Quick answer
Carpet cleaning in Adelaide usually costs $30 to $55 per room for steam cleaning, with most cleaners setting a minimum charge of around $120 to $150 and a three-bedroom house typically costing $150 to $300. Carpet Rescue's published prices are $45 per bedroom or standard room, $65 per living area, $20 per hallway and $45 per flight of stairs, with a $120 minimum and end of lease packages from $169.
How carpet cleaning is priced in Adelaide
Almost every Adelaide carpet cleaner prices by the room, not by the hour, and almost every one has a minimum charge because the travel and set-up time is the same whether you have one bedroom or five. A "room" is normally a bedroom or similar space up to about 12 to 14 m²; lounges and open-plan living areas are either priced higher or counted as two rooms. Hallways, stairs and walk-in robes are handled differently from one company to the next, which is where quotes that look similar end up quite different.
Published guides and listings put Adelaide steam cleaning at roughly $30 to $55 per room, with minimum charges of around $120 to $150 and three-room specials commonly in the $130 to $150 range. Franchise brands and dry-cleaning systems tend to sit at the top of that range or above it and often do not publish prices at all.
What we charge
Our prices are published so you can price the job before you contact us:
- Bedroom or standard room (up to 14 m²): from $45 each
- Lounge or open-plan living area (over 14 m²): from $65
- Hallway: from $20; stairs: from $45 per flight (up to 14 steps)
- End of lease packages (bedrooms + living + hallway, sanitise and deodorise, dated receipt): 2-bed from $169, 3-bed from $209, 4-bed from $249
- Pet urine and odour treatment: from $40 per affected room; heavy stain treatment from $30 per area
- Scotchgard protection: from $35 per room; sanitise and deodorise from $15 per room
- Commercial and office carpet: from $3.50 per m², quoted
- Minimum booking: $120
So a typical three-bedroom house with a lounge and a hallway is 3 × $45 + $65 + $20 = $220 as individual rooms, or $209 as an end of lease package with deodorise and a receipt. The final figure is confirmed on inspection before we start, and nothing is added at the end.
What changes the price
- Room size and layout: a 30 m² open-plan family room is not a bedroom, and most cleaners price it as a living area or two rooms.
- Condition: heavily soiled carpet, years without a clean, or a home with several pets needs more pre-spray, dwell time and passes, and is quoted accordingly.
- Stairs and hallways: slow, hands-and-knees work, so they are priced separately almost everywhere.
- Pet urine: a surface clean does not fix it. Enzyme treatment of the backing is an add-on with any honest cleaner.
- Furniture: cleaning around a bed and a wardrobe is standard; moving heavy furniture and cleaning underneath takes time and is quoted.
- Add-ons: Scotchgard protection, deodorising and sanitising are optional and should be listed as separate line items, not folded into a mystery total.
- Fibre: wool needs wool-safe chemistry and more care with moisture. Some companies charge more for it; we do not, but we do take longer.
Why some quotes are suspiciously cheap
A $99 three-room special can be a perfectly fair maintenance clean on small, lightly soiled rooms. It can also be a quick pass with a portable machine and no pre-vacuum, with "heavy soiling", stairs, hallways and deodoriser added on the day until the bill doubles. Ask three questions before you book on price: is the pre-vacuum included, what counts as a room, and what will be added when the technician arrives. If the answers are vague, the price is not really the price.
Is professional cleaning worth it over hiring a machine?
A hire machine and a bottle of solution cost roughly $50 to $80 for a day, so for one lightly soiled room DIY is cheaper. The limitation is extraction: hire machines put water down well but pull it back out poorly, which leaves the carpet wet for a day or more, can leave a soapy residue that attracts soil, and does little for pet urine in the backing or oily traffic lanes. For a whole house, an end of lease clean that needs a receipt, pet accidents, set-in stains or wool carpet, professional hot water extraction gets a result a hire machine cannot, usually for the price of a few hours of your own time.
Rather have it done properly? We are an Adelaide-wide carpet cleaning service with published prices: get a free quote or call 0481 614 304, 7 days a week.
