Booking a carpet cleaner: what to sort before they knock

What a carpet cleaner actually does

The standard method is steam cleaning — technically hot water extraction — where heated cleaning solution is injected into the pile and immediately vacuumed back out along with the dirt. It's what landlords and property managers expect at the end of a lease, and what most carpet manufacturers recommend. Heavily soiled areas, pet accidents and stains get a pre-treatment first, then extra passes.

Most cleaners will also do rugs, upholstery, mattresses and stairs at per-item rates while they're on site, which is far better value than a separate booking. What they can't do is resurrect carpet that's worn through, delaminated or permanently bleached — a decent operator will tell you when cleaning won't fix it and you're really looking at a carpet layer.

How the pricing works

Almost everyone prices per room with a minimum charge to make the trip worthwhile, so a couple of rooms costs proportionally more than a whole house. A standard three-bedroom home typically lands in the low hundreds, while an end-of-lease job with stain and odour treatment plus a rug or lounge suite sits noticeably higher.

The extras that move the price are soiling and stains (pre-treatment and extra passes), oversized living areas that count as two rooms, and furniture that needs moving. These figures are indicative — room count and carpet condition set the real number.

Choosing a cleaner

No licence applies to carpet cleaning, so judge on equipment, insurance and reviews. Truck-mounted or quality portable extraction machines outperform supermarket-hire units by a wide margin; if the quote is dramatically cheap, ask what machine and method they're using. Public liability insurance matters because water and electricity share a room during this job.

For end-of-lease cleans, confirm before booking that you'll get a receipt stating the carpets were professionally steam cleaned — agents often require that exact evidence. Ask about their re-do policy too: a professional will come back if a treated stain wicks back to the surface a few days later, which happens even with good work.

Mistakes to avoid

Carpet cleaning has few disasters but plenty of small own goals — most of them about preparation and timing rather than the cleaning itself.

• Not vacuuming first — some cleaners charge extra to do it, and extraction works better on pre-vacuumed carpet
• Booking the clean before the movers have finished trampling through the house
• Scrubbing fresh stains with supermarket chemicals that set them before the professional arrives
• Forgetting drying time — carpet needs four to eight hours, so plan the day and the weather
• Losing the receipt you need for the end-of-lease inspection
• Paying a whole-house rate without mentioning half the rooms are floorboards