Post-Construction Cleaning Cost in 2026: Real Prices and What Drives Them

Post-construction cleaning for a typical home costs roughly $400 to $850 in 2026, with the middle of the market around $600 to $650. Across the 98 jobs we completed between January and mid-October 2026 that included post-construction cleaning, the median whole-job total was $614, and half of all jobs landed between $436 and $836.

Those numbers swing with the size of the home and with how much dust the crew left behind. A one-bedroom condo after a bathroom refresh is a different job from a five-bedroom new build where every ceiling fan, door top and baseboard carries a film of drywall dust. Below are our real prices, what per-square-foot quotes mean and what pushes a bill up or down.

What post-construction cleaning costs in 2026

Two industry sources give a useful national frame. Fixr, which tracks home project costs, puts the national average post-construction cleaning cost at $650, with most homeowners paying $500 to $800. Its low end is about $275 for a rough clean of a renovated apartment, and its high end is around $2,400 for a new build that needs full cleaning, junk removal and exterior work. HomeAdvisor's commercial cleaning guide, updated in June 2026, says most construction cleanup jobs run $275 to $710, with large sites going past $1,300.

Our own figures sit squarely in that band. One note on reading them: each figure is a whole-job total, so it includes whatever add-ons the customer chose, such as appliance interiors or exterior windows. A job counts here if it included post-construction line items, even if it also covered other work.

Source	Typical figure	Range
Hello Cleaners, 98 jobs (Jan to Oct 2026)	$614 median	$436 to $836 (middle half of jobs)
Fixr national estimate	$650 average	$500 to $800 typical
HomeAdvisor construction cleanup	Not stated	$275 to $710 for most jobs

Our prices by number of bedrooms

Bedroom count is a rough but practical proxy for size, and it is how most of our customers describe their homes. Not every job recorded a bedroom count, so the rows below cover 86 of the 98 jobs.

Home size	Jobs	Median total	Lowest	Highest
1 bedroom	8	$364	$295	$650
2 bedrooms	20	$492	$250	$1,172
3 bedrooms	25	$610	$285	$991
4 bedrooms	20	$767	$510	$1,428
5+ bedrooms	13	$1,152	$689	$4,955

Two patterns stand out. The median climbs steadily from one to four bedrooms, then jumps for five or more, where homes tend to have more bathrooms, taller ceilings and more glass. And the spread inside each size is wide: some two-bedroom jobs cost $250, others $1,172. That spread comes from add-ons and the condition of the home, not the bedroom count. The $4,955 top figure is a single outlier in a small group of 13 jobs, so treat the median as the better guide.

Industry per-square-foot ranges

Contractors and builders often quote by area, especially for new construction. Fixr's published price per square foot ranges break down by phase and by project type.

Type of clean	Per square foot	What it covers
Rough clean	$0.15 to $0.40	Debris and bulk dust, done before finish work is complete
Final clean	$0.20 to $0.60	Every surface, fixtures, floors, vents, stickers and residue
Touch-up clean	$0.25 to $0.60	A return visit for dust that settles after the final clean
Renovation, overall	$0.15 to $0.50	Cleanup after remodeling part or all of a lived-in home
New construction, overall	$0.25 to $0.60	A full clean of a newly built home

Applied to a 2,000-square-foot new build, $0.25 to $0.60 per square foot works out to $500 to $1,200. A touch-up clean costs more per square foot because it is a small job with fixed travel and setup, but its total is usually far lower. If you are not sure which kind of job you have, our guide to renovation cleaning versus after-construction cleaning sorts it out.

Some companies bill by the hour instead. Fixr cites hourly rates of $30 to $50 per worker, and Angi's 2026 Chicago guide puts the local rate at about $50 an hour with a $150 minimum. Hourly billing is fair for small, well-defined jobs, but on a dusty whole-house clean it shifts the risk of a slow job onto you, so ask for a not-to-exceed figure.

What our jobs actually included

The core of nearly every job was the same. Living areas and hallways appeared in 92 of the 98 jobs, kitchens in 89, bathrooms in 88 and bedrooms in 86. The add-ons tell you where the extra money goes:

• Walls and ceilings dusted and wiped: 70 of 98 jobs. Fine dust climbs, and it clings to flat paint and textured ceilings.
• Appliances cleaned inside and out: 35 jobs. New appliances arrive with packing residue and pick up dust in transit to the kitchen.
• Furniture dusted and wiped: 27 jobs, typically renovations where the household stayed put.
• Exterior windows: 24 jobs, mostly after window replacement or exterior work.
• Deep carpet cleaning: 10 jobs, where dust was tracked into carpeted rooms.

What drives the price up or down

• Size and layout. Square footage and the number of bathrooms matter more than anything else. Bathrooms and kitchens carry grout haze, caulk smears and fixture stickers that take time.
• Renovation or new build. Angi notes that new construction often costs less to clean than a large renovation, because there is no furniture to work around. A lived-in remodel also needs dust removed from belongings.
• Debris removal is usually separate: cleaners clean, haulers haul. Fixr lists construction debris removal at $200 to $600 when it is added. Check whether your contractor's contract already covers it.
• Windows. Paint specks, labels and screen dust make new windows slow work. Fixr cites $8 to $40 per window for window cleaning.
• Height and access. Vaulted ceilings, open stairwells and upper floors mean ladders and more time.
• Timing. If painters or electricians are still coming back, a clean booked too early gets partly undone and you pay twice.
• Location. Labor costs vary widely by metro, which is why quotes in New York or Los Angeles run higher than in smaller cities.

How to get an accurate quote

1. Know your square footage and room count, including bathrooms, basements and laundry rooms.
2. Say what the work touched. A kitchen remodel with the rest of the house sealed off is a smaller job than a whole-house drywall project.
3. Send photos of the worst rooms, the windows and any high ceilings.
4. Tell the cleaner what the contractor already did. Has debris been hauled? Was there a rough clean?
5. List add-ons up front: appliance interiors, cabinet insides, exterior windows, carpet.
6. Confirm the trades are finished, including punch-list fixes.

Ways to keep the bill down

• Ask your contractor to haul debris and leave the site broom clean, which many contracts already promise.
• Have the crew seal doorways and cover vents during the work, so less dust reaches untouched rooms.
• Replace the HVAC filter as soon as the dusty work ends, so the system stops circulating fine particles.
• Clear floors and countertops of tools, boxes and leftover materials before the cleaners arrive.
• Skip exterior windows and carpet cleaning if the work did not reach them.

One more saving is easy to miss: book the cleaning for a day when nobody else is working in the house. A team that has to stop for a plumber or wait for a delivery is still on the clock, and a clean floor walked over by a crew in work boots has to be done again.

When to hand it to a pro

A small patch-and-paint job is manageable with a HEPA vacuum and a stack of microfiber cloths. A remodel that touched several rooms, or a new build with every surface dusted, is a full day for a team, and doing it yourself usually means doing it twice as the dust resettles. Our room-by-room checklist shows the scope.

Hello Cleaners matches you with a vetted local team for post-construction cleaning, confirms the price before you book and offers a 36-hour re-clean promise if anything was missed. You can see typical rates on our prices page or get a free quote with your square footage and photos.