Do you tip carpet cleaners?

Do you have dirty carpets? Even with regular vacuuming, your carpets will eventually need the deep cleaning services of a ‘steam cleaner’ or dry cleaning company. Regardless of the carpet cleaning method you choose, your carpet cleaners will remove all of the dirt, grime, debris, and allergens in your carpets. After they’ve finished making your carpets look like new again, you might wonder, do you tip carpet cleaners?

Do you tip carpet cleaners? (Answer)

Tipping carpet cleaners is not customary or expected so feel free not to leave a tip.

Carpet cleaners are paid a salary that’s above minimum wage. They’re not reliant on customer tips, unlike waiters and waitresses. Do you still feel like you should leave a tip? Think about this: do you tip plumbers or electricians? No, you don’t and that’s because they provide professional services just like a carpet cleaner. Since you don’t tip plumbers or electricians, you don’t have to tip carpet cleaners either.

Of course, if you do want to tip your carpet cleaning guys for good service, they will appreciate it. The important takeaway is that tipping them is optional and is not expected!

Who to never tip

You should never tip if your carpet cleaner guy owns the actual carpet cleaning business. Why? It’s because if your carpet is extra dirty, they’ll account for that in the price they quote or charge you! If the owner did a great job, consider recommending him to your neighbors instead. Business owners love referrals!

Keep in mind that many of the local branches of the ‘national’ brands are actually independently owned and operated. For example, there are 280 different Stanley Steemer franchise locations in 49 states. Since franchise locations are independently owned, there’s a good chance that your carpet cleaner is a small business owner and not an employee!

The one exception: Lots of heavy furniture

There are some cases where you might feel that you should give your carpet cleaners a tip, such as if they moved a lot of heavy furniture around for you at no charge. In that case, a tip can be a good expression of gratitude for helping you out. While some companies will move furniture for free, others will charge for it or ask you to move it yourself before they arrive.

How much to tip?

How much tip do you give carpet cleaners? Although you don’t have to tip, it can be a nice gesture to leave $5 – $10 per carpet cleaning guy for exceptional service. Since there’s no standard tip, how much tip you leave is entirely up to you. Whatever you give will be appreciated.

Tip before or after the job is complete?

If you are leaving your carpet cleaners a tip, it’s best to give it to them as they are leaving your house. Don’t tip at the beginning of the job or even halfway through. Only tip once the job’s complete. Why? It’s because your tip should be a reward for doing a great job throughout your house. You’ll likely surprise them, too, since tips aren’t expected.

Steam cleaning versus dry carpet cleaning

The two most popular professional carpet cleaning methods are steam cleaning and dry carpet cleaning. While both methods work well, there are some key differences that we will explain.

The steam cleaning method

Steam cleaning is the most well-known carpet cleaning method. What is it exactly? It’s a hot water extraction method that uses high pressure, high-temperature water, and a cleaning solution to extract dirt, grime, debris, and allergens from your carpet. Because this method uses much more water than dry cleaning does, your carpets will take longer to dry. This can be a concern if you’re having your carpets cleaned in the afternoon and want dry carpets for the evening.

You should use the steam cleaning method if your carpet is exceptionally dirty since it will yield the best results.

The dry cleaning method

Dry cleaning is a less well-known but generally equally effective carpet cleaning method. Unlike steam cleaning, dry carpet cleaning uses very little water, which means you can walk on your carpet not long after. In this method, a special shampooing cleaning solution is combined with a sprayer and a brush-like tool to loosen and suction away all of the grime.

Do-it-yourself versus professional carpet cleaning companies?

If you are a do-it-yourselfer, you might be considering buying a steam cleaner yourself or renting one from a store, but the results are usually disappointing. The cost of a steam cleaner, soaps, and protectants is also often more than the cost of a professional carpet cleaning service. That means that you would only want to buy a steam cleaner yourself if you’re going to use it regularly. Otherwise, it’s wasted money and just another piece of equipment you have to find space for in your garage or closet.

Besides a mediocre end result, deep cleaning your carpets can take you many, many hours since you won’t be using professional equipment. Instead, you’ll be using underpowered equipment with a narrow width and weaker cleaning solution chemicals. That means that you will have to go over the same area several times with poor stain removal results. Your time is worth something and you don’t have to spend your weekend going back and forth across the same section of carpet hoping that the stains become just a little less noticeable.

That’s where a carpet cleaning company comes in. They’re experts at cleaning carpets and have commercial-grade equipment that leaves your carpets looking new. They can clean your carpets better than you can yourself and they’re in and out of your house in no time. By the time they’re done, you’d still be cleaning your first room!

