house-cleaning

How Much Does House Cleaning Cost in South Carolina? 2026 Rates for Coastal Homes, Rentals, and Deep Cleans

How much does house cleaning cost in South Carolina? 2026 hourly and flat rates, coastal and rental turnover pricing, deep clean costs, and vetting tips.

How Much Does House Cleaning Cost in South Carolina? 2026 Rates for Coastal Homes, Rentals, and Deep Cleans

South Carolina's cleaning market gets its shape from vacation rentals. Myrtle Beach, Hilton Head Island, Charleston, and Folly Beach run tens of thousands of short-term units, and the crews that turn those units over on Saturdays are the same crews your neighbor uses on Wednesdays. That competition for labor sets the price you pay as a homeowner.

A recurring clean on a 2,000 square foot house runs about $135 to $220 in 2026. Coastal counties price at the top of that band from May through September, and the Upstate around Greenville and Spartanburg runs 10 to 20 percent below it year round.

Humidity does the rest. Salt air, long summers, and indoor moisture leave mildew on grout, film on windows, and a musty smell in closets that a quick pass never fixes. Cleaners here spend more time in bathrooms and on hard surfaces than they would in a dry climate, and the quote reflects it.

Rental Turnovers Set the Market Rate

A Saturday in July on the Grand Strand means hundreds of units changing hands inside a four hour window. Turnover cleans price at $90 to $250 per unit depending on bedrooms, and beach houses with six or eight bedrooms go well past that. Every good cleaner in the county is booked, and residential customers who want a Saturday visit are competing with that.

Homeowners get better rates and better crews on weekdays. Booking a Tuesday or Wednesday recurring slot in Mount Pleasant or Bluffton can save $20 to $40 a visit compared to a weekend request. It also gets you a crew that is not exhausted from three turnovers already that morning.

The seasonal swing is real and predictable. Rates soften in November through February when the rental calendar empties, and that is when deep cleans and one-time projects get scheduled at a discount. Owners of second homes often use that window for the annual reset.

What Turnover Cleaning Includes That Residential Does Not

Turnover work bundles laundry, restocking, and inventory checks into the price. A crew strips and washes linens, reports damage, counts towels, replaces consumables, and photographs the unit before the next guest arrives. That is a different job from cleaning a house somebody lives in.

Owners pricing their own unit tend to guess low. A three bedroom Hilton Head villa with a two hour turn window, full linen service, and a five star review to protect is a $150 to $250 job, not a $90 one. Underpricing it produces exactly the reviews the listing cannot afford.

What the Numbers Look Like Around the State

Charleston and the surrounding towns run $40 to $65 per cleaner hour through a company, and $30 to $50 for an independent. Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach track close behind in season. Greenville, Columbia, Rock Hill, and Florence sit at $28 to $45 for independents and $35 to $55 through companies.

Flat rates replace hourly billing on almost all recurring work. A 1,500 square foot home commonly runs $115 to $175 biweekly, a 2,500 square foot home $165 to $250, and a 4,000 square foot home $245 to $390. Those numbers assume a maintained house on a regular schedule.

First visits break the pattern. Nearly every company charges 1.5 to 2 times the recurring rate for the initial clean, which usually means $240 to $450 for a mid-size home. It is the only honest way to price a house nobody has seen.

Historic Charleston homes deserve their own note. Tall single houses with piazzas, original plaster, heart pine floors, and delicate hardware take longer per square foot than anything built after 1990. Quotes downtown often run 15 to 30 percent above the same square footage in Summerville.

Salt, Sand, and Mildew

Sand gets everywhere and it is abrasive. Tracked across hardwood or LVP it scratches the finish, which is why coastal cleaners vacuum before they mop rather than the reverse. Homes within a few blocks of the beach need entry mats and a shoe policy more than they need a stronger cleaning product.

Salt film on windows and sliders is a coastal add-on almost everywhere. Interior glass cleaning is usually included, exterior glass rarely is, and a beachfront house with a wall of sliders can run $150 to $400 for an exterior pass. Salt also corrodes hardware and fixtures, so a good crew will flag pitting rather than scrub it harder.

