Does a carpet cleaner need a license in California?
Services fulfilled by our affiliated service partner, Maid VIP.
- Maid VIP is a California domestic referral agency: it refers independent cleaning professionals it has interviewed, reference-checked and background-screened, and it does not employ them.
- Camarillo Carpet Care and Maid VIP have common owners.
The short answer
No state license covers carpet, upholstery, rug or tile cleaning in California, so a cleaning company has no state license number to show for this work; the Contractors State License Board’s flooring class, C-15, covers installing and finishing floors, not cleaning them. That is why this site names the cleaning company without a license number.
What Camarillo asks of a cleaning company
The City of Camarillo requires a business tax certificate before any business works in the city, including businesses based elsewhere, and charges a yearly business tax (Camarillo Municipal Code). A company cleaning homes in Camarillo should hold one.
Where a license does come in: flooring work
The Contractors State License Board licenses flooring and floor covering work under its C-15 class. Since January 1, 2025, someone without that license may take only a minor job: under $1,000 in total for labor, materials and everything else, with no building permit, not part of a larger project or divided into smaller contracts, and done by someone with no employees whose ads don’t claim a CSLB license. An ad for a job like that must say the person has no license (Business and Professions Code 7048 and 7027.2, as amended by AB 2622). Wood floor refinishing and carpet or pad installation fall under it, which is why this site doesn’t refer them. You can look up a CSLB license on the board’s site.
Questions worth asking a cleaning company
- The business name it is registered under
- Its Camarillo Business Tax Certificate
- A certificate of general liability insurance
- Workers’ compensation coverage, if it has employees
- Whether its technicians train to the IICRC carpet cleaning standard, ANSI/IICRC S100
- Its re-cleaning or refund policy, in writing with the price
Sources: Contractors State License Board, C-15 flooring and floor covering classification; California Business and Professions Code section 7048, the minor work exemption; University of San Diego Center for Public Interest Law, AB 2622 minor work exemption; City of Camarillo, business tax certificates; IICRC, ANSI/IICRC S100 Standard for Professional Cleaning of Textile Floor Coverings; Camarillo Municipal Code. How this site researches and dates its facts. Questions? Get in touch.