Stand at the bottom of a staircase in one of the Corbett Estate terraces off Hither Green and run your hand down the carpet. The front edge of every tread is darker than the rest, almost a stripe, because that is exactly where a foot lands a thousand times a week and grinds the grit in. The flat of each step stays lighter. That worn front lip is the carpet quietly wearing out, tread by tread, and dragging it back to life is the part of this job we like best.
Last updated April 2026. Written by the owners of Monster Cleaning Ltd, who have been cleaning carpets across SE13 and SE6 since 2014.
Carpet cleaning in Lewisham is from £36 a bedroom, by hot-water extraction, with a whole carpeted two-bed home at £115. That is the answer up front, where it should be. Below is the detail: what happens on the day, the carpets we keep meeting round here, the honest bit about stains, and what the local water does and does not change.
We are Monster Cleaning Ltd, a domestic and commercial cleaning firm registered at Companies House under number 9919639 and trading since 2014. Our Trustpilot score is 3.1 out of 5 across 128 reviews, which we would rather hand you plainly than dress up. Every clean carries a re-clean guarantee. If a room is not right, we come back and sort it.
What carpet cleaning costs in Lewisham
Here are the real numbers, no quote form for the everyday rooms, because you ought to see the price before you pick up the phone. We charge per room or per area and always do whole rooms, since cleaning half a carpet leaves a tide line you will end up glaring at for weeks.
- A single bedroom is £36.
- A living room is £43. A through-lounge, the knocked-through front-and-back reception that turns up in so many of the older Lewisham terraces, is £61, because it really is two rooms pretending to be one.
- A flight of stairs is £41, cleaned by hand, tread by tread.
- A rug up to 2m2 is £35; a larger rug over 2m2 is £51.
- A whole carpeted two-bed home, comfortably our most common Lewisham booking, is £115.
If your job is an awkward shape, a single landing, a box room, one flight of stairs and nothing more, we can work by the hour instead at £30 per cleaner, which every so often comes in cheaper than adding up a clutch of small rooms. Tell us what you have got on the phone and we will say which way works out lower.
That figure is the full price. No puffed-up headline rate with a make-believe discount stuck on it, and no extra for the postcode. What we say on the call is what you pay when the van pulls up.
Carpet cleaning sits alongside the other work we do across the borough. If you are moving on and the whole flat has to be turned round for the check-out inventory, our end of tenancy cleaning in Lewisham wraps the carpets in with the rest of it. People often add an oven deep clean in Lewisham to a carpet visit, and for keeping a home ticking over there is our domestic cleaning in Lewisham service. You can read more about the method on our main carpet cleaning service page.
The carpets we meet around Lewisham
Lewisham is not one kind of home, and the carpets give the game away. Three jobs come round again and again, and each one wants handling a little differently.
The first is the Victorian or Edwardian terrace. The Corbett Estate over in Hither Green is the textbook example, street after street of bay-fronted terraces in yellow London stock brick, and the same stock runs up around Hilly Fields and through Ladywell and Brockley. Many still have the original timber boards directly under the carpet. We extract harder in these and leave less water behind, because soaking a floor that sits on hundred-year-old joists is how you end up with a cupped, creaking board. The carpet is usually on the stairs and the landing, and stairs are the most finicky thing to clean properly, dirt heaping up on the front edge of each tread where feet come down.
The second is the converted flat. A huge slice of central Lewisham is big old houses carved into two or three flats, which means a worn shared hall, one reception doing the work of every room, and a hall runner that has drunk up muddy boots for ten years. These take beautifully to a hot rinse, and the before-and-after on a tired runner is one of the more satisfying things we get to do.
The third is the new-build flat. Lewisham Gateway has dropped more than a thousand homes right on top of the station, with more blocks going up along Loampit Vale. Lighter, shorter pile, owners who want it kept showroom-fresh. A pale wool-mix carpet shows every coffee ring, so these visits are about staying ahead of the wear rather than rescuing a catastrophe.
