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Some interiors are not a detailing job. A car that has had vomit, spilled milk or a pet accident in it, or one that has been smoked in for years, needs a different process from a standard interior clean — and pricing it as an add-on to a wash is how it ends up being done badly.
Most operators either refuse this work or quote it blind over the phone and argue about the invoice afterwards. We quote it from photos, tell you what can and cannot be recovered before starting, and put both in writing.
What we handle
- Vomit — including the alcohol and food load that makes it a genuine odour problem rather than a stain
- Spilled milk, coffee, soft drink and food
- Pet accidents, pet hair and pet odour
- Smoke odour, including headliner and cabin air system contamination
- Heavy general soiling, and interiors that have simply never been done
- Rideshare and taxi turnarounds after a passenger incident
How the work is actually done
The order matters, and skipping a step is why so many of these jobs smell again a fortnight later.
- Find how far it went. A spill on a seat is rarely just on the seat. Liquid travels through the fabric into the foam, through the seat base, onto the carpet and into the underlay beneath it — and under the carpet is where the smell lives. Seats come out where that is what it takes to reach it.
- Remove it, do not mask it. Bulk removal, then enzyme treatment to break down the proteins odour comes from, then hot-water extraction with repeated rinse passes. An air freshener over the top of contamination is a two-week fix and we do not sell it.
- Treat the affected areas with an appropriate product, applied for the contact time the manufacturer specifies rather than wiped straight off.
- Dry it properly. Air movers and dehumidification. Trapped moisture under a carpet is how a spill becomes a mould problem.
- Treat the air path. Odour that has gone through the cabin air system keeps coming back through the vents until the system itself is treated.
- Re-inspect once dry. Odour behaves differently in a warm, closed car than in an open one on the day. We check again before calling it finished.
What this can and cannot achieve
Most affected interiors come back to a genuinely good state — clean, dry and free of odour in normal use. That is a real result and it is what the majority of these jobs deliver.
What we will not tell you is that a car comes back “like new”. Some things cannot be undone by cleaning, and you should hear about them at the quote rather than at the invoice:
- Contamination that has soaked deep into seat foam or under-carpet insulation may need those components replaced rather than cleaned. That is a trimmer’s job, and we will say so instead of charging you to keep trying.
- Acidic contamination left long enough can permanently stain or degrade some fabrics and light-coloured leathers. Stomach acid starts that clock the moment it lands, which is why same-day matters.
- Odour can return when a car heats up or humidity rises if contamination reached somewhere no cleaning process can get to. Where we think that is a risk, you will be told before we start.
- Electronics and wiring that have been wet are outside what interior cleaning addresses.
Naming the limits is not hedging. It is the difference between a job you are happy with and a dispute.
What it costs
Quoted individually after photos, and not padded onto a tier price. The cost is driven by how far the contamination travelled and how much has to come out of the car to reach it — a surface spill caught the same day and a soaked seat base found a week later are different jobs at very different prices.
- Contained, same day, surface only — from $685, including returning the interior to standard afterwards.
- Soaked into seat and carpet — typically $1,200 to $1,600, with the seat out, full extraction, drying, odour and air system treatment.
- Multiple seats, dried in, odour through the vents — from $1,950. If foam or carpet needs replacing, a trimmer is quoted separately.
All figures include GST. Send photos and you get a firm number before anyone commits to anything.
Rideshare and taxi
If a passenger incident has taken your car off the road, the clean usually costs less than the day you are not driving. Send photos as soon as it happens — fresh contamination is far more recoverable than contamination that has had two days to soak in and dry. Platforms generally require photographic evidence and an itemised receipt to process a cleaning fee, and you get both.
What we do not take on
We are straight about the line. If there is visible blood, faeces, or anything sharp in the vehicle, that is biohazard remediation rather than interior cleaning — a different process, different waste handling and different protective equipment. We do not take that work at present, and we will tell you so rather than attempt it. The same applies to established mould and to vehicles that have been flooded.
Send photos anyway. If it is outside what we do, we will say so quickly so you are not waiting on us.
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