- A deep clean covers what standard cleaning skips on purpose: inside the oven, behind the fridge, grout lines, baseboards, ceiling vents, blinds, the underside of the range hood.
- The oven alone eats up to 1.5 hours if it has not been touched in a year. Blinds add another 1.5 hours per four to five windows.
- A typical LA apartment takes 3 to 6 hours with a two-person crew. One badly neglected room can run 6 hours by itself — we filmed one, and the tape is not sped up.
- In West LA, wildfire ash and freeway soot make deep cleans a health task, not a cosmetic one. HEPA vacuuming and damp wiping matter more than any product.
- Our rate for deep cleaning is $75 an hour with a three-hour minimum, so $225 covers the smallest job. Add-ons for oven and fridge interiors, interior windows and inside cabinets are booked in advance.
- Book a deep clean before you start recurring service, and again every 3 to 6 months after that. Between deep cleans, standard visits keep the baseline.
You just noticed the tops of your kitchen cabinets. Or the vent above the shower. Or that strip of baseboard behind the couch you moved for the first time in two years. That is usually how a deep clean starts — one dusty corner that makes you look at the rest of the room differently.
We are the crew at Elite Eco Cleaning, working across Los Angeles seven days a week. Most calls we get for deep cleans come from three kinds of homes: places that have never had a professional in, places about to start recurring service and needing a reset first, and places in West LA that got hit with wildfire ash and freeway grime and finally reached the tipping point. This is the checklist we run through on those jobs, in the order our crews actually work.
What a Deep Clean Is, and What It Is Not
A standard cleaning maintains a home that is already at a reasonable baseline. Vacuum, mop, wipe kitchen counters, sanitize the toilet, dust visible surfaces. Two to three hours, done.
A deep clean resets the baseline. It goes into the spots that regular cleaning skips on purpose — because if you did all of it every week, the visit would cost triple. Deep cleaning is what gets you to a state where standard cleaning can keep up.
The specific tasks a standard clean skips
Here is what standard cleaning leaves alone, and what a deep clean covers:
- Inside the oven — degreased, racks pulled and scrubbed
- Inside the refrigerator — shelves out, seals wiped, drip pan checked
- Range hood filter — soaked and degreased
- Cabinet exteriors, and interiors on request
- Baseboards, door frames, window sills — hand-wiped
- Behind and under furniture we can safely move
- Ceiling fans, light fixtures, air vents
- Blinds — slat by slat
- Grout lines in bathrooms and kitchen backsplashes
- The bathroom ceiling and ceiling vent — mildew shows up here first
- Walls, spot-cleaned or wiped down where marks are visible
- Doors, both faces, including the top edge
- Under the bed and behind the headboard
Some jobs also include folding laundry the client already washed, dishwashing, and putting fresh linen on the bed. We do those on request, and the time counts against the booking.
When to book a deep clean instead of standard
Book a deep clean when the home has not been professionally cleaned in more than three months, when you are starting recurring service and want to begin from a baseline, when someone in the house has allergies flaring up, when you move in and want the previous tenant’s version of clean replaced with yours, or when you can see dust patterns on ceiling vents from the couch.
Twice a year is a common rhythm for households without pets or heavy cooking. Every three months if you have both.
The Kitchen — Where the Time Actually Goes
The kitchen is why deep cleans take longer than clients expect. Grease is patient. It builds in thin layers on cabinet fronts near the stove, on the backsplash behind the burners, along the top of the range hood, inside the microwave, and in the seam where the countertop meets the wall. None of it looks bad from three feet away. All of it needs a degreaser and a scrub pad up close.
Oven, stovetop, range hood
The oven interior is the single longest task in most kitchens. On a range that has been used weekly for a year and never deep-cleaned, expect 60 to 90 minutes: apply an eco-friendly degreaser, wait, scrub, rinse, repeat on the racks in the sink. If the previous tenant left a burned lasagna crust from 2023, add another 30 minutes.
The stovetop comes apart. Grates soak, drip pans get pulled and scrubbed, burner caps get wiped, the glass or enamel underneath gets a full degrease. The range hood filter comes out and goes into the sink for a hot soak — if it is metal mesh, dish soap and near-boiling water; if it is a charcoal cartridge, we recommend replacement instead of cleaning.
Refrigerator interior and seals
Pull everything out. Toss what expired. Wipe shelves, drawers, the ceiling of the fridge, and the door seals, which trap crumbs and start to smell before anything else does. Vacuum the coils on the back or bottom if they are accessible — dust on coils makes the compressor work harder.
A neglected fridge takes 45 minutes to an hour. A maintained one takes 20.
The bachelor fridge — a special case
A fridge belonging to someone who lives alone and eats out most nights is its own category. Almost empty, but with three things that make it harder to clean than a full fridge: a bottle of hot sauce that leaked down the door, a takeout container from a month ago that the owner is pretending is not there, and a puddle of unknown liquid in the bottom drawer. Empty shelves feel like an easy job — until you find that the drip has run down behind the drawer track and hardened. Budget the same 45 minutes as for a full fridge. Sometimes more, because we end up cleaning the drawer track with a toothbrush.
