Make This Useful

Updated · Make This Useful

Carpet cleaning cost calculator

EK Carpet Cleaning in Chicago charges $48 for a standard room up to 150 sq ft and $68 for a large room up to 250 sq ft, with a $110 visit minimum (checked October 2026). A room price only holds with a size cap, so write the cap on every quote, and measure open-plan living areas and finished basements by the square foot instead of calling them one room.

Price a carpet job

Starting point: $48.00 per room. Standard room up to 150 sq ft (Chicago): $48.00 per room. Published rate, rounded to cents. Room up to 150 sq ft; $110 visit minimum. EK Carpet Cleaning: Chicago price list, checked 2026-10-15.

Extras, travel and minimum

Set a room-size limit when pricing per room. Include stain treatment, furniture moving and stairs only where the quote explicitly says so.

Job price before tax—

Enter number of rooms.

How big is a room when you charge per room?

Big enough that the room price still earns your per-foot rate. EK’s caps work out to $0.32 a foot for a standard room ($48 ÷ 150) and $0.27 for a large one ($68 ÷ 250), both inside HomeGuide’s $0.25–$0.50 per square foot. A 400 sq ft great room billed at the large-room price earns $0.17 a foot. Anything past your large-room cap gets measured.

The quote that loses money is “three rooms” where one is an open living-dining space and the customer didn’t count the hallway or the walk-in closet. Settle hallways and closets before you quote, and ask for a photo of any room you can’t picture. Measuring takes a minute on site; arguing about it after the wand is out takes much longer.

How should you price stairs, stains and pet odor?

Stairs go by the flight with a step limit: EK charges $45 for a staircase up to 14 steps and prices landings separately. Ordinary spot treatment belongs in the room price. Pet urine is a different job. It soaks into the pad, needs its own treatment and can come back on a humid day, so price it per area treated and say on the quote that odor removal isn’t guaranteed.

Should you discount carpet cleaning for more rooms?

Yes, as long as each added room still pays. My Carpet Master, working Dallas–Fort Worth, lists three rooms for $169 and four for $200, so the fourth room adds $31. The drive, the truck-mount setup and the hoses are already paid for on a multi-room job, which is why the extra room can go cheaper. Just don’t let it fall below what a room costs you in time and chemicals.

The other end matters as much. Two standard rooms at EK’s $48 come to $96, under its $110 minimum, so a two-room booking pays $110. Setup and the drive cost the same for one room as for five. Set your minimum at what a short job costs you to show up and do properly, and charge it whenever the rooms come in under it.

Example: three standard rooms and a staircase

Three rooms cost you $20 each in time, water and chemicals ($60), and the stairs $15: $75. Add $30 for fuel and the drive, and the job costs you $105. At a 30% margin, $105 ÷ 0.70 = $150. EK Carpet Cleaning would bill the same job at $189 in Chicago (three rooms at $48 plus $45 for the stairs), so you’re $39 under a published list. If your market looks like Chicago’s, there’s room to charge more.

Frequently asked questions

Should moving furniture be included in the room price?

Say exactly what you move. Chairs, side tables and ottomans usually go in the room price; beds, dressers, sectionals and anything with electronics don’t. Ask customers to clear small items and breakables before you arrive, and price heavy moves as an add-on if you take them at all.

Should you charge more for heavily soiled carpet?

Yes, for the extra work, not as a vague surcharge. Traffic lanes, carpet by a kitchen and rooms where pets sleep may need a stronger pre-spray and a second extraction pass. Look before you quote, or say the room price covers normal soil and name your per-room charge for a second pass.

Should a move-out carpet clean cost more?

Not by default. Empty rooms are faster because there’s nothing to move, which often offsets the heavier wear. Price lanes and pet areas as their own lines, and give the tenant or landlord a receipt naming the rooms, the treatments and the date, since that’s what the deposit conversation will ask for.

Sources