Chelmsford only became a city in 2012, and a good share of our Essex work is now in homes that did not exist ten years ago. We clean homes across Essex from £22 an hour, weekly or fortnightly, with the same cleaner kept on your home and no VAT. That regular round is £22 per cleaner per hour weekly or £24 fortnightly, with no call-out fee anywhere in the county, and a one-off deep clean is a separate service done by a small team at £26 per cleaner per hour. Every product and the hoover come with us, and Monster Cleaning has kept homes across London and Essex since 2014. Ring 0333 555 2076 for a price over the phone.
Last updated April 2026. Covering Essex from Chelmsford and the CM postcodes out to Colchester, Southend, Basildon, Brentwood, Harlow, Braintree and Maldon, and the commuter towns along the Great Eastern Main Line.
What it costs
Let us deal with the obvious question first. A regular clean is £22 per cleaner per hour weekly, or £24 per cleaner per hour fortnightly. Either way you keep the same cleaner on your home. No VAT gets added at the end, and there is no travel or call-out charge anywhere in Essex, whether you are in the middle of Chelmsford or out past Maldon. The price covers the lot: the cleaner’s time, the products and the kit carried in.
In real money, a three-hour weekly clean is £66. A fortnightly visit of two to three hours, where most Essex homes settle, runs between £48 and £72. The fortnightly rate is the higher one because more builds up between visits and the clean takes longer to bring back. There is no tier ladder and no per-week discount band. The size of the job sets the price, not the number of hours you sign up for.
Want the iron run over a basket of shirts while we are there? That is an optional add-on at £12 per hour on top of the cleaning time.
A word on the rock-bottom quotes that float around this trade. The cheapest hourly rates usually only add up because somebody down the chain is being underpaid. Our rates pay a fair wage to vetted cleaners who stay. The domestic cleaning overview sets out the full picture.
Two services, not one rate
We run two genuinely different services, and it is worth being clear which one you want, because they are staffed and priced apart.
The regular clean is the bread and butter. One cleaner, the same one, back at your door every week or every fortnight on a retainer. It is £22 an hour weekly or £24 an hour fortnightly, built around keeping a lived-in home on top of itself rather than letting it slide and then panicking. This is the one most Essex families are after: a steady slot, a familiar face, the kitchen and bathroom kept right.
The one-off clean is a different animal. It is a standalone deep clean done by a small team, usually two cleaners for about three hours, charged at £26 per cleaner per hour with a £67 minimum charge. Two cleaners get a whole house turned round in a single morning, instead of one person dragging it across a day. A typical two-cleaner, three-hour one-off comes to £156. People book these before family land for Christmas, or when a home has got away from them.
Here is the short version. Staying put and want it kept nice? The regular round. Need one big push, once? The one-off team clean. You can also start with a one-off to drag the place back to baseline, then drop onto a regular slot to hold it there.
What a regular visit covers
A regular clean runs to the same routine every time, scaled to your home and the hours booked. Below is what a standard three-hour weekly clean covers in a typical Essex two or three-bed. A bigger detached place wants more time; a smaller flat that finishes early gets the extras.
In the kitchen
- Sink, taps, splashback and worktops wiped down, disinfected and taken back to clean. Essex water furs a tap within days, so descaling the metalwork is part of every visit.
- Hob taken apart enough to do it right, grates lifted off and the burners seen to underneath.
- Fronts of the hob, extractor, fridge, dishwasher and microwave wiped clear of splashes and finger marks.
- Floor mopped, bins emptied and fresh liners in.
In the bathrooms
- Bath, shower, glass and tiling scrubbed and the scale taken off, which in this county is where a good chunk of the visit goes.
- Loo done top to bottom: under the rim, the seat, the base, the cistern and the handle everyone forgets.
- Basin, taps, mirror and any glass buffed clear so nothing is left smeared.
- Floor washed properly, corners and the gap behind the pedestal included, since that strip is what turns a bathroom musty.
Bedrooms and the rest of the home
- Flat surfaces dusted off, the tops of frames and picture rails done as well as the obvious shelves.
- Carpets, rugs and hard floors vacuumed through, and the sofa given a going-over when the hours stretch to it.
- Beds straightened and fresh linen put on when you leave it out; switches, handles and the stair rail wiped down too.