One local thing worth flagging. Lewisham is where the DLR line stops dead, the southern end of the whole network, and the National Rail platforms next to it pour commuters out toward London Bridge and Cannon Street all morning. A hall that feeds a station habit takes a hammering. The first metre of carpet inside the front door wears at twice the rate of the rest of the room, and we see it on very nearly every job in SE13.
The first metre of carpet inside the front door wears at twice the rate of the rest of the room, and we see it on very nearly every job in SE13.
How the clean actually works
The method is hot-water extraction. Loads of people call it steam cleaning even though there is hardly any steam in it, which tends to disappoint anyone picturing a kettle on wheels. Here is what really goes on while we are in your front room.
First we vacuum, slowly and properly, because dry grit lifts out far more easily before it gets wet. Skip that step and all you are doing is turning dust into mud. Next we lay down a pre-spray matched to the fibre and to how dirty the carpet has got, and leave it a few minutes. That short wait is where the soil loosens its grip.
Then the machine. Hot water goes in under pressure and is pulled straight back out carrying the loosened dirt, while a powerful vacuum hauls most of the moisture back so the pile is left damp, not waterlogged. On the worn channels, those grey lanes that a thousand trips to the door grind into a hall, we go over them twice and groom the pile so it dries upright instead of pressed flat.
We will not soak your floor.
We carry £5 million of public liability cover and £10 million of employer’s liability cover, so on the rare day something goes wrong in your home you are not left out of pocket. It almost never happens. But you should never let anyone run water through your floors without it.
Hard water, and why it does not spoil the result
Lewisham is on Thames Water, and that water is very hard. SE13 and SE6 run at somewhere around 300 parts per million of calcium carbonate, near the top of the hard band, the chalk under the south-east doing what it always does. You will know it already from the state of the kettle.
Here is why none of that touches your carpet clean. We never run raw tap water through the pile and cross our fingers. We control the solution inside the machine, dose the rinse to suit, then extract hard, so nothing is left in the fibres to pull dirt back in. A cheap clean that leaves a wet, mineral-heavy residue is precisely how a carpet ends up grubbier a fortnight on. We rinse it clean and draw the water out.
So the hard water is real. On your carpet, it is ours to handle, not yours.
Stains, and what we will not promise
This is where most carpet cleaners oversell, and we work hard not to. A stain and plain dirt are two different problems. Soiling, traffic lanes, a grubby cast over the whole floor: that comes up well nearly every time. A single stain is a gamble that hangs on what it is and how long it has been sitting there.
Some things we shift most of the time, like mud, tea, food and washable drinks. Some things fight back, like dried red wine, old pet accidents that have gone down through to the underlay, dye bleeding out of a cheap rug, or anything with bleach in it that has already stripped the colour out. Bleach is not really a stain by that stage. It is missing carpet, and no machine puts the colour back.
So we give you a straight range instead. When we arrive we will tell you what we expect to clear and what we expect to only improve. We get it wrong both ways often enough that we will not sell you a miracle. If a mark is going to be a problem, you hear it from us before the machine comes out, not after.
If a mark is going to be a problem, you hear it from us before the machine comes out, not after.
Behind all of it is one simple promise, our re-clean guarantee. Look at a room we have done, and if you are not happy, say so and we come back and put it right. We would far rather sort it than argue, because Lewisham is a tight-knit, talkative place and word gets round either way.
Drying, and the hours after we leave
A well-extracted carpet is damp, not wet, and most rooms are dry enough to walk on within a few hours and properly dry inside about half a day. Wool and thick pile hold more water and take longer. A cold reception with the windows shut in February takes longer than the same room in June with a window cracked open.
Open a window if you can. A fan aimed across the floor helps no end. Keep shoes off until it is dry, and if you have to cross a damp carpet, clean socks beat bare feet, since feet leave oils that show up later as fresh marks. We slip foam blocks under the furniture legs so the damp pile does not pick up rust or a wood stain off the feet as it dries.
Done properly, the floor is back in use the same day. That matters in a converted flat with nowhere to shove the sofa.
Booking us in
Ring us. The number is 0333 555 2076, or email [email protected] with your postcode, the rooms you want done, and a line about any stain that is worrying you. A photo of a bad patch lets us tell you on the spot whether it is worth a go.
