Why Some Detailing Add-Ons Are Quote-Only (And What Drives the Price)

We put our core prices right on the website. Interior $325. Exterior $250. Complete from $425, which saves you $150 over booking the two separately. Engine bay $100. Headliner $100.

Then there's a short list where we say "quote on sight" instead of a number, and we get asked about it often enough that it's worth explaining properly.

It's not a trick to get you in the door. Here's the actual reason.

The Quote-Only List

Five things:

• Heavy pet hair removal
• Odour removal
• Leather conditioning
• Salt stain removal
• Seat extraction

Every one of those has the same problem: the range between the easiest version and the worst version is enormous, and we can't tell which one you've got over the phone.

Why a Flat Rate Would Be Worse for You

There are only two ways to flat-rate something with that much variation, and both are bad.

Price it at the average. Then everybody with a light job overpays to subsidize the disasters. If your cat naps on the passenger seat twice a week, you're paying for somebody's shedding shepherd who owns the whole cargo area.

Price it low and upsell. This is the common one. You see a cheap number online, you book, and then at the counter it turns into "well, yours is worse than standard." That's the nickel-and-dime routine we deliberately don't run.

Quoting it on sight means the light job pays light and the brutal job pays what it costs. We'd rather tell you a real number after ten seconds of looking than a fake one over the phone.

What Drives Pet Hair Up or Down

• Volume. One dog occasionally versus a dog that lives in the vehicle.
• Hair type. Short, stiff hair spears into fabric and is far harder to extract than long hair that sits on top.
• Where it is. Hair on the seat surface is fast. Hair packed into seat rails, under the seats, and into the cargo liner seams is real labour.
• Fabric versus leather. Cloth grabs and holds. Leather mostly doesn't.
• How long it's been building. Years of accumulation compacts down into the carpet backing.
• Whether seats need to come out. Sometimes the only way to reach it.

More on that in our pet hair removal guide, and the service page for pet hair removal in Chilliwack covers what's involved.

What Drives Odour Removal Up or Down

• What the smell is. Smoke, milk, mildew, wet dog, fuel, manure — these are chemically different problems, not one problem.
• Whether the source is still in there. A spill that's been extracted is a different job than one still sitting in the padding.
• How deep it's gone. Surface odour on fabric versus something that's reached the carpet backing, the seat foam, or the headliner.
• How long it's been there. Time is the biggest multiplier on this one.
• Whether moisture is involved. Mildew means there's water somewhere, and that has to be dealt with or the smell comes back.

We go after the source rather than spraying something on top, which is why we won't guess a number before we've been in the vehicle. Our odour removal post goes deeper.

What Drives Salt Stain Removal Up or Down

• How many winters have gone in. One season versus five years of untouched brine.
• How far it's spread. Driver's mat only, versus every footwell plus the door sills and the rear.
• Whether it's re-crystallized. Salt that's dried, absorbed moisture, and dried again multiple times is bonded in deeper.

The winter salt stains post has the full breakdown.

Leather Conditioning and Seat Extraction

Leather comes down to condition and count. Supple and slightly dry is quick; stiff and starting to crack is a different job. Two front seats versus a three-row SUV plus door cards and armrests is a different job again. And conditioning goes on after cleaning, so heavily soiled leather has to be brought back first.

Seat extraction depends on how many seats, how complicated they are to remove — modern seats have wiring, sensors and airbag connections — and what's packed underneath.

One important note on that last one: we only recommend seat extraction when it actually changes the result. If we can reach it without pulling seats, we don't pull seats.

What You Can Expect From Us

• We look before we quote. Every time.
• The number comes before we start, not after.
• If your vehicle is rougher than average, we say so up front. Same as with the Complete Detail — it starts at $425 and climbs for a big, badly-neglected rig, and you'll hear that before we touch anything.
• If something isn't worth doing, we'll say that too. We'd rather talk you out of an add-on than sell you one that doesn't change the outcome.

And there's a shