Move out cleaning in Victoria: how hours and minimums work

Move out cleaning is the one people ask about most, usually at short notice, usually with a walkthrough already booked. It is also the service where hourly pricing causes the most confusion, so it is worth explaining what the structure is actually doing.

The published rates

Swept Space publishes its residential rates rather than quoting each one privately. Routine Cleaning $50/Hr. Move Out / Move In Cleaning $60/hr. Deep Cleaning $60/hr. Residential Carpet Cleaning 50 cents / sq ft. with a minimum call-out fee of $200.00.

One-time routine work has a three-hour minimum booking. Move in, move out and deep cleaning have a four-hour minimum booking. Recurring weekly or bi-weekly work is discussed individually, because a home cleaned every fortnight is a different job from the same home cleaned once.

Per cleaner, not per visit

This is the part that catches people out. The hourly rate is charged per cleaner. Two cleaners on site bill at twice the hourly rate, and it scales the same way with more. A typical residential job runs two cleaners, with three or more on larger homes.

That sounds like it costs more, and per hour it does. In practice it usually does not change the total much, because two people finish in roughly half the time. What it does change is the disruption. If you are handing keys back on Friday afternoon, a crew of three finishing in three hours is worth considerably more to you than one person taking nine.

Why hourly instead of a flat price

A flat quote for a move out clean has to be built on assumptions about condition, and condition is exactly what nobody can assess over the phone. Two identical two-bedroom units can be four hours apart depending on how the oven was treated and whether anyone has cleaned behind the fridge since the tenancy started.

Flat quoting solves that by padding for the worst case. You pay the padding whether your place needs it or not. Hourly means a genuinely well-kept home costs less, and the minimum booking exists so the job is still worth crewing and travelling to.

Getting an accurate estimate

• Be honest about the oven and the fridge, because those two swing the estimate more than floor area does
• Say whether carpets are included, since carpet cleaning is priced separately by area with its own minimum
• Mention anything that has been closed off, like a garage, a suite or a finished basement
• Flag hard water staining in bathrooms, which is slow work rather than difficult work
• Confirm whether the place will be fully empty, because cleaning around furniture takes longer

What a move out clean is actually being judged against

A move out clean has an audience, which makes it unlike almost every other residential job. Somebody is going to walk the place with a checklist and decide whether money comes back to you. That changes where the time should go.

The things that get flagged on an inspection are consistent and slightly unglamorous: inside the oven, inside and behind the fridge, bathroom grout and hard water marks, window tracks, baseboards, and the tops of doors and cabinets where dust sits unseen at standing height. Time spent there is worth more to you than time spent on surfaces that already look fine.

It is also why an empty home cleans faster and better. If you can arrange the clean after the last of the furniture is gone, you generally pay for fewer hours and get a stronger result on the inspection.

If you are outside the core area

One-time services outside Greater Victoria carry a travel minimum: Sooke - $300.00, Saanichton/ Sidney - $300.00, Duncan - $500.00 and Shawnigan/ Cobble Hill - $300.00. These apply to one-time work rather than recurring arrangements.

Booking and cancelling

Move out dates move. If yours does, please notify us at least 48 hours in advance via phone or email at info@sweptspace.com. Later than that and a cancellation fee of 2 hours service may apply, because the crew time has already been held for you and cannot be filled at short notice.

If something is missed, report it within 24 hours and a team comes back to put it right within a three-day window. On a move out clean that window is deliberately tight, because you are usually working to a handover deadline and a remedy that arrives next month is no remedy at all.