Frequently Asked House Cleaning Questions
How Much Will It Cost To Clean My House?
Will All House Cleaning Visits Cost the Same Amount?
Do I Have To Be Home When Maid Brigade Cleans?
Do You Guarantee a Day and Time for My House Cleaning Appointment?
What If I Need to Reschedule a House Cleaning?
What If I Accidentally Lock Maid Brigade Out on My Cleaning Day?
What Should I Do About My Security/Alarm System on Cleaning Day?
What Should I Do With My Pets During the House Cleaning?
Are My Valuables Safe with Maid Brigade?
How Shall I Pay for My House Cleaning?
How Do I Know I Can Trust Your House Cleaning Staff?
Do I Need to Provide House Cleaning Equipment or Supplies?
What Is Mildew and How Can I Get Rid of It?
These are the questions most commonly asked by our customers and prospective customers. If you do not find the answer to your question, please feel free to email your Local Office (use the Local Office Locator in the upper right of your screen) or else choose Contact Corporate Office.
How Much Will It Cost To Clean My House?
Every house is unique, and every cleaning fee is individually based. Things that will affect the amount of your house cleaning estimate include the size of your home, number of residents, number of pets, number of bathrooms, how often you want us to clean, etc. We have a standardized formula for calculating each individual cleaning estimate in a uniform way. If you would like to see what kinds of information is gathered to estimate your house cleaning fees, simply find your Local Office using the Local Office Locator in the upper right of your screen, then select “Get An Estimate” from the Local Office Menu on the right.
Will All House Cleaning Visits Cost the Same Amount?
The first house cleaning visit usually costs more than subsequent visits. Generally, it takes additional cleaning tasks to get the home up to Maid Brigade standards. This visit is performed on an hourly basis. Your estimate for this house cleaning visit will be expressed as a cost range. We will contact you for authorization for more time in the event your maid services team considers it necessary.
Once this initial visit has occurred, your home’s cleanliness can be easily maintained with our regular visit cleaning tasks. Regular house cleaning visits are charged as a flat fee. You will receive an estimate for both the initial cleaning and the regular house cleanings up front. Once the initial house cleaning has been completed, we will confirm your regular cleaning price.
Do I Have To Be Home When Maid Brigade Cleans?
This is your option. You may give us a key to be safely stored – always with “double-blind” security. Only the local owner and/or office manager can access the client key safe. Maids are given the keys for each cleaning appointment before they leave the office each day, and must turn these back in to management before they are allowed to leave the office each evening. These keys are returned to the key safe until the next cleaning appointment.
Do You Guarantee a Day and Time for My House Cleaning Appointment?
Maid Brigade ordinarily guarantees a specific day for your house cleaning but not a specific time. Due to our flexible and ever-changing schedule, we are unable to commit to a specific time of day for our arrival. However, if you contact us on the day of your service, we will be glad to estimate our time of arrival. If you need a specific time guarantee, feel free to discuss this with your local office. Within reason, we will do our best to reach a mutually agreeable solution.
What If I Need to Reschedule a House Cleaning?
Simply call our office prior to your cleaning day. Most offices require a minimum 48 hours notice to reschedule your house cleaning, however this notification window varies from office to office.
Unlike the airlines, we do not overbook our schedule. So, if you need to reschedule a cleaning without proper notice, we will not have enough opportunity to fill the schedule with another maid services client. This decreases the maids’ pay. Without consistent wages, we cannot retain the best talent to clean for you. Thus, respecting our procedure for reschedules helps insure you will get the best house cleaning service possible.
Please be sure you understand your local Maid Brigade’s procedures for rescheduling and cancelling visits. We do have a cancellation and will assess a cancellation fee if necessary, although we want to help you avoid incurring these fees!
What If I Accidentally Lock Maid Brigade Out on My Cleaning Day?
Just as with Rescheduling fees, if you lock the maid services team out on cleaning day, you will likely be assessed a lock-out fee. Please be sure you understand your local Maid Brigade’s lock-out fees. We want to help you avoid incurring these additional fees!
Most of our clients either provide us a key or hide one on the premises on cleaning day.
What Should I Do About My Security/Alarm System on Cleaning Day?
If you have a security system, please make necessary arrangements to give your Maid Brigade team access to your home on your scheduled day. Some clients establish a guest or temporary code for Maid Brigade.
What Should I Do With My Pets During the House Cleaning?
Please advise us if you have pets and provide any information regarding your pets that would be helpful for us to know. Though not a requirement, we prefer pets to be restricted from the areas we clean, to allow us to clean your home better and more efficiently.
Are My Valuables Safe with Maid Brigade?
If you have any special valuables, heirlooms or irreplaceable items, please put them away or instruct us not to touch them. A closed door or drawer is your signal to us that you do not want that area to be cleaned. Maid Brigade carries all the necessary insurances in the event that any damage occurs.
How Shall I Pay for My House Cleaning?
You may pay by cash, check or credit card. Payment is due at time of service. If you do not intend to be at home at time of service you may choose to either leave cash or a check on the kitchen counter the morning of your house cleaning. If you choose to pay by credit card, we will keep your credit card information on file at the office and charge your card once each cleaning is completed. A fee will be assessed for all returned checks.
How Do I Know I Can Trust Your Staff?
We pride ourselves on attracting the best talent available. Combining hourly wages and bonus programs we offer some of the best pay in the industry – to insure we have the finest maids. We screen our maids carefully, we train meticulously, we inspect relentlessly and we insure adequately. We do all this so that you can have the highest confidence to trust us with the care of your home.
Do I Need to Provide House Cleaning Equipment or Supplies?
We provide all cleaning solutions and state-of-the-art equipment, so you never need to worry about replenishing your supply for our maids. If you have special house cleaning products you want the maids to use, please be sure to discuss this with the Local Office owner or manager in advance, so that we can properly instruct the team.
What Is Mildew and How Can I Get Rid of It?
Mildew is a parasitic fungus. It requires moisture, warmth and a food source to exist. It reproduces itself by growing microscopic spores in enormous quantities. These spores are always present in the air and spread via normal air currents. A spore lies dormant until favorable moisture and temperature conditions occur for it to germinate. Mildew thrives in warm moist areas that have poor air circulation. In the average household, mildew is typically found in the bathrooms. The corners, cracks and crevices of the tub, shower, sink and toilet are the most common areas infected. It ranges in color from a pinkish-orange to black.
Your Maid Brigade house cleaning team will be able to impede the growth of mildew by removing the built up food sources that it lives on, such as soap, skin, hair and etc. However, as long as moisture and warmth are present, the spores will immediately germinate and mildew will again be growing on the host area.
To stop the growth of mildew, the area must be kept dry or it must be chemically treated to make it an undesirable environment for the spore to germinate. Chlorine bleach is a very good sanitizer to use on an infected area.
To reduce the pungent odor, the bleach can be diluted up to 50% with water. The most practical application method would be to lightly spray the area, although it can be wiped or sponged on. It is not necessary to saturate the area or to treat uninfected areas. Leave the bleach in contact with the surface area for at least an hour. Rinse any area that you will touch in later use. Repeat the application on a bi-weekly basis or when mildew reappears.
Insurance restrictions do not permit Maid Brigade to use chlorine bleach. As a Maid Brigade customers, you may choose to use bleach independently to help control mildew growth. If you choose to do so, please do not use bleach for two days preceding a scheduled house cleaning by Maid Brigade because a chlorine residue could combine with the other cleaning solutions we use and cause the formation of a toxic gas.
We hope the above discussion explains why mildew is such an on-going maintenance challenge. Working together, however, it can be controlled.
