2.7.1.3Vertical

Independent House Cleaning

Individual cleaners and small cleaning businesses serving homeowners.

Market snapshot

These figures describe Cleaning & Maid Services (2.7.1), the segment that Independent House Cleaning sits within. They are not figures for Independent House Cleaning on its own.

Market size
~$77B
Growth
~7.6%CAGR (2017–22, nominal)
Companies
~69,701 firms
Firms by employee count

89.7% of firms have fewer than 20 employees: 62,494 micro-businesses, below most mandates.

The investable universe7,207 firms with 20+ employees
20–99
5,84581%
100–499
1,06515%
500+
2974%

Commercial janitorial (office and facility cleaning) dominates the number because the residential maid business (Merry Maids, Molly Maid) shares a code with it and can't be split out. So treat ~$77B as the whole cleaning category; the residential-only slice a consumer buyer targets is a fraction of it. Even so, recurring schedules make residential cleaning a franchise-friendly, predictable-revenue roll-up.

NAICS 561720, 561740. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

Business model & economics

Revenue model

Recurring and one-time cleaning fees; franchise royalties

Key economics

Revenue per firm
$1,101,391
Revenue per employee
$64,474
Employees per firm
15.9
Recurring revenue
High

recurring cleaning schedules

EBITDA margin
10–20%
Capex intensity
Low

Characteristics

  • Balanced cost base: payroll is 43% of revenue, leaving room to scale margin without cutting staff
  • Deep strategic-buyer pool: 297 firms exceed 500 employees, so a scaled asset has trade buyers
  • Recurring schedules create predictable residential revenue.
  • Franchising is the main residential consolidation engine.
  • Census category is mostly commercial janitorial.

NAICS 561720, 561740. U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Statistics of U.S. Businesses; U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census.

M&A deal context

Deal activityModerate

Who’s acquiring

  • Cleaning franchise networks
  • PE-backed facility-services platforms
  • Regional consolidators

What’s driving deals

  • Franchise-led consolidation of residential cleaning.
  • Recurring-schedule economics.
  • Commercial janitorial consolidation in the same category.

Find Independent House Cleaning acquisition targets

Search Acquisera’s index for companies classified under Independent House Cleaning (2.7.1.3) and build a targeted deal pipeline.

Search companies