Good Afternoon everyone,

We are just about ready to start our low moisture cleaning business. For residential is it better to charge by the square foot or by the room? For anyone in Canada what is the going rate per square foot or room? We know that this can vary...we could sure use the help .

Thanks,

Bri and Jo

Hey Bri and Jo,
Congratulations on your new venture. We have been running our business for 4 years now and have always charged by the sq. ft. I know there is a lot of debate over whether to charge by the room or by sq. ft. The companies that advertise by the room go by square feet also, but the customer usually does'nt know this until the tech. gets there and measures the room and then informs the customer that they are not going to get what they expected from the ad because their square footage is over the amount stated in the fine print.
We give free estimates and charge only for the actual square feet that we clean. By doing this our regular prices are always lower than the "Room Pricing Guys" and our customer knows up front what they are getting. We get calls from potential customers asking what we charge to clean a room and I feel like responding with "I don't know, How much does it cost to fix a car, How big is a bridge, How long is a piece of rope? Different rooms are different sizes, will furniture be moved, are there pet stains, etc. Well that's just my opinion, either way you do it you will still have to measure and inspect the job before you start, but with square foot pricing everyone knows up front what the job will cost. Hope this helps some and good luck.

Thanks Joe,

We have been debating this for some time now, and what you said makes sense. Is there a price that would be reasonable to charge?

thanks again for the advise,

Bri and Jo

What Joe said exactly.

The charge per sf would depend on your cost of doing business.

Kevin Pearson

For residential jobs I do not give estimates, too many variables. Charging by the square foot does not take into consideration many of these variables. What type of carpet? "berber is harder to clean" , how dirty are the carpets? Is there furniture to move and how much?

I explain all this to the potential customer and then explain that I will schedule a time to do the job and at that time quote a firm price. I assure them that my prices are commensurate with the quality of service I provide and that they are not obligated to have me clean if the price is not acceptable. Ir they push the issue I tell the that for an average sized room (12x15) the price is approximatly $40.00 (I always charge less than that based on the principle of "under promise and over deliver".

Couple of reasons I do all this: You want to develop a customer base of customer who are willing to pay a fair price for a good job. You do not want the idiots who are looking for the $89.00 whole house special or the $8.00 a room deal, which they will not get anyway. Also remember if you give a low ball price becouse your desperate for business and rationalize it that if your not busy at least you are making something (I made this mistake) you have set a president for the next time that customer calls.

ALL THIS IS MHOP

All the info above is from some of the best. I would only add figure your cost then WHAT IS YOUR SITUATION. If you are just starting out and need to get some work/customers run an "introductory special". You can sit there and say I'm worth $200 per hour but if your losing bids it's not putting food on the table. When I started residential I took this approach and have earned quite a customer list and have steadly increased my prices as my plate got full. I justified the lower price at start up as advertising cost no YP or on going cost for me. I now have my prices where I want them in residential and am doing the same in commercial the more business I have the more I can increase my price because if I lose the bid so what. When I don't have any biz and lose it hurts. Good luck

Hello,

My wife and I want to thank everyone on here for all of your advise. Your experience shows, and being newbies we value your words. Everyone can learn much from these forums.

Thanks again,

Bri and Jo