how long should it take a cleaner to clean a 3 bed house?

[fridayschild]

I'm working on the principle that the mumsnet advice is that cleaners and childcarers are different people, so it's a logical sort of place to ask the question! Fingers crossed anyway...

I've moved house and would like to employ a cleaner once a week. 3 beds 2 baths, kitchen, sitting room. Not a tiny cottage or an enormous mansion. No ironing, just cleaning.

I saw someone today who told me it would take her 5 hours (and that was without going upstairs). I'd thought 4 hours max, on the basis that in my old house which was bigger, my cleaner did the whole thing in a mediocre way in 2.5 hours. Any views?

Today's cleaner also thought £10 per hour was about right (SW London). It might be right for her but not for me! That's another thread I think.

£10 isgood value i think, esp for London. I pay that and am in south east

my cleaner does 3 hours and doesn't always have time to do the entire house.
i think 4 would be adequate tho

4hrs to do it all to a reasonable degree, proivided it is tidy and she does not have to pick up after you all should be plenty IMO.

£10 ph sounds pretty good TBH. (for your location)

Have always had a 3 hour cleaner once a week for my 4 bed, 2 baths, 1 cloakroom, kitchen, two lounges in W London. None of my 3 cleaners have been outstanding though. I can imagine a perfectionist could take 5 hours.

I pay £10/hour. I looked into others recently, found that some in the area charged £25 (agency), some £13 (private), some £7.50. £9 seemed to be most common for private cleaners.

We used to pay £10/hour for 3 hours, and our wonderful cleaner could do our old terraced house - double reception, 4 beds, one bath and one separate toilet - in that with no problem.

I clean my parents house which is a 4 bed 2 bathroom 2 reception and I take 4 hours to do upstairs and downstairs to a reasonable standard, every couple of months i take 5 hours to clean behind all the nooks and crannys which hide the dust.
If I charged it would be £10 per hour

£10/hour sounds standard. Remember she's paying her tax and NI and any business expenses out of that.

4 hours is adequate for a high-standard maintenance clean but sone things may not be done every week.

£10 hour is about right here in northern ireland.

it does depend on what cleaning you mean.

i have 3 bed terrace with downstairs loo, ensuite and bathroom. to do windows, dusting, hoovering and mopping and bathrooms i reckon 4 hours.

thanks all. I offered her the opportunity to look at the house to see if she thought 4 hours was enough and she wasn't interested, so I think it was £50 that she had in mind.

Will keep hunting!

is that 4 hours twice a week or 2 hours twice a week

I have a cleaner who does the 'keeping on top of it' cleaning - no windows or anything like that - it's £10 per hour for 2 hours a week.

i just thought that at 10 quid an hour 8 hours a week is a bit excessive

You need three hours. I made a list of what I would do in each room, timed it and added it up. I then knocked off jobs that were a nice to have to make sure it was within time agreed. In reality our cleaner did more because she was faster and more proficient than me. One reason I did that was that my friend kept having cleaners leave and it was because she wanted too much done in too short a time so I wanted to be sure I was not asking a cleaner to do more than I could do myself. It was also a useful tool when recruiting as it gave me confidence to confirm I only needed three hours for my 3 bed house.

our cleaner does our 3-bed SE London victorian in four hours and I reckon she could really do it in three.
we pay £10 but £8 or £9 an hour is what a lot people i know pay.

I'm in north London and pay £10 an hour.

I have a cleaner 2hrs a fortnight & pay £8ph, she only does the basics - floors, kitchen, bathroom, some dusting. Occasionally I have 4hrs (maybe 3/4 times per year) and then she does pretty much everyting. (3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom small house).

p.s. I am in east mids

i have a 3 bed house and would say it takes me 2hrs to clean/hoover/polish/wash floor etc

maybe try on 3 and if does it quickly then ask her to clean out fridge/oven/iron every now and again

i have 3 (big) beds, 2 bathrooms

a lounge and a kitchen diner...

nice size but not enourmouse

My cleaner does it all in 2 hours (including changing my bed linen)

so hoovers and dusts every where.
cleans all the bathrooms
cleans kitchen, hob / sink and washes the kitchen and bathroom floors

I clean a 5 bedroomed house with 3 bathrooms, 3 reception rooms, large kitchen over 3 floors

In the holidays when not doing other stuff I can do it in 6.5 hours and that is a good clean including hoovering and moping all wooden floors and their are loads of them

We pay a private cleaner £8.00 per hour for similiar size. 3.5 hours. I always 3 was rushed, half hour gives a bit more breathing space. 4 would make time for extras each week - or detailed in some areas.Ask around if anyone locally has someone they can recommend.
Or does your area have a local online forum - ours in w. london is great for finding these sorts of things.
PS I won't pay £10 per hour

Thanks - I got Mrs £50 from a postcard outside the newsagents. There is somewhere else local I can try, and a colleague has recommended an agency who charge £8 an hour. The agency fees seem a bit low, actually, because their staff have to be on minimum wage, and I don't think that's a living wage in London. I'll keep hunting but the feedback is really useful.

Why do people pay £10 for a cleaner and complain when it is childcare?

Cant imagine a childminder or nanny asking for £10 per hour...

I would have thought £10 an hour was a normal rate and would expect 4 to 5 hours for a 3 bed house

Personally, I wouldn't look at it like this. I would make a list of ALL the things you need cleaned and be very specific. Of course a cleaner could clean in 2 hours, but it won't be good. So, make a list and let the cleaner do it and just see how long it takes. That's what I do. Sometimes the list is longer ( when I need a more thorough clean- think, cleaning behind the sofa or cleaning under the bed or degreasing the tops of the kitchen cupboards etc ) and other times I just need the basic clean. I pay for how long it takes. Each cleaner is different. The best cleaner I ever had, also took the longest. But she cleaned, as if she was cleaning her own house. No shortcuts. I used to have cleaners who I paid, say for 4 hours and they'd tell me they were finished after 2 and everything was done. It doesn't work like that. Just my two cents. Good luck !