You get a price on the call, not a vague band, because the prices are already on this page and we hold to them. We cover the whole of Lewisham, from the market and Lewisham Gateway out to Hither Green, Ladywell, Brockley, Rushey Green and down into Catford. Most weeks we have a slot within a few days, and we can usually fit in a moving-out carpet at short notice when an agent has sprung an inventory check on you.
Monster Cleaning Ltd is based at 255 Upper Richmond Road West, SW14 8QS, and we have been at this since 2014. The van comes to you.
Frequently asked questions
How much is carpet cleaning in Lewisham?
A single bedroom is £36, a living room is £43, and a whole carpeted two-bed home is £115. A flight of stairs is £41 and a through-lounge is £61. Small odd jobs can go by the hour at £30 per cleaner. Those are the full prices, with nothing bolted on at the door.
Is it steam cleaning or hot-water extraction?
It is hot-water extraction. Half of Lewisham calls it steam cleaning and there is barely a wisp of steam in it. Hot water and a pre-spray go into the pile under pressure, then a strong vacuum drags the loosened dirt and most of the water straight back out, so the carpet ends up damp rather than swimming.
How long does a Lewisham carpet take to dry?
Most rooms are walkable in a few hours and properly dry in around half a day. Thick or wool pile holds more water and takes longer. A cold back room in February with the windows shut is slower than the same room in June. Crack a window and point a fan across the floor and it speeds up a lot.
Does Lewisham’s hard water affect the result?
No, because we manage the water inside the machine instead of trusting whatever runs out of your tap. The borough is on Thames Water and sits near the top of the hard band, somewhere around 300 parts per million of calcium carbonate. We rinse with the right dose and extract hard, so nothing sticky is left in the fibres to drag dirt back.
Will you get every stain out?
No, and anyone who swears they will is guessing. General soiling and worn traffic lanes lift well nearly every time. A single stain is a coin toss that turns on what it is and how long it has sat there. We tell you on arrival what we expect to clear and what we expect to only fade, before the machine comes out.
Can you clean carpets in a Corbett Estate terrace in Hither Green?
Yes, and the older Hither Green and Hilly Fields terraces are bread-and-butter work for us. A lot still have the original floorboards straight under the carpet, so we extract harder and leave less water behind to keep the boards safe. We groom the pile afterwards so it dries standing up rather than pressed flat.
Do I need to move the furniture first?
Move the small and breakable things and lift what you can off the floor. We will shift sofas and chairs to clean underneath and slip foam blocks under the legs while the carpet dries. We do not move beds, loaded wardrobes, or anything heavy you would not want us lifting in the first place.
Do you clean rugs as well as fitted carpets?
Yes. A rug up to 2m2 is £35 and a bigger rug over 2m2 is £51. Most we clean in place in your home. Tell us the type when you book, because the odd delicate or antique rug is safer done off-site, and we will say so if yours is one of them.
Can you shift old pet stains and the smell with them?
Sometimes. If the mess sits in the carpet pile we can often clear it and treat the smell at the same time. If it has gone down through the backing into the underlay below, a surface clean will not reach that far, and we will tell you straight rather than charge you for half a job.
Is the cleaning safe for children and pets?
Yes. The products are fine once the carpet is dry, which is the main reason we pull as much water back out as we can rather than leaving the floor wet. Keep the little ones and the dog off until it has dried, mostly so nobody treads fresh marks across the damp pile.
Which parts of Lewisham do you cover?
All of it. The streets around the market and Lewisham Gateway, the hills by Hilly Fields and Ladywell, Hither Green and the Corbett Estate, Rushey Green and out to Catford. We are a van service, so we come to you across SE13 and SE6. Give us your postcode on the call and we will give you a day.
What if I am not happy with the result?
Tell us and we come back and put it right under our re-clean guarantee. We would far sooner sort a room than argue over it, because Lewisham is a tight-knit place and word gets round fast. We also carry £5 million of public liability cover, so on the rare day something goes wrong in your home you are covered.