Greater Reading · Pennsylvania · Professional Home Cleaning
Most of Reading's homes went up before 1940, and more than half are attached row houses or twins. Add lanternflies, fall stink bugs and humid summers, and cleaning here follows its own rules.
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Recurring weekly or biweekly cleaning to the same TotalCare Cleaning standard every visit, with Hotel Finish detail.
From $138 / visit
One-time or seasonal deep cleaning. Baseboards hand washed, cabinet fronts degreased, ceiling fans, blinds and vents. Every detail surface your standard clean misses.
From $279
Inspection-ready move-out cleaning for tenants, landlords, sellers, and buyers. Interior appliances, all cabinets, baseboards, inspection-ready standard.
From $350
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Every TotalCare Cleaning professional is background-checked and screened before their first job.
Greater Reading · Pennsylvania
Kutztown is a small Pennsylvania Dutch borough built around a large university. About half its homes are rented, so cleaning here often means student housing and end-of-lease work.
Wyomissing grew out of a real estate company and some very large mills, and its homes are far newer and larger than Reading's. Here is what that means for keeping one clean.
Other places in the Greater Reading: Lebanon, Pottsville.
Local Guides
In a city where most homes predate 1940, dust has had a long time to settle in. Here is what a One-Time Deep Clean will do for a Reading row home or twin, and what it leaves alone.
A Reading row home often means shared walls, old paint and neighbors close by. Here is how to check any cleaner first, using Pennsylvania's free records.
Pennsylvania has a strict deposit deadline: a landlord who misses it loses the right to withhold anything. Here is how that works, and how a Moving Clean fits leaving a Reading rental.
How often to have a Reading home cleaned depends on the building, the household and the season. Here is how old row homes, humid summers and long heating seasons should shape that choice.
A month by month list for Reading homes, built around tree pollen from early March, lanternflies from July, a wet September, stink bugs in autumn and curbside leaf pickup in the fall.
Central Pennsylvania's pollen season can begin in the first week of March and run to the first frost. Here is how to keep pollen, leaf mold and dust mites down in a Reading home.
Reading's housing is about as old as American city housing gets, with 56.9 percent built before 1940. Here is how to look after row homes, twins and Queen Anne details without harming them.
Reading was laid out in 1748 by Thomas and Richard Penn, sons of William Penn, and it became the county seat of Berks in 1752. The Pagoda on Mount Penn, built in 1908, still overlooks a city of old row homes. Very little of it is new, and that shapes almost everything about keeping a house clean here.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Reading and the surrounding Berks County communities. This page covers what local homes tend to need, how the seasons affect them, which clean fits what, and the places that will be covered.
Census estimates show 56.9 percent of the housing units in the city of Reading were built in 1939 or earlier, about 74.6 percent before 1960, and only about 3.1 percent in 2000 or later. Single family attached homes, the census category that includes row houses and twins, make up about 52.2 percent of the housing, while detached houses are only about 11.8 percent.
That means narrow stairs, shared walls, deep window sills and old woodwork. Three bedrooms is the most common size at about 29.2 percent of units, followed by two bedrooms at 21.5 percent and four at 15.7 percent. About 59.4 percent of occupied homes are rented.
Lead is a real concern in a city this old. The U.S. EPA says homes built before 1978 are more likely to have lead-based paint, and that settled lead dust can re-enter the air when a home is vacuumed or swept. Cleaners wipe sound paint gently and do not sand or scrape. The older home guide covers this in more depth.
Reading sits at the southern edge of a hot summer humid continental climate. July has a normal high of 86.5 degrees, about 24 days a year reach 90 or higher, and precipitation stays heavy through the warm months, with 4.77 inches each in June and July and 4.88 in September. Annual precipitation is 45.21 inches. About 107 days a year have a low at or below freezing, and January's normal low is 23.0 degrees.
Insects are the local twist. The spotted lanternfly was first discovered in Pennsylvania in Berks County in 2014, and Penn State Extension says the sooty mold growing on its honeydew often stains decks, patios and vehicles under affected trees. In autumn, brown marmorated stink bugs gather on the outsides of houses on warm days, looking for places to overwinter.
Pollen is part of the year too, from tree pollen as early as the first week of March through ragweed in the fall. The allergy guide and the seasonal calendar have more.
A Recurring House Clean runs weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, with bi-weekly starting at $138.00 on the smallest row. The first visit of a plan is an Initial Deep Clean. The recurring guide can help you choose.
A One-Time Deep Clean runs $279.00 to $614.00 across five home sizes and adds hand washed baseboards, wet-wiped blinds, window tracks, ceiling fans and vents wiped in place, degreased cabinet fronts, treated shower glass, detailed faucets and soaked stovetop grates. In a home this old, baseboards and sills are often where it shows the most. See the deep cleaning guide.
A One-Time Moving Clean, starting at $350.00, adds the inside of the oven, refrigerator and cabinets. Pennsylvania has a firm deposit deadline, explained in the move-out guide. These are all starting prices, priced by the home, not by the hour; the cost page has the full table.
The city's neighborhoods include Callowhill, College Heights, Glenside, Hampden Heights, Millmont, Northmont, the Outlet District, Penn's Commons, South of Penn, Southside and Center City, with Prince and Queen Anne listed as historic districts. All of them will be part of the same coverage, along with the rest of Berks County, where about 56.4 percent of homes are detached.
Wyomissing is a newer and larger-home neighbor that grew out of a real estate company and big mills. Kutztown is a university borough about 17 miles northeast. Lebanon and Pottsville, both with very old housing, are also on the list.
Frequently Asked Questions
TotalCare Cleaning will service Reading and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
