Advanced options
Same triangle as the pressure washer: pro brings truck-mounted extraction (hotter, stronger suction, faster drying) and takes the risk on delicate carpets: hire (~GBP 30/day + GBP 10 solution) does a whole house in a weekend: buying (GBP 150-250) wins for the pet-and-toddler years where accidents don't wait for hire counters. Whatever the method: vacuum THOROUGHLY first (extraction machines shampoo grit into mud otherwise), don't overwet, and dry with windows open: a damp carpet that stays damp smells worse than it started.
What The Carpet Cleaning Calculator Works Out
- Professional: rooms x about GBP 30 a room x cleans a year. Pros charge GBP 25 to GBP 40 a room with whole-house rates discounting towards GBP 100 to GBP 180, and bring truck-mounted or commercial extraction that outclasses anything rentable on heat, suction and drying time.
- Machine hire: about GBP 30 a day plus GBP 10 of solution per clean. A hired machine does a whole house in one energetic weekend and remains the value pick for the annual-deep-clean household.
- Buying a machine: GBP 150 to GBP 250 once plus solution each clean, with the years it takes to pay back against hire and against the pro. Ownership wins in the pet-and-toddler years because accidents do not schedule themselves around hire-counter hours.
- Professional price, stairs and minimum call-out (advanced): set your local per-room quote, add stairs and landing (usually GBP 20 to GBP 30 extra) and the minimum charge, since a single room rarely books for less than GBP 50 to GBP 70.
- Hire rate, solution and machine price (advanced): replace the defaults with the hire shop's day rate and the price of the machine you are actually looking at. Owners tend to pay a little more per clean for the branded solution the machine's warranty specifies.
- Emergency cleans (advanced): spot cleans a year that cannot wait. For an owner each is a splash of solution; for a hirer it is another hire day; for a pro customer it is a minimum call-out. This line is usually what decides the triangle for pet households.
- Your time (advanced): about 45 minutes a room including moving furniture, plus half an hour per emergency. Put an hourly value on it and it is added to the hire and buy routes, which is the fair comparison with paying someone else.
- Cheapest route and cost per clean (advanced): the three totals over your chosen years, and the owned machine's cost divided by every clean it will do including emergencies. Extraction cleaning at a tenth of replacement cost buys two to five extra years from a tired but sound carpet.
- Year-by-year table (advanced): first-year and subsequent-year costs for each route, so the machine's up-front hit can be seen against the recurring hire and pro bills.