The problem we kept running into
Ask three companies to clean the same 9×12 wool rug and you can get $200, $400 and $600 for what sounds like one job. Some of that gap is real — an in-plant wash is not an on-site surface clean — but a lot of it is simply that nobody tells you what you are buying.
Finding a cleaner is no better. Many of the "top" search results are lead-generation middlemen who never touch a rug, and the directories that rank companies often rank whoever paid the most. For something most people book once every few years, there has been no straight answer to a simple question: what should this cost, and who is any good?
What RugRate does
RugRate is an independent place to compare rug and carpet cleaning in New York. We publish the real price ranges — roughly $3–$12 per square foot for area rugs depending on the fibre, $1–$4 per square foot or $50–$150 a room for carpet, with a typical $150–$250 pickup minimum — so you reach a quote already knowing the shape of it.
From there you compare companies side by side, read reviews from real customers, and build one quote request that describes exactly the same scope to every company, so the prices you get back are genuinely comparable. When you are ready, you send it yourself, to whoever you choose.
- Transparent price ranges and a cost calculator, not a "call for pricing" wall
- A side-by-side comparison of real companies across the five boroughs
- Reviews from real customers and a Score built from transparency, not a single platform’s stars
- A quote builder that keeps your details yours
- A Scam Watch for checking a company before you book, or reporting a bad experience
What we will not do
The part worth reading is what RugRate refuses to do, and we have published it in full. No company can pay to rank higher, buy a better Score, or have an honest review taken down. Advertising, when it exists, is labelled as advertising and sits outside the rankings — never mixed into them.
We also do not clean rugs ourselves, so we have no favourite to steer you toward, and we never pass your quote request to companies behind your back — you copy it and choose who receives it. An independent comparison that quietly sells its rankings is just an advertisement in disguise, and that is the one thing this will not become.
Built for New York, specifically
A rug in a fourth-floor walk-up is a different job from the same rug in a doorman building, and most national advice does not know that. RugRate is built around how cleaning actually works here: the certificate of insurance your building wants before a crew arrives, the freight-elevator window, the difference between a rug washed at a plant and one cleaned on your floor, and the companies that do the work in each borough.
Every company we list is a real business, not a placeholder. Where we do not yet have enough information to judge one, we say so plainly rather than inventing a rating to fill the gap.
Where to start
If you have a rug or carpet that needs cleaning, three pages do most of the work: the cost calculator for a quick estimate, the comparison tool to line companies up, and the quote builder to send one clear request to a few of them. If you would rather understand the trade first, the guides and the glossary are there for exactly that.