Deep Cleaning Prices in Ireland: What Homeowners Pay

A whole-house deep clean in Ireland usually falls between €180 and €450, according to an aggregate Irish market estimate, with one cleaner charged at roughly €25 to €40 an hour. The final figure depends on the size and condition of the property, whether it is a first deep clean or a home that is already kept on top of, and which extras are added. Homeowners who want the scope pinned down before comparing prices can arrange a domestic deep cleaning service and ask several providers to quote the same job.

What deep cleaning prices look like in Ireland

Every figure below is an aggregate Irish market estimate. The ranges are indicative only, they are not quotations, and no cleaning business is bound by them; each provider sets its own rates and should confirm a price in writing.

Line item	Typical range
Whole-house deep clean, apartment or two to three bed house	€180–€450
Hourly rate, one cleaner	€25–€40 per hour
Single room deep clean, such as a kitchen or bathroom	€55–€110
Oven, fridge or other appliance deep clean as an add-on	€40–€90
Inside windows, inside cupboards or the interior of a fridge-freezer	€25–€60 per item
Removal and disposal of waste or bulky items	€20–€50

A three-bed semi-detached house commonly takes somewhere between six and twelve hours of work in total, which is why the whole-house figure sits above a single room rate. A small apartment with one bathroom sits at the lower end of the band, while a larger house with several bathrooms, heavy kitchen grease, pets, smoking or a long period without a thorough clean sits at the upper end. Two cleaners working together shorten the visit but rarely halve the bill, because the total hours worked are the same.

What a domestic deep clean usually includes

A deep clean is a slower, more detailed version of a standard clean rather than a different service. A typical domestic deep clean covers dusting and wiping of all reachable surfaces, skirting boards, doors, door frames and handles, light switches and sockets, radiators and banisters; vacuuming and mopping of all floors; a kitchen clean covering worktops, cupboard fronts, the hob, splashback, sink and tiling; and a bathroom clean covering the shower, bath, toilet, tiles, grout and mirrors. Internal glass and mirrors are normally included, and beds are usually made or linen straightened.

What sits outside the standard scope is where most quote disagreements begin. The inside of an oven, the inside of a fridge or freezer, the inside of cupboards and wardrobes, carpets and upholstery, curtains and blinds, exterior windows and upper-floor exterior glass, garages, gardens and sheds are usually priced separately. The same applies to waste removal, mould treatment, after-builders cleaning and properties that need more than one visit. Any of these can appear as an add-on, so it is worth asking directly whether a service sits inside or outside the quoted price rather than assuming.

What drives the price

The biggest driver is time, and time is driven by the state of the property more than its floor area. A three-bed house that is cleaned weekly needs noticeably fewer hours than the same house after a tenancy ends, after a bereavement, or after a builder has finished. A first deep clean is therefore the most expensive visit a homeowner will book; once the home is brought up to a baseline, later visits cost less because there is less built-up work to remove.

Labour is the largest part of any cleaning bill. The statutory minimum rate of pay for workers in the contract cleaning industry is set to rise to €14.80 an hour from 1 January 2026, according to the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. That figure is a wage floor rather than a customer price: the amount a homeowner pays also has to cover employer PRSI, insurance, equipment, cleaning products, travel and the business's own costs. Other factors that move a quote include the number of bathrooms, the amount of clutter that has to be worked around, access and parking, stairs and lifts, whether the property is occupied during the visit, and demand around weekends or the end of a month when tenancies turn over.

Hourly rates versus fixed-price quotes

Both approaches are common in Ireland, and neither is automatically better value.

An hourly rate, usually somewhere in the €25–€40 per cleaner band shown in the table above, suits ongoing work or a job whose size is hard to judge in advance. Most businesses set a minimum callout of two to three hours, which at those hourly rates works out at roughly €50–€120, and the homeowner pays for the time actually worked. The risk is that a job runs longer than expected, particularly on a first deep clean.

