Tacoma area · Washington · Professional Home Cleaning
Tacoma homes face damp walls from November through January, dust and pollen in dry summers, and shoes that carry old smelter soil indoors. TotalCare Cleaning will service the South Sound with those local realities in mind.
Answered 24/7, day or night
Recurring weekly or biweekly cleaning to the same TotalCare Cleaning standard every visit, with Hotel Finish detail.
From $160 / 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 $311
Inspection-ready move-out cleaning for tenants, landlords, sellers, and buyers. Interior appliances, all cabinets, baseboards, inspection-ready standard.
From $391
Service Areas
Every TotalCare Cleaning professional is background-checked and screened before their first job.
Tacoma area · Washington
Fife is small, newer and busy, with warehouses on one side and homes on the other. TotalCare Cleaning will service the city, along with Fife Heights and Milton, with road dust and lease ends in mind.
Lakewood is a city of lakes and military families, on well water, with more renters than owners. TotalCare Cleaning will service its homes, from American Lake to Fort Steilacoom, with those details in mind.
Puyallup grew from hop fields into a fair city with shopping on South Hill. TotalCare Cleaning will service homes in the valley and on the hill, with care for family houses and for a wet South Sound winter.
University Place mixes 1980s houses with new subdivisions, and nearly a quarter of its properties are on septic. TotalCare Cleaning will service these homes, from Chambers Bay to Cirque Drive, with those details in mind.
Other places in the Tacoma area: American Lake, Bridgeport, Chambers Bay, Cirque Drive, Downtown Tacoma, East Hill, Fife Heights, Fort Steilacoom, Milton, Pacific, Proctor, South Hill, Springbrook, Stadium District.
Local Guides
What a One-Time Deep Clean does for houses in Tacoma, where old woodwork gathers dust, wet months leave walls damp and dry summers bring pollen and smoke. Learn what the deep scope includes and when it makes sense.
Washington makes checking a business fairly easy, with public license and entity searches and an Attorney General complaint service. Here is how to use them, what to ask a cleaner and what to mention about your Tacoma home.
Washington gives renters real protections: a written move-in checklist, a 30 day deadline and limits on carpet charges. Here is how to use them, how to get rid of big items in Tacoma, and what a Moving Clean will cover.
How often should a Tacoma home be cleaned? Consider months of wet floors, state advice to mop and vacuum weekly because of old smelter soil, a long pollen season and summer smoke, then choose the plan that fits.
A cleaning calendar built on Tacoma weather normals and local pollen charts: damp walls in winter, tree pollen as early as January, grass in early summer, a very dry August with possible smoke and a wet November.
From November through January, Tacoma gets about six inches of rain a month while homes stay shut and heated. Here is how condensation forms on cold walls, how to keep it in check, and when a problem goes beyond cleaning.
Tacoma has a problem most cities do not. For almost 100 years, air pollution from the Asarco copper smelter settled on surface soil across more than 1,000 square miles of the Puget Sound basin, and the arsenic and lead are still there. That is why the state's advice for homes here sounds so much like a good cleaning routine: shoes off at the door, damp dusting, weekly mopping and vacuuming.
Add wet winters, dry summers and a large stock of older houses, and home care in Tacoma has its own logic. This page explains how TotalCare Cleaning will approach it, which service fits which home, and where the map will reach.
Tacoma's median year built is 1967. About 64 percent of its homes predate 1980, and about 27 percent date from 1939 or earlier. The city has nine historic districts, and the North Slope alone holds more than 950 properties. Buckley's Addition and College Park, next to the University of Puget Sound, hold more than 1,100 primary buildings in Queen Anne, Tudor revival, Foursquare and Craftsman styles. Those houses tend to have built-in woodwork and trim that collect dust, and that respond well to careful work.
About 61 percent of Tacoma's homes are single family detached, and about 17 percent are in buildings with 20 or more units. About 44 percent of occupied homes are rented, so the end of a lease is a regular reason to bring in a cleaner. The move-out guide explains how Washington handles deposits.
Tacoma's rain has a clear season. November is the wettest month at 6.50 inches, with December and January close behind at about 6 inches each and about 13 rainy days a month. Then July brings just 0.55 inches and August 0.83. Winter stays cool rather than frozen, with highs near 48.6 degrees and only about 27 nights a year at or below freezing.
That wet stretch explains much of the indoor trouble. The Washington State Department of Health says indoor mold often grows where warm moist air condenses on cool wall surfaces, such as cold exterior walls, behind dressers and headboards, and in closets. A dry summer brings a different set of problems. Grass pollen peaks from mid May to early July on the Seattle area chart, and wildfire smoke can reach the Sound during warm, dry months.
The seasonal calendar and the humidity guide go into more detail on each of these.
Tacoma Water has drawn on the Green River as its primary supply since 1913, and it says its water is softer than hard water, so washing clothes takes less soap. That means less mineral scale on shower glass, but your bathroom may still show some unusual colors.
Tacoma Water explains that blue stains on fixtures come from water sitting in copper pipes, and that pink stains on drains and toilet bowls usually come from an airborne bacteria unrelated to the drinking water, one that thrives in damp areas. Keeping those surfaces dry helps with both. Sand-like grit in an aerator usually comes loose from inside older galvanized or copper pipes.
TotalCare Cleaning will offer three services here, each priced by the home, not by the hour.
The map will take in the city and its neighbors. Four have their own pages. Lakewood has seven lakes, a large military base next door and well water. University Place has newer subdivisions going up alongside homes on septic systems. Puyallup is home to the Washington State Fair and the South Hill retail center. Fife is a compact warehouse town just south of the Port of Tacoma, where about half of the housing dates from 2000 or later.
Inside Tacoma, the map will include Downtown, East Hill, Proctor and the Stadium District, along with Pacific. The Stadium-Seminary National Historic District, listed in 1977, is one of the city's earliest residential neighborhoods. Further out, American Lake, Fort Steilacoom and Springbrook will be covered from Lakewood, Bridgeport, Chambers Bay and Cirque Drive from University Place, South Hill from Puyallup, and Fife Heights and Milton from Fife.
Frequently Asked Questions
TotalCare Cleaning will service Tacoma 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.