How do they do it? They have expensive, commercial-grade carpet cleaning equipment and cleaning solutions. They use a truck or tank-mounted system and hundreds of feet of hosing to professionally clean your carpet with results that you could never achieve yourself.

Cost of carpet cleaning

If you have dirty carpets that need deep cleaning, a carpet cleaning professional can have your carpets looking like new in no time. While you might think that steam cleaning is expensive, it’s generally fairly cheap, as in $99 for 3 rooms or $159 for 5 rooms cheap. That’s a pretty great deal!

If you’re not using a 3 or 5 room special deal, statistics show that the average cleaning cost per square foot of carpet is $0.20 to $0.25. While that might not seem like much, the typical home is 2,333 square feet. If the house was fully carpeted, it would cost $466.60 to $583.25 to deep clean. Now you can see why those 3 to 5 room special offers can save you some serious money!

Money saving tips: Focus on high foot traffic areas and negotiate on empty rooms

You can save even more money by only cleaning where it matters most since the best carpet cleaning deals are for 3 to 5 rooms. The dirtiest carpets in a house are in high foot traffic areas. What do we mean by high foot traffic areas? These are the parts of your house that you use the most like your entryway, living room, or master bedroom. By focusing on the dirtiest areas, rather than cleaning empty rooms, you’ll get more bang for your buck.

If you have low foot traffic areas that are barely dirty, like empty rooms, make sure to ask for a discount! It won’t take your cleaners as long to clean these rooms so they can pass the time savings on to you.

Nationwide versus local brands

There’s a lot of competition in the steam cleaning industry and as a result, you can get a good deal as long as you shop around. The major nationwide carpet cleaners are Stanley Steemers, Chem Dry carpet cleaning, and Zerorez. You’ve probably heard of all three but as a result of the Stanley Steemer guy advertising, they’re often the most well-known brand. All three are great companies that deliver professional carpet cleaning results.

Besides the nationwide brands, there are many more local carpet cleaning companies. While not as well known, they’re often just as good.

Both nationwide and local companies frequently run specials or have coupons that get the cost of steam cleaning down to a more affordable level. Call around, get a few quotes, and check for special offers.

Special offers, promotions, and deals

Carpet cleaning companies frequently run special promotions or have discount coupons. Remember that the biggest nationwide companies are Stanley Steemers carpet cleaners, ChemDry carpet cleaners, and Zerorez carpet cleaners plus there are many more local carpet cleaning companies. All the major companies have regular advertised promotions so be sure to check for one before you book.

Using a carpet cleaning special or coupon can get the cost of a carpet cleaning way down. The most common deal is $99 total to clean the carpets in 3 rooms or $159 total to clean the carpets in 5 rooms. That’s pretty cheap! If you want to find all the best deals at a carpet cleaning company near you, search Google for carpet cleaning specials, carpet cleaning specials near me, 3 room carpet cleaning special, Stanley Steemer coupons, ‘Stanley Steemer $99 special’, ‘Stanley Steemer $159 special’, zero rez carpet cleaning specials, best carpet cleaning deals, and carpet cleaning deals near me.

Bad results? What to do

First, don’t feel the need to leave a tip! Tipping carpet cleaners isn’t required anyway and you should never feel obligated to leave a tip for poor service. Tips should only ever be given for excellent customer service.

If you’re not satisfied with the service you received, you should let the company know. You need to have them make it right. It’s not acceptable for them to do a bad job cleaning your carpets, damage your walls, or not put your furniture back if that was agreed to upfront. All the major brands have ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ policies but you need to call their local offices if you can’t get the cleaning crew to fix the problem on the spot. If you’re not using one of the 3 main brands, check online to see if your company has a satisfaction guaranteed policy, and then find your local office’s contact details.

If you can’t get your local steam cleaning office of one of the 3 major brands to honor their satisfaction guaranteed policy, you should contact their national offices to escalate the dispute. Here are the national phone numbers for the 3 nationwide companies:

Stanley Steemer’s phone number is: 1-800-783-3637

ChemDry’s phone number is:

Zerorez’s phone number is: 1-866-937-6739

Those numbers aren’t just for complaints. You can also use any of these 3 phone numbers to check the cost of a carpet cleaning and to make a service booking.

Final thoughts

We hope that after reading our article, you now have a much better understanding of the carpet cleaning process, methods, costs, and you’ll know that tipping isn’t expected but rather appreciated. Cleaning your carpets erases unsightly stains, improves your home’s appeal, and removes harmful allergens. Enjoy your like-new carpets!