Prefer your things left exactly where they sit and cleaned around? Tell your cleaner on the first visit.
Essex homes, and the water problem
Essex is not one kind of housing, and the clean shifts with where you are. The old heart of Chelmsford runs to Victorian and Edwardian terraces around Old Moulsham, north of Princes Road, with period tiling, deep window reveals and original joinery that holds dust like nothing built since. Spread out and you hit street after street of 1920s and 1930s semis, the Springfield Park Road estate among them, built in 1935. These are roomy family homes, so the work leans more on floor area than on ingrained grime.
Then there is the new Essex, and there is a lot of it. The county plan is adding around 18,000 homes by 2036, much of it north of Chelmsford at Beaulieu, Channels and Chancellor Park. These clean nothing like a period terrace: gloss kitchens, acres of glass, white skirting and engineered floors that show every mark, so the visit is about keeping bright surfaces bright.
Essex sits on some of the hardest water in the country, and that single fact shapes more of the job than people expect.
Essex sits on some of the hardest water in the country, and that single fact shapes more of the job than people expect, because Essex and Suffolk Water draws the supply through the chalk under the east of England, which loads it with dissolved calcium that settles on every warm wet surface as it dries. Chelmsford runs around 327 parts per million, near the top of the UK hardness table. It is why the kettle furs up within a week, why the shower screen clouds over days after a clean, and why a strong descaler goes into every cleaner’s kit as standard.
Across Essex, town by town
Essex is a big county and the homes change as you cross it. Here is roughly how the work falls in the towns we cover most.
Chelmsford is our centre of gravity, the county town and where most of our newer bookings sit. Beaulieu Park got its own station on the Great Eastern Main Line in October 2025, the first new station on that line in over a century, and the estates around it are filling fast with families who want a regular slot from the day they move in. Older Chelmsford, around Moulsham Street and the High Chelmer shopping quarter, is period stock that wants a gentler, more thorough hand.
Colchester and Southend bookend the county, one a town with student lets and family homes, the other a seafront city where the salt air adds its own grime to the windows. Basildon and Harlow carry a lot of post-war and new-town stock, where a steady fortnightly clean does the job. Brentwood, Billericay and Shenfield sit on the commuter belt, booked by people out the door before seven on the Liverpool Street train. Out toward Maldon and Braintree it is older cottages and detached houses on bigger plots.
Wherever you are, the rate is the same and so is the standard.
The same cleaner, kept on
This is the bit customers ask about first, so here it is straight. On a regular round we put you with a cleaner who already covers your part of Essex and has your slot open, and that same person stays on your home for as long as it suits you both. Most of our regulars have had the same cleaner for years.
It works out better all round. The cleaner learns your home, your habits and which floor cleaner sits under the sink, so each visit gets quicker instead of starting cold. When your regular is off sick or on holiday, we cover with someone who gets a short written brief on your property first. The one-off service is the exception, since that goes out as a team.
A clean falls short? You are covered.
Give us a call within 24 hours and a cleaner comes back to put right whatever was missed, at no charge. That is our re-clean guarantee, with no small print attached. We are honest about our Trustpilot score, which sits at 3.1 out of 5 across 128 reviews, and we would rather earn the next one than hide behind it.
Booking and getting us in
Booking is a two-minute phone call, not a form to fill in.
- Ring 0333 555 2076. Tell us the bedrooms and bathrooms, how often you are after, and whether you want a regular round or a one-off. We will talk you through a sensible visit length and quote the price on the call.
- A five-minute look round first. On a regular booking your cleaner walks the home at the start of the opening visit, free, so the place is understood before work starts.
- Your cleaner is assigned. For a regular round, someone local with your slot free who then stays put on your home. For a one-off, a small team for the day.
- Keys, a key safe, or you let us in. Most regulars hand over a key after a few visits, stored against a reference number, never an address. A key safe code works just as well.
- A note once it is finished. Your cleaner messages to say the clean is done, usually with a photo or two.
Parking across Essex is far easier than inner London, though the older streets around central Chelmsford can be tight and permit-only. No deposit, no joining fee, no long tie-in. We are Monster Cleaning Ltd, Companies House 9919639, run from 255 Upper Richmond Road West, SW14 8QS, and you can reach us at [email protected] if a call is not convenient.
