What does your deep clean actually include?

Forks Blue

People hire a cleaner on trust and on price, so a cleaning company's site takes the guesswork out of both: a checklist of what each type of clean includes, how the price is worked out, your insurance and WSIB status stated plainly, and a quote form that asks for the size of the place and how often.

Get a free preview

What does each type of clean include?

“Deep clean” means something different to every customer. One expects the inside of the oven, another expects the walls washed, and the job you priced included neither. That gap shows up after the visit, as a refund or a review, and a written checklist is the cheapest way to close it before anyone books.

So each type of clean gets its own page, with what is included, what is not, and the add-ons priced separately underneath, so a customer can see what the base price buys. A typical split, which yours will adjust:

Standard or recurring: the upkeep clean, the same rooms and tasks every visit
Deep: a first visit or a spring clean, adding baseboards, door frames and build-up
Move-in and move-out: an empty home, inside cabinets, closets, oven and fridge
Post-renovation: fine dust on every surface, vents and window tracks
Commercial and janitorial: offices and common areas after hours, scope by area, restocking and contract frequency

How is the price worked out?

A price page does not need one number for every home. It needs to show how the number is worked out, so a customer can estimate their own clean before asking. Say whether you price by bedrooms and bathrooms, by square footage or by the hour; how weekly, every-two-weeks and monthly rates compare with a one-off; whether the first clean costs more than the visits after it; your minimum charge; and whether supplies are included.

The Competition Bureau is clear that an advertised price has to be one a customer can actually pay. A “from” price that always gains a supply, travel or booking fee at the end is drip pricing, which is against the law. Only charges imposed by government, such as sales tax, can be added on top.

Write “+HST” only if you are registered. HST is 13% in Ontario, but a business whose revenue from taxable sales, including any associated businesses, stays at $30,000 or less both in any single calendar quarter and over the last four consecutive quarters is a small supplier and does not have to register, so a new solo cleaner may honestly quote without it.

WSIB and insurance, stated plainly

WSIB files house, maid, residential and office cleaning under janitorial services, and coverage for that work is mandatory once you have workers. Carpet and upholstery cleaning and window cleaning are in the same position. You have 10 calendar days from hiring your first employee to register, and WSIB counts family members and sub-contractors among them. If you work alone with no employees, you do not have to register, as long as the work is outside construction.

That condition matters if you offer post-renovation cleans. WSIB classes cleaning a building's interior during and right after construction as a construction trade, and in construction even an owner working alone must have coverage and a clearance before the work starts. The exception is cleaning an existing home for the person who lives there, or their family, when they hire you directly. A builder or general contractor hiring you is not that exception.

So the trust section says which of those is true for you, with your liability insurance and its carrier beside it. Background checks and bonding appear only if you actually have them, and I will not write a line that implies cover you do not have. On the commercial page the clearance does more work. A business or property manager that hires a contractor without one can be held liable for its unpaid WSIB premiums, up to the labour portion of the contract. A clearance covers all your contracts for up to 90 days, can be requested online straight away, and the client can check the number on WSIB's site. Homeowners are outside that rule.

A quote form that asks for size and frequency

You price a clean by its size, how often it happens and how you get in, so the form asks for all three and stays short enough to finish on a phone, with your number beside it.

Commercial requests branch after the first question to ask about after-hours access, visits per week and the areas to be cleaned. For a home, these are the fields that earn their place:

Type of clean, and whether it is one-time, weekly, every two weeks or monthly
Property type and size: house, condo, apartment or office, in square feet or bedrooms and bathrooms
Postal code, to check it is inside your service area
Preferred date or day, and how you get in: key, code or someone home
Pets and parking, because both change the time on site
Photos, optional, for heavy build-up or a move-out

What a customer wants to know before letting you in

The customer is deciding who walks into their home, often while they are out. Real photographs of you or your team do more here than on almost any trade site, before-and-after shots go up only with the homeowner's permission, and there are no stock photos.

Then answer the questions people otherwise send by text, one at a time:

Same cleaner or team each visit, or whoever is free
What happens if something is missed, and how long a customer has to say so
Cancellation and lockout fees, stated before booking rather than on the invoice
How keys, codes and alarms are handled and stored
What the customer should do beforehand, such as clearing counters
Which products you use, and whether fragrance-free is an option

Example: a deep-clean page written as a checklist

Task	On a deep clean
Kitchen and bathroom surfaces, floors, dusting	Included
Baseboards, door frames and light switches	Included
Inside the oven	Add-on, priced on the page
Inside the fridge	Add-on, priced on the page
Interior windows and tracks	Add-on, priced on the page
Walls	Spot-cleaned; a full wash is quoted separately
Exterior windows	Not offered

Questions people ask

How much does a cleaning company website cost?

A one-time $499 for one to three pages, $899 for four to six, or $1,399 for seven to ten. A solo cleaner with one or two services fits the Starter. A page per type of clean usually means the Standard, and residential plus commercial usually means the Pro. Hosting is free; the domain is $15 to $25 a year.

Should I put prices on my cleaning website?

Yes, as far as you honestly can. Show how the price is worked out, a starting price a customer can actually pay, and whether it is fixed or an estimate. In Ontario you cannot bill a consumer more than 10% over an estimate without their written agreement, so if build-up, pets or a bigger home changes the job, give a revised estimate and get that agreement first.

Do I need WSIB for my cleaning business in Ontario?

Yes, once anyone works for you, including family members and sub-contractors. WSIB lists house, maid and office cleaning as mandatory coverage, and you have 10 calendar days from the first hire to register. Working alone with no employees, you do not have to register, except for cleaning during or right after construction, which WSIB treats as construction work unless the person living in the home hired you directly.

Can I see a cleaning website before I pay?

Yes. None of the sample sites is a cleaning company, so the honest way to see one is your own. After a twenty-minute call you get your homepage within a week, free and with nothing signed. If it is not right for you, you owe nothing.

Do you write the checklists, or do I?

I write the copy from the call, including a first draft of every checklist. You check each line before launch, because only you know whether your team does the inside of the oven, and a checklist is a promise. Changing a price or a task later is covered by the optional Care plan, from $49 a month.