Cleaning Business - What to charge...

sillysausage1977

Hi, I hope I have posted this in the right section. I am after some advice please.

I'm just starting up a small cleaning business and am wanting to charge £10 per hour. Last night I got a call from a builder who wants a quote for cleaning a new build. It's got no furniture in it. He also wants all the inside Windows doing. It's a 3 bed terrace. Because I am new to this I said £50. Do you think this is too much or have I under charged?

Regards.

ssparks2003

Depends on how long you are going to need to do it, have you worked out your costings for materials, insurance, travel, wages, etc?

Oli.s

Our cleaner takes 2.5 - 3 hours to clean our three bed from top to bottom and we also have kids so its often extra messy, she only charges us £25-£30 for this and I would imaging this involves more work than cleaning and empty house with no furniture to clean or move.

sillysausage1977

Well it's only going to be me, I'm providing my own cleaning products etc... I am very early stages of this new venture. ..

Bogof_Babe

Is it likely to be full of new-build dust etc? If you start needing rubble sacks I would definitely charge more than for cleaning an inhabited home.

ssparks2003

i would suggest before too long you sit down and work out all your costs, the wages, pension, NI, materials, etc etc etc and actually work out what it costs otherwise you could rapidly find yourself with a nasty surprise. As at the moment after you have taken the min wage off everything else (including some form of profit - assuming you wish to make a profit) is coming from £2.80 per hour

Guest101

sillysausage1977 wrote: »

Hi, I hope I have posted this in the right section. I am after some advice please.

I'm just starting up a small cleaning business and am wanting to charge £10 per hour. Last night I got a call from a builder who wants a quote for cleaning a new build. It's got no furniture in it. He also wants all the inside Windows doing. It's a 3 bed terrace. Because I am new to this I said £50. Do you think this is too much or have I under charged?

Regards.

£10 an hour? Far too little!


I'd expect to pay at least £150 for that job, in my area,

sillysausage1977

I don't think there will be rubble, so be a case of cleaning up a dusty house by the sounds of it.

phill99

I pay up to £160 for a builders clean. You will spend more time than you think, there, and use more materials than you think. Its a good 6 hours labour.

Bogof_Babe

You really need to see the job before you agree a price.

Pennywise

sillysausage1977 wrote: »

I don't think there will be rubble, so be a case of cleaning up a dusty house by the sounds of it.

Have you not actually seen it? That's a recipe for disaster. You've no idea what kind of state it's in, so giving a fixed price unseen isn't a good idea.

I'd say £10 per hour is on the cheap side, especially if you're providing your own materials, equipment, etc. It's about right for a "labour" only rate if everything was provided for you.