Other things we clean
Plenty of our Essex regulars add one of these now and then:
- Carpet cleaning in Essex once or twice a year, a separate job with separate kit that genuinely adds years to a good carpet.
- Oven cleaning in Essex, a full strip-down a couple of times a year, with racks and door glass done properly rather than a quick wipe round.
- end of tenancy cleaning in Essex for when you are moving out and need the deposit back, priced as a fixed job by the size of the property rather than by the hour.
Want the wider view of everything we do? The domestic cleaning overview sets it out in full.
Frequently asked questions
How much does domestic cleaning in Essex cost?
A regular clean with the same cleaner kept on is £22 per cleaner per hour weekly, or £24 fortnightly, with no VAT and no call-out charge. A three-hour weekly clean is £66; a two to three hour fortnightly visit is £48 to £72. A one-off clean is a separate service at £26 per cleaner per hour.
What is the difference between your regular clean and your one-off clean?
They are two different services, staffed and priced apart. The regular clean is one cleaner, the same person, back on a retainer every week or fortnight at £22 or £24 an hour. The one-off is a standalone deep clean by a team, usually two cleaners for about three hours, at £26 per cleaner per hour with a £67 minimum charge.
How much is a one-off deep clean in Essex?
A one-off is £26 per cleaner per hour with a £67 minimum charge. We send a team, normally two cleaners for around three hours, so a whole house gets turned round in a single morning. A typical two-cleaner, three-hour one-off comes to £156, and you get the real figure on the phone first.
Will I get the same cleaner every visit?
On a regular round, yes. We put you with a cleaner who already covers your part of Essex and has your slot free, then keep that same person on your home for as long as it suits you both. Plenty of our regulars have had the same face for years. The one-off service goes out as a team instead.
Do your cleaners bring products and a hoover?
Yes, the cleaner carries the lot: a vacuum, microfibre cloths, a mop and the right product for each surface. Essex sits on some of the hardest water in the country, so a strong descaler is in every kit. Prefer your own eco range, or something for an allergy in the house? Leave it out and we use that.
Can you do the ironing too?
Yes. Ironing is an optional add-on at £12 per hour on top of the cleaning time, on a regular round or a one-off. A lot of our commuter households along the Liverpool Street line have us run the iron over a basket of work shirts while the rest is done. Just say so when you book.
Which parts of Essex do you cover?
Most of the county: Chelmsford and the new estates at Beaulieu, Springfield and Channels, out to Colchester, Southend, Basildon, Brentwood, Harlow, Braintree and Maldon. If you are near a station on the Liverpool Street line we almost certainly reach you. Not sure your road is in? Ring and ask.
Is there a minimum number of hours for a regular clean?
For a regular slot we ask for two hours as a floor, because much under that and a cleaner cannot do a kitchen and bathroom properly and still get round the rest. Most Essex homes settle at two to three hours a visit. A one-off has no hours minimum; it runs to the £67 minimum charge instead.
How do I pay, and is there a contract?
No contract and no joining fee. You pay after each visit by bank transfer or card, and the price quoted is the price you pay, with no VAT on the end. You can change how often we come with a week’s notice, or stop whenever you like. We would sooner keep you because the clean is good.
Are your cleaners vetted and insured?
Yes. Every cleaner is interviewed in person, reference-checked and right-to-work verified before they set foot in a home, and we carry public liability insurance. Monster Cleaning Ltd has been a registered company since 2014, Companies House number 9919639, run from 255 Upper Richmond Road West in SW14.
What happens if I am not happy with a clean?
Ring us within 24 hours and a cleaner comes back to put right whatever was missed, at no charge. That is our re-clean guarantee, with no small print on it. We are honest about our Trustpilot, which sits at 3.1 out of 5 across 128 reviews; the customers who stay for years are the truer measure.
Do you clean homes in the new Essex developments?
Often, yes. A lot of our newer work is in the big developments north of Chelmsford, at Beaulieu, Channels and Chancellor Park, where the county plan is adding around 18,000 homes by 2036. New-builds clean differently from period stock: less ingrained grime, but a lot of glass, gloss kitchens and skirting that mark easily.