A fixed price suits a one-off deep clean with a defined list of rooms and tasks. It is normally built from a walkthrough, a short video or photographs, and it protects the homeowner from overruns. Its weakness is scope: a fixed price is only worth comparing when two providers are pricing exactly the same list of tasks, so ask for the checklist in writing. Anyone comparing cleaning services should put the room-by-room scope, the add-ons and the exclusions side by side rather than looking at the headline number alone.

Extra charges worth checking before booking

The extras below appear on Irish quotes and are the usual reason a final bill differs from the figure first mentioned.

• VAT status. Some cleaning businesses are registered for VAT and some are not, so ask whether the figure quoted includes VAT or whether VAT is added on top, and get the answer in writing.
• Travel. A travel fee is common for properties outside a town or city, or a long distance from the provider's base.
• Parking. In city centres and around apartment blocks or hospitals, parking charges, permit requirements or a parking disc may be passed on to the homeowner.
• Waste removal and disposal. Clearing bags, bulky items or the contents of a property is charged separately, typically in the €20–€50 range shown in the table above.
• Minimum callout. A two to three hour minimum, roughly €50–€120 at the hourly rates above, applies even when the job finishes early.
• Out-of-hours work. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays often carry a surcharge.
• Heavy soiling. Pets, smoking, mould and long-vacant properties may be priced as a higher tier of work.
• Consumables and equipment. Bags, cloths and specialist products may be extra, and some providers expect the homeowner to supply a vacuum, mop, bucket and cloths.
• Cancellation. Ask what notice is required and whether a late cancellation is charged.

How to compare deep cleaning quotes fairly

Ask each provider for the same written checklist and check it room by room. Confirm how many cleaners will attend and how many hours are allowed, because a low price built on one person and three hours is not comparable with a higher price built on two people and six. Confirm whether VAT, travel, parking and waste removal are included, and whether the products used are the homeowner's or the provider's. Ask about insurance cover for damage, and about what happens if something is broken or a surface is marked. Get the final price, the date and the scope in writing before any work begins, and treat a quote that is dramatically lower than the rest as a prompt to read the scope more closely rather than as a bargain.

Before the job is booked

Homeowners with a clear, room-by-room scope get more useful responses. On ShamFix, posting a job and listing it is free and there is no commission, and a subscription is planned for the future. ShamFix does not check or certify tradespeople and profiles are filled in by tradespeople themselves, so homeowners should check registrations themselves and read reviews before agreeing to anything. A homeowner can post a deep cleaning job on ShamFix with the number of rooms, the bathrooms, the add-ons wanted and the preferred date, and compare the replies on scope as well as price.

FAQ

Is the inside of the oven and the fridge worth adding to the quote?

It depends on how the kitchen is used. These are the two tasks most often left off a deep clean because they take the longest per unit of visible improvement, and adding them is straightforward since they already sit in the add-on band in the table above. A homeowner who would rather do them by hand should expect a couple of hours of soaking and scrubbing with a degreaser rather than a quick wipe.

Should the homeowner supply the vacuum and cleaning products?

Some providers bring their own equipment and products and build the cost into the quote, while others ask the homeowner to supply a vacuum, mop, bucket and cloths and price the job slightly lower as a result. Either arrangement is fine as long as it is agreed in advance, because a cleaner who arrives expecting a working vacuum and finds none may have to charge for the delay or reschedule.

Does the number of bathrooms change the price much?

Yes. Bathrooms take longer per square metre than any other room because of descaling, grout work and sanitising, so a second or third bathroom is normally treated as an extra room and priced accordingly. Ensuites and guest toilets are usually counted even when they are small.

Is a deposit or upfront payment normal?

Some businesses ask for a deposit on larger one-off jobs or from a first-time customer, and others ask for nothing until the work is finished. It is reasonable to ask what the deposit covers, whether it is refundable if the date changes, and how payment is taken on the day.

Can a deep clean be split across two visits?

It can, and it is sometimes the cheaper option when time is tight or the budget is fixed. Splitting the work might mean the kitchen and bathrooms are handled on one visit and the bedrooms, living areas and glass on another, though two callouts may attract two minimum charges.