Weekly, biweekly or monthly: what each one really costs
Weekly cleaning costs the most per year and the least per visit. Monthly costs the least per year and the most per visit. Both of those sentences are true at the same time, which is why quotes are so hard to compare — so here is the same three-bedroom house priced all three ways, with the hours shown.
- A weekly visit is shorter, because a week of dust is not a month of dust
- The figure worth comparing is cost per week, and almost nobody publishes it
- Monthly has a cost that does not appear on the invoice. We say what it is
Same house, same rate, three different bills
A three-bedroom house in Metro Vancouver, general cleaning at $32 an hour per cleaner. What changes is how much there is to do when we arrive.
Weekly
Nothing ever gets a chance to build up, so the visit is the shortest of the three. The right rhythm for a full house, a family with young children, pets that shed, or anyone who wants the question to stop existing.
Biweekly
Two weeks is about as long as a kitchen and a bathroom stay genuinely maintainable with a general clean. This is what most of our recurring clients settle on, and it is what we would suggest if you asked us to pick one.
Monthly
The cheapest over a year by a wide margin, and the most expensive single visit. Works well for a tidy household of one or two adults. Works badly as a substitute for a deep clean, which is the mistake we see most.
Per visit, per week, and per year
The fourth column is the one to compare, and it is the one nobody quotes you. Per visit makes weekly look cheap. Per year makes monthly look cheap. Four weeks is one cycle of the same house, so it is simply what it costs.
| How often | Hours | Per visit | Per 4 weeks | Visits a year | A year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 3 h | $96 | $384 | 52 | $4,992 |
| Every two weeks | 4 h | $128 | $256 | 26 | $3,328 |
| Monthly | 5 h | $160 | $160 | 12 | $1,920 |
| First visit, any rhythm (deep reset) | 6 h | $216 | — | once | at the deep rate, $36 |
Read the four-week column and the choice gets simple. Going from monthly to biweekly is not double the money, because the visits get shorter. And the first visit is a deep clean whichever rhythm you pick, because we cannot maintain a standard that has not been set yet.
Why the weekly visit is the shortest one
Written for homes in Metro Vancouver. Rates and worked examples updated 15 October 2026.
Dirt is not linear, and that is the whole reason the hours change
If grime accumulated at a steady rate, a monthly clean would take four times as long as a weekly one and the yearly cost of every rhythm would be identical. It does not work like that, in either direction.
Some things really are linear. Floors, dusting, bins, bed linen: four weeks of that is roughly four times one week of it, and that is why the monthly visit is genuinely longer. But the jobs that eat the hours are not the ones that accumulate evenly. They are the ones that set.
Limescale on a shower screen wipes off at one week and needs to be dissolved at four. Grease on a backsplash lifts with a cloth at one week and needs a degreaser and dwell time at four. Soap scum in a tub, hard-water spotting on taps, the ring inside a toilet bowl, the grout in a family bathroom — all of those cross a line somewhere in the second or third week where the job stops being wiping and starts being chemistry.
That line is the entire argument for biweekly. Not loyalty, not a discount, and nothing to do with our schedule. Two weeks is roughly where a general clean can still keep up with a kitchen and a bathroom. Past it, you are slowly paying a general rate for work that has quietly become deep-clean work.
What monthly costs that the invoice does not show
Monthly cleaning is the cheapest option on the table and we are not going to pretend otherwise. $1,920 a year against $3,328 is a real difference and for plenty of households it is the right call.
But here is what we see in practice. On a monthly rhythm, the set-in jobs never get reached inside the general hours, so they keep going. After six or eight months the bathroom needs a proper reset, and that is a deep clean at $36 an hour rather than a general one. Two of those in a year — one in spring, one before the winter guests — at $216 each, and the gap between monthly and biweekly has closed by a lot more than most people expect.
That is a pattern from our own visits, not a law of nature, and your home may simply not do it. A household of one adult who cooks rarely can run monthly for years and never need a reset. A family of four with a dog cannot. You know which one you are better than we do, and the honest version of this advice is: start where you think you belong, and let the hours on the second and third invoice tell you if you were right.
The three questions that actually decide your rhythm
Square footage matters far less than people assume. What drives the hours is how hard the home is worked:
How many people, and how often does the kitchen get cooked in? A kitchen used properly every night is the single biggest hour-driver in any home. Two adults who eat out four nights a week have a different house from a family of five, even at identical square footage.
