, and whether hallways and stairs are extra.
Per square foot. Common for commercial work and some residential companies. It’s precise for open floors, but you need to know your carpeted square footage, and stairs, closets and minimums are often priced separately.
By the hour. Less common for carpet, more common for specialty work like vehicle interiors. The final number depends on how the day goes, so it’s the hardest to compare in advance.
How we price: per area, with a size cap
We use areas, and the numbers are published. Prices are before the current promo, plus GST:
| What | Counts as | Price |
|---|---|---|
| A room up to 150 sq ft | 1 area | $90 |
| A hallway | 1 area | $90 |
| A flight of stairs | 1 area | $90 |
| Minimum visit | covers up to 3 areas | $210 |
| One area on its own | 1 area | $150 |
A room bigger than 150 sq ft counts as about one more area for every extra 150 sq ft. That’s the cap that keeps “per room” honest: a small bedroom and a huge basement rec room aren’t the same job, so they aren’t the same price. The seasonal promo comes off jobs above the $210 minimum.
How to measure your rooms
Measure wall to wall in feet and multiply. You don’t need to be exact, and the technician confirms sizes on arrival.
- 10×12 bedroom: 120 sq ft, one area.
- 12×12 bedroom: 144 sq ft, one area.
- 15×20 living room: 300 sq ft, two areas.
- 20×30 basement rec room: 600 sq ft, four areas.
If a room is an odd shape, measure it as two rectangles and add them up. Put the rough size in your booking notes and the technician will check it with you before starting.
What that works out to per square foot
If you’re comparing against a per-square-foot quote, here’s the conversion. A full 150 sq ft area at $90 is 60¢ a square foot before the promo. A smaller room costs more per foot, because the price is the same: a 10×10 bedroom at $90 is 90¢ a square foot.
That’s normal. A small room still takes setup, pre-treatment, edges and furniture work, so per-room pricing tends to favour bigger rooms, and per-foot pricing tends to favour small ones. When you compare, convert both quotes into a total for your actual home, not a rate.
For offices and other commercial floors, commercial carpet cleaning in Vancouver is priced by the foot: 35¢ a square foot, with a $250 minimum that covers up to 700 sq ft, and stairs at $65 a flight. Rob confirms every commercial job before it’s booked.
What common homes come to
Worked examples from the price list, before the promo and GST:
| Home | Carpet | Areas | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom condo | Bedroom only, 11×12 | 1 | $150 (one area) |
| One-bedroom condo | Bedroom, living room, hallway | 3 | $210 (minimum) |
| Two-bedroom condo | 2 bedrooms, a 15×18 living room | 4 | $360 |
| Townhouse, upstairs | 3 bedrooms, hallway, one flight of stairs | 5 | $450 |
| House with a basement | 3 bedrooms, hallway, stairs, a 20×30 rec room | 9 | $810 |
Notice the second row. Up to three areas is the $210 minimum, so if you’re booking two rooms, a third one costs nothing extra.
What to ask about any quote
Whatever the model, these questions turn a rate into a real price:
- What counts as a room, and is there a size limit?
- Are hallways, stairs and closets included or extra?
- Is pre-treatment of traffic lanes and spots included?
- Is there a minimum, a travel fee or a fuel charge?
- What equipment is used? Truck-mounted hot water extraction rinses deeper and leaves carpet only damp. Ours is a Cleanco Compact 47, and in towers where the hoses can’t reach we bring a portable unit.
- What happens if a spot comes back? Our promise: if anything isn’t right, we fix it, or you get your money back.
Getting your exact number
Count your rooms, hallways and stairs, note any room that’s clearly over 150 sq ft, and add any sofas, rugs or mattresses. Book carpet cleaning in Vancouver online and the total updates as you go, so you see the price before you pick a time. The full list, including upholstery and mattresses, is on our pricing page. Most carpet is dry in 3 to 6 hours, and we work weekdays, 8:30 to 4.
Common questions
Is per square foot cheaper than per room? It depends on your rooms. Small rooms usually come out cheaper per foot, big rooms per room. Compare totals, not rates.
Does a big living room cost the same as a bedroom? Not with us. Every 150 sq ft or so is one area, so a 300 sq ft living room is two.
Are stairs extra? Each flight of stairs is one area, the same as a room.
Is GST included? No. Prices are plus GST, and the promo comes off before tax.
Ready to book? See carpet cleaning in Vancouver, or call (604) 802-8500.