Cabinets, backsplash, sink
Cabinet exteriors get wiped in full, not just the doors near the trash. Handles and pulls get their own pass. Inside the cabinets is an add-on because it means unloading everything, wiping every shelf, and putting it back — that is another hour to ninety minutes in a normal kitchen. Worth doing every second or third deep clean.
The sink gets a mineral-scale treatment. The drain gets a baking soda and hot water flush. The backsplash — especially tile grout — gets scrubbed with a brush, not just a sponge. Grout is where kitchen bacteria settles in.
The Bathroom — Ceiling, Vents, Grout
Most bathrooms in LA are small. That is deceiving. A small bathroom with a shower stall, a tub, tile grout, a mirror, a toilet, a vent, and a fixture-heavy sink area still takes 45 minutes to an hour to deep clean properly, and up to 90 minutes if there is hard-water buildup on the glass and fixtures.
Ceiling, vent, and light fixture
We work top to bottom, always. That means the ceiling first, especially the corners above the shower where mildew starts as tiny black dots. The vent cover comes off and gets rinsed in the sink — pulling it down reveals dust the size of a mouse and, if the exhaust fan has been used through steam for years, a felted layer that needs a full wipe.
The light fixture gets opened, the dead bugs get emptied out, the glass gets washed. This is a five-minute task that nobody does at home.
Shower, tub, and grout
The shower is where hard-water minerals and soap scum meet. On glass panels, we use a mildly acidic descaler, let it dwell, then squeegee. On chrome fixtures, the same. Grout gets a stiff brush and a peroxide-based cleaner — never bleach on colored grout, it lifts the color.
Tub jets, if there is a jetted tub, need to be flushed by filling above the jets with hot water, adding a scoop of dishwasher powder, running the jets for ten minutes, draining, then running again with fresh water. That flushes bio-film out of the pipes. Most people skip it their entire life.
Toilet base, behind the tank, floor edge
The base of the toilet, the caulk line where it meets the floor, and the wall behind the tank are the three spots that determine whether a bathroom smells fresh or vaguely off. All three get direct attention. Floor edges around the toilet and along the tub get hand-wiped, not just mopped over.
Bedrooms, Living Room, and What Hides Under Furniture
Bedrooms feel like a quick room to clean. They are not, once you deep-clean them.
Move the bed away from the wall, vacuum behind and under it, wipe the baseboard the bed usually hides, dust the headboard and the bed frame, vacuum the mattress top and sides. Nightstands come away from the wall, get wiped on all sides, and the floor underneath gets vacuumed. Under a nightstand that has not moved in a year, you can grow a small ecosystem.
The living room is where dust-heavy items live: lampshades, decorative pillows, throws, bookshelves, TV consoles, art frames. Every horizontal surface gets dusted with a microfiber cloth, not feathered — feather dusters just redistribute. Books get pulled forward and dusted along the top. Speakers, remote controls, and the front of the TV get a dry microfiber pass; screen cleaner only if the client provides it, because the wrong solvent will strip anti-glare coating.
From our crew lead on a Glendale job
We were called to a modern home in Glendale rented by two roommates. Booking said standard three-hour clean, one bedroom, one bath. When we walked into the bedroom, we saw what happens when nobody is fully in charge of a space — clothes on the floor, laundry basket in the middle of the room, unmade bed with a pile of stuff on top of it, water bottles and cables on every horizontal surface. The ceiling fan carried a real layer of dust. The old aluminum blinds ate an hour and a half on their own.
That one room took six hours for two of us. When we finished, the bed was made, the floor was clear, the bedside table was down to what actually belongs on it. The room looked like a completely different apartment.
You can also watch a short clip of a similar job here. The lesson: never estimate a deep clean from what a room looks like. Estimate it from how long nobody has done it properly.
The LA-Specific Layer
Universal deep cleaning checklists ignore what actually gets into LA homes.
Wildfire ash and smoke residue
After the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025, homes across West LA, Hollywood, Beverly Hills and the surrounding neighborhoods took on a fine ash layer that kept resettling for weeks. Ash and soot from wildfires can contain lead, asbestos and arsenic, which is why the LA County Department of Public Health recommends damp wiping and HEPA vacuuming, not dry sweeping. Dry sweeping just puts the particles back in the air.
On a deep clean in a home that took ash exposure, we run HEPA vacuums on every soft surface — couch cushions, drapes, mattresses, area rugs — and damp-wipe every hard surface twice. Vents and returns get pulled and cleaned. This is not a two-hour job. Budget five to seven for a two-bedroom.
Freeway soot in homes near 101 and 405
If you live within a quarter mile of a major freeway, the black film on window sills and interior glass is not regular dust. It is diesel particulate. Damp wiping with a microfiber cloth, changed frequently, is the only method that works — a dry cloth smears it. Interior windows near a freeway need cleaning twice as often as elsewhere.
Old Hollywood and Beverly Hills housing stock
Homes built in the 1920s through the 1950s — Spanish revival, Tudor, Craftsman, early Mid-Century — have architectural details that trap dust in ways new construction does not. Coved ceilings, plaster crown molding, wrought-iron railings, cast-iron floor grates, wood-panel doors with recessed panels. Every one of those needs hand attention with a brush and a microfiber cloth. On a deep clean of a Beverly Hills Flats home built in the 1930s, plan an extra two hours just for architectural detail work.
Santa Ana winds and pollen season
When the Santa Anas blow, fine dust and pollen come through any window that is not sealed tight. In September through November, and again in spring, deep cleans in Hollywood Hills, Bel Air and Brentwood homes routinely include an extra pass on interior window frames, sills, and tracks. The tracks are the sleeper task — pack in three seasons of pollen and you get a paste.
How Long a Deep Clean Actually Takes
Rough planning ranges we quote clients:
- Studio or one-bedroom, one bath, decent condition: 3 to 4 hours, two people.
- Two-bedroom, two-bath apartment: 4 to 5 hours, two people.
- Three-bedroom house, three baths: 5 to 7 hours, two to three people.
- Four bedrooms or more, or heavy add-ons: 7 to 10 hours, three people.
- Post-ash or heavy-neglect condition: add two hours minimum.
These are two-person crew estimates. A single cleaner takes roughly 1.7 times longer because there is no parallel work — while one person degreases the oven, the other can already be in the master bath.
What We Charge, and What Add-Ons Cost
For deep cleaning in LA our rate is $75 per hour with a three-hour minimum. The smallest deep clean invoice is $225. Everything included in the standard deep-clean scope — kitchen detail, bathrooms, bedrooms, dusting, floors — is inside the hourly rate. Supplies are included. We bring eco-friendly, low-toxicity products safe around kids, pets and people with sensitivities. On request we work with steam and minimal chemistry.
Add-ons that get booked separately because they take real time:
- Inside oven and inside fridge, deep strip, as a package
- Interior windows, glass, frames and tracks — see also our window cleaning service
- Inside cabinets, unload and reload
- Laundry wash-dry-fold in your machine
- Garment steaming for hanging clothes
For yacht deep cleans in Marina del Rey we have a separate scope and rate, since the fixtures and materials are different from a home.
What to Do Before We Arrive
Fifteen minutes of prep saves an hour of billable time. Clear countertops in the kitchen and bathroom of small personal items — we clean around clutter more slowly than around bare surfaces. Pick up loose clothing off bedroom floors. If a room has fragile items, put them somewhere safe or point them out at the door. If pets get anxious around strangers, arrange a room or a walk. Tell us the two or three things that bother you most in the space — the reason you called — and we will start there.
If you want a same-day slot we usually have one, and evening bookings up to 10 pm are standard. Send a couple of photos of the space to WhatsApp at +1 747-241-2921 for a firm quote.
Deep Cleaning FAQ
How is deep cleaning different from standard cleaning?
Standard cleaning maintains a home that is already at a workable baseline — vacuuming, mopping, wiping counters, sanitizing bathrooms, dusting visible surfaces. A deep clean goes into places standard cleaning skips: inside appliances, behind furniture, grout lines, ceiling vents, blinds, baseboards, cabinet interiors, light fixtures. Deep cleans take roughly twice as long as standard and cost about twice as much per visit. After one deep clean, standard visits can maintain the result.
How often should I book a deep clean?
Every 3 to 6 months for most homes. Every 3 months if you have pets, small kids, cook every day, or live in a smoke-affected part of LA. Every 6 months for a low-traffic home with one or two adults. Many clients pair a deep clean with the change of seasons — one in spring and one in fall covers most needs.
How long does a deep clean of a two-bedroom apartment take?
Usually 4 to 5 hours with a two-person crew, assuming the space is in normal condition. Very neglected spaces can push toward 7 hours. Post-ash or post-construction conditions add two to three hours.
Can you do same-day and evening deep cleans?
Yes, seven days a week, 8 am to 10 pm, including holidays. Same-day availability depends on the neighborhood — text us and we will confirm within the hour.
Do I need to buy supplies or equipment?
No. We bring everything, including HEPA vacuums and eco-friendly products. If you prefer a specific product, leave it on the counter and we will use it.
Can I book recurring deep cleans, or only one-off?
Both. Many clients start with one deep clean, then move to biweekly or monthly standard visits with a deep clean twice a year. Around 70% of our clients continue with us on a recurring basis.
What if I only want one room deep-cleaned?
We can do that. The three-hour minimum still applies, and one badly neglected room can genuinely fill three hours — sometimes six, as our Glendale job showed.
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