If you only read this
- Every room that goes from carpet to tile is a room you lose unless you clean tile too.
- A spinner tool on your truck-mount handles most residential tile. The skill is in grout, not equipment.
- Sealing is the upsell. Offer it on every job and explain what it does and doesn't do.
- Price per square foot with a minimum. Kitchens and baths are small; the minimum protects you.
- Dedicated tile and grout franchises market hard. You can win by being the company customers already trust for carpet.
Why does tile and grout belong on your truck?
Your customers are pulling up carpet. Kitchens, baths, entryways and whole first floors are going to tile and other hard surfaces. If you only clean carpet, every remodel shrinks your ticket. If you clean tile, the same customer still books you, just for different floors.
It also fills the calendar. Tile and grout jobs are less tied to the spring and pre-holiday rushes, and commercial restrooms and kitchens need cleaning on a schedule. Both help in slow January and February.
And it sells on sight. Customers can see dirty grout lines. They've scrubbed them on their knees. A clean strip next to a dirty one closes the job.
What equipment does the work take?
Most carpet cleaners already own the hard part. A truck-mount provides the heat, pressure and vacuum. You add a hard-surface tool and the right chemistry.
| Equipment | What it does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spinner tool | Rotating high-pressure jets under a vacuum shroud. | It is the workhorse. It cleans and extracts in one pass with no overspray. |
| High-pressure wand | Detail work along edges, corners and grout lines. | Use it for areas the spinner can't reach. |
| Grout brushes and agitation | Loosens soil before rinsing. | Dwell time and agitation do more than pressure. |
| Alkaline and acid cleaners | Breaks down grease and mineral deposits. | Know the surface. Acid can etch natural stone. |
| Sealer and applicators | Protects grout after cleaning. | Let it dry fully before sealing. |
Where should you offer sealing and tile cleaning?
Sealing is where tile and grout makes money. Clean grout looks great, then soaks up soil again. A sealer slows that down. Offer it on every job, and be honest: it helps grout resist stains and makes it easier to clean; it doesn't make grout permanent or stain-proof.
- Kitchens. Grease and food soil build up in the grout lines, especially in front of the stove and sink. Kitchens are small areas, so the minimum matters.
- Bathrooms. Bathrooms collect soap scum and minerals, and grout darkens around showers and toilets. Shower walls are a separate quote from floors.
- Entryways and mudrooms. They get heavy traffic and outdoor soil, which makes them a good add-on to a carpet job.
- Commercial restrooms. Offices, restaurants, gyms and medical offices need recurring work on a schedule, often after hours.
- Commercial kitchens. They are grease-heavy and worth a premium. Schedule around service hours.
Residential kitchens and baths are where most carpet cleaners start. Quote them by the room for the customer's understanding but price them by the square foot underneath, and photograph the grout before you begin, because customers forget how dark it was. If you see cracked or missing grout, point it out before cleaning. High-pressure cleaning can loosen grout that was already failing, and you want that on the work order, not in a review.
Commercial tile work pairs well with commercial carpet contracts. If you already clean an office's carpet, quote the restrooms and break room on the same visit. That turns one relationship into two recurring services.
How should you market tile and grout?
You're competing with dedicated tile and grout franchises that do nothing else and advertise like it. You won't outspend them in most markets. You don't need to.
- Start with your own customers. Past carpet customers trust you already. A recall message that says "we clean tile too" costs almost nothing. Tag them in Housecall Pro and send it.
- Build a dedicated page. Create a tile and grout cleaning page with before-and-after photos, your process, sealing options and pricing. Add kitchen, bathroom and commercial sections or pages as the work grows.
- List it in your Google Business Profile. Add tile and grout as a service with photos. Post jobs as they happen.
- Run a small ad group. "Tile and grout cleaning near me" and "grout cleaning" searches go to the tile page, not your carpet homepage.
- Lead with the one-truck advantage. "Carpet, upholstery and tile — one company, one visit" is something a single-service franchise can't say.
Your tile page should answer what customers ask: will the grout look new, how long before I can walk on it, do I need sealing, will you damage my stone, what does it cost for my kitchen. Answer each one plainly, with a photo where you can. That page then works for Google, for AI search answers, and as the link your office texts when someone calls asking about tile.
For commercial work, skip the ads at first. Walk in to the offices, restaurants and gyms you already clean carpet for or drive past every day, and leave a one-page price sheet for restroom tile. Recurring commercial accounts come from relationships more than searches.
How should you price tile and grout?
Price per square foot with a minimum. Square footage is easy to measure, easy to explain, and scales with the work. The minimum protects you on small bathrooms and kitchens.
| Line item | How to price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cleaning | Per sq ft. | This covers floor tile. Price shower walls and backsplashes separately. |
| Sealing | Per sq ft, added to cleaning. | Offer clear or color sealer as separate options if you do both. |
| Minimum charge | Charge a flat fee. | It covers setup and drive on small jobs. |
| Heavy soil or grease | Per sq ft surcharge or per job. | This applies to commercial kitchens and neglected floors. Quote after seeing it. |
| Commercial recurring | Per visit or monthly. | This covers restrooms and break rooms on a schedule. |
Measure before you quote when you can, or ask for photos. Customers often guess small. Our pricing strategy guide covers minimums and bundles in more detail.
Operationally, keep tile jobs on the schedule where they fit. They take longer per square foot than carpet and need drying before sealing. Don't stack a tile job between two carpet jobs and expect to stay on time.
Go deeper
These deeper guides are on the way.
- Tile and grout landing page templateComing soon
- Sealing scripts: how to explain what sealer doesComing soon
- Quoting commercial restroom contractsComing soon
- Natural stone: when to refer outComing soon
- Recall campaigns that cross-sell tile to carpet customersComing soon
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