Add-On Services for a House Cleaning Business: Start With the Floors You Clean
The add-on services that work best for a house cleaning business are the ones your clients already ask you about, and the wood floor is near the top of that list. You clean it every week, so you see exactly when the finish goes dull, and you are the person the homeowner trusts to tell them what to do. This post covers the usual add-ons, the floor care advice every cleaner should give, and how a hardwood recoat line can grow out of the clients you already have.
The usual add-ons for a cleaning business
Most house cleaning businesses grow by selling more to the clients they already have. The common add-ons are inside oven and fridge cleaning, inside windows, deep cleans, move-out cleans and organizing. They are easy to sell, but they are small tickets that add time to a visit you already priced tightly.
A good add-on does the opposite. It sells to the same clients, pays far more per hour than a clean, and does not tie up your regular cleaning crew. That is why some cleaning owners look at floor work.
You already see every floor
No one sees a home's floors more often than its cleaner. You see the traffic lanes go gray first, the scuffs by the back door and the dull patch where the dog runs. The homeowner walks past it every day and stops noticing. You notice.
Most homeowners think a dull wood floor has two fixes: sand it down or tear it out. A full sand and refinish commonly runs about $3 to $8 a square foot and keeps the family out of the room for days. A buff and recoat is the third choice: screen the old finish, clean up the dust and roll on a fresh coat, in about 3 hours for one person, with no sanding down to bare wood. Homeowners commonly pay about $1.50 to $3 a square foot.
Floor care advice every cleaner should give
- Skip store polish and "restorer" products on wood. They sit on top like wax on a car, then scuff and build up. A new coat will not bond over them without extra prep.
- Skip oil soap and steam mops on wood. Both are hard on the finish.
- Do not leave water sitting on the floor. Wring the mop well.
- Put rugs at the doors. Grit tracked in from outside acts like sandpaper.
- Put felt pads under chair and table legs, and lift furniture instead of sliding it.
- Use the cleaner the floor company recommends, and nothing else.
Even if you never add a floor service, these points help your clients and protect you. Some of the most common cleaning products wear out a wood floor's finish faster, and some make a later recoat harder.
How a recoat line fits a cleaning business
You do not have to turn your cleaners into floor techs. Many owners keep the cleaning crew on cleaning and have one person, often the owner at first, learn the recoat. A recoat takes one person about 3 hours on an average floor, so it can fit on a day off or between cleans.
The sale is easy to start, because the client already trusts you. You mention it during a visit, or send one message to your client list asking who has wood floors that look tired. Ask for a photo of the worst spot first. That saves you a trip to a floor that a recoat cannot fix, like wood worn through to gray, deep gouges or pet stains soaked into the wood.
Working around the recoat in the home
If you clean the same home, you need to know the timeline after a recoat. The family can walk on the floor in socks after about 24 hours. Furniture goes back at about 3 days on felt pads, lifted, not slid. Plan your next clean around that, and use only the recommended floor cleaner from then on.
This is also where a cleaning business has an edge over a floor company. You are back in the home every week or two. You can keep the floor looking good, and you will be the first to know when it is ready for its next coat.
What one job can be worth
In the job example we use across this site, an average job of $2,499 costs about $236 in finish, about $40 to rent the buffer and about $250 in marketing to win it. That leaves about $1,973 before labor and taxes. That is an example, not a promise. When the client already knows you, that marketing cost can be close to zero.
Things to check before you start
- Insurance: ask your agent whether your policy covers floor finishing, not just cleaning.
- Licensing: check your state's rules for floor work. They differ a lot from state to state.
- Training: learn which floors to turn down. Turning down the wrong floor costs you one job. Taking it costs you a review.
- Brand: decide whether floors go under your cleaning name or a new one.
A few things are worth settling before your first floor job, not after.
How FloorIt fits
FloorIt builds a recoat business in your name, trains you and your crew, ships the finish and applicator kit, covers your first 3 buffer rentals and brings you your first 50 leads with ads we run under your brand. It is not a franchise, and there is no royalty on your jobs. You keep your cleaning business exactly as it is.
Common questions
What add-on services can a house cleaner offer? Common ones are inside appliances, inside windows, deep cleans and move-out cleans. A bigger-ticket option is hardwood floor recoats for clients with dull wood floors.
Is it OK to use polish on wood floors when cleaning? It is better not to. Store polish builds up and scuffs, and a new coat of finish will not bond over it without extra prep.
Do I need floor experience to add recoats? No. The job is a step-by-step process that can be learned with training and a practice floor. Most of the skill is the prep.
Can my cleaning crew do the recoats? They can be trained, but many owners keep cleaners on cleaning and have one person handle floors at first.