Pets, and what kind? A shedding dog turns vacuuming from one pass into three, and it puts hair into upholstery and along baseboards where it has to be lifted rather than swept. This is usually worth a step up in frequency on its own.
How many bathrooms, and how many of them are used daily? An ensuite that gets two showers a day is a different job from a guest bath used twice a month. Three bathrooms where only one is in use is not three bathrooms' worth of work.
You are not locked in, and the hours tell you if you guessed wrong
There is no contract, no cancellation fee and no minimum term on any of this. If biweekly turns out to be more than your home needs, we drop to monthly. If the visits keep running to the top of their hours, that is the home telling you it wants the other rhythm, and we will say so rather than wait for you to notice.
This is the part that only works on an hourly rate. Because you pay for time rather than for a package, a home that gets easier to clean gets cheaper on its own — the rate stays at $32, the visit shortens, and the invoice follows. Under a flat monthly fee nothing moves no matter how well the house is running, which is the whole argument for hourly pricing.
In one line. Compare the per-week column, not the per-visit price. Start biweekly unless you already know your home is quieter than average, treat the first visit as a deep reset, and let the hours on the next two invoices tell you whether to move up or down. Nothing about that decision has to be made today.
Work out your own number
Tell us your home, we will suggest the rhythm
Four steps, a real time slot and a written total — usually the same day.
How often to book: your questions
How much does weekly house cleaning cost in Vancouver?
For a three-bedroom home in Metro Vancouver, about $96 a visit — three billable hours at $32 an hour per cleaner — which is $4,992 over 52 visits. A weekly visit is shorter than a biweekly or monthly one because nothing has had time to build up, so you are not paying four times the monthly price for four times the visits. The first visit is longer whichever rhythm you choose, because it is a deep reset.
Is biweekly cleaning cheaper than weekly?
Cheaper per year, more expensive per visit. Biweekly runs about $128 a visit and $3,328 a year, against $96 and $4,992 for weekly. The useful comparison is one four-week cycle of the same house: $256 for biweekly against $384 for weekly. Per visit flatters weekly and per year flatters monthly, so compare the cycle.
How often should I have my house cleaned?
Every two weeks suits most homes, and it is what most of our recurring clients settle on. Two weeks is roughly the limit of what a general clean can keep up with in a kitchen and a bathroom before limescale, soap scum and cooking grease stop wiping off and start needing to be dissolved. Go weekly if you have a full household, pets that shed or a kitchen cooked in every night. Monthly works well for one or two tidy adults.
Is monthly cleaning enough?
For a quiet household, yes, and it is much the cheapest option at $1,920 a year. The risk is that the jobs that set in — grout, shower screens, oven grease — never get reached inside the general hours, so after six or eight months the bathroom needs a reset at the deep rate of $36 an hour. Two of those a year narrows the gap with biweekly considerably. Whether your home does that depends on how hard it is worked.
Why is the first cleaning visit more expensive?
Because it is a different job. A recurring visit maintains a standard; the first visit has to set one, and that means reaching the things no routine clean gets to — inside the oven, behind the taps, the grout, the baseboards. For a three-bedroom house that is about $216 at the deep rate. From the second visit on you are on the general rate and the hours drop to the rhythm you chose.
Am I locked into a contract?
No. There is no contract, no minimum term and no cancellation fee on any rhythm. You can move between weekly, biweekly and monthly whenever you want, and skip a visit when you are away. Because you are paying for hours rather than a package, a home that gets easier to clean gets cheaper on its own: the rate stays the same, the visit shortens, the invoice follows.
How much does weekly maid service cost compared with a cleaning company?
The words are used interchangeably in Vancouver, but what you are buying can differ a great deal. An individual housekeeper may be cheaper per hour and is often not covered by liability insurance or WorkSafeBC, which matters if something is damaged or someone is hurt in your home. Our rate of $32 an hour per cleaner includes the products, the equipment, the vehicle, the travel and the insurance, with employees rather than subcontractors. When you compare quotes, compare what is inside the hour.
Do you charge more for a home with pets?
There is no pet surcharge — the rate is the same. What pets change is the hours, because a shedding dog turns one vacuum pass into three and puts hair into upholstery and along baseboards where it has to be lifted rather than swept. In practice that often means a home with a dog is better served by a step up in frequency than by a longer visit, and we will tell you which after the first couple of visits.
Not sure which rhythm your home wants
Tell us the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the people and the pets, and we will tell you what we would book — including when the answer is monthly.
Or call (604) 754-8039 — we answer the same day.