Mildew is the persistent one. Grout, caulk lines, window frames, and closet walls all grow it when indoor humidity stays above 60 percent, and standard cleaning slows it rather than stopping it. Running a dehumidifier or keeping the air conditioning on while a second home sits empty does more than any cleaning schedule.

A musty smell usually means moisture, not dirt. Cleaners can remove surface mildew and deodorize, and the smell comes back in three weeks if the source is a crawl space or a leaking duct. Any company promising to fix the odor with a cleaning alone is overselling.

What Deep Cleans and Move Outs Include

Deep cleaning adds the surfaces a standard visit skips: baseboards, door frames, interior windows, inside appliances, cabinet fronts, light fixtures, and grout. Expect $250 to $500 for a typical South Carolina home and six to eight labor hours. Coastal homes trend toward the upper half because of glass and bathroom time.

Move out cleaning assumes an empty house and often a checklist from a landlord or a closing attorney. Prices run $250 to $600 for most homes and higher when carpets, garages, or a detached unit are included. Getting the landlord's list to the cleaner in advance prevents the second trip.

Add-ons price separately across the board. Interior refrigerator and oven cleaning run $35 to $75 each, laundry adds $25 to $50 per load handled, and a garage sweep costs $50 to $100. Screened porches and outdoor kitchens run $75 to $200.

Carpet and upholstery work is a different trade. Most cleaning companies refer it out at $40 to $80 per room for extraction, and coastal homes with pet traffic and sand need it more often than inland homes do. Ask whether the referral partner carries its own insurance.

Hurricane Season and Second Homes

Closing up a coastal house before a storm involves work most cleaning companies will take on. Clearing the porch, securing outdoor furniture, emptying the refrigerator, and running a final wipe down runs $150 to $400. Crews book solid once a watch goes up, so the arrangement should exist before the season starts.

Reopening after a storm is heavier and priced accordingly. Homes that sat without power for a week come back with refrigerator spoilage, humidity damage, and mildew that was not there before. A post-storm reset commonly runs $400 to $900 and sometimes turns into a remediation job instead.

Absentee owners get better outcomes with a standing monthly visit than with a call before each trip. A cleaner checking on a Pawleys Island or Edisto Beach house every few weeks catches a running toilet or a failed air conditioner while it is still cheap. That visit runs $100 to $175 and is the least expensive insurance available.

Vetting a Cleaner Before You Hand Over a Key

South Carolina does not license house cleaning as a trade, so verification falls to you. Ask for general liability insurance and a bond, and ask for the certificate to come directly from the insurance agency. South Carolina law requires most employers with four or more employees to carry workers' compensation coverage.

Independent cleaners and companies are different products at different prices. An independent charges less, gives you the same person every visit, and usually carries no bond. A company costs more, sends whoever is scheduled, and absorbs the liability if a crew member is injured in your house.

Key handling deserves a conversation before the first visit. Lockboxes and smart locks with rotating codes are the standard in rental-heavy markets, and any company working the coast should already have a policy. Ask how many people have the code and whether entry gets logged.

Compare bids on matched scope or the numbers mean nothing. Written quotes from house cleaning companies serving your area should list rooms, add-ons, frequency, and cancellation terms in the same format. Our coastal home service cost guides walk through the same vetting steps for pest control and roofing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does a house cleaner cost per hour in South Carolina?

Independents charge $28 to $50 per hour and companies charge $35 to $65 per cleaner hour, with the coast at the top of both ranges in summer. A two person crew usually finishes a 2,000 square foot home in two to two and a half hours.

Why does cleaning cost more in Charleston than in Columbia?

Labor competition from the rental turnover market and the age of the inventory. Historic homes with original floors and plaster take more careful hours per square foot than newer construction in the Midlands.

How often should a coastal home be cleaned?

Biweekly works for most occupied homes, and weekly makes sense within a few blocks of the beach where sand and salt film build fast. Vacant second homes do better with a monthly visit that doubles as a property check.

Can a cleaning service get rid of a musty smell?

Only when the source is on the surface. Mildew on grout and caulk responds to cleaning, while an odor coming from a crawl space, a duct, or wet insulation returns within weeks no matter how well the house is cleaned.

What is the cheapest time of year to book a deep clean?

November through February. The rental calendar empties, crews have open weekdays, and companies that would not quote a one-time job in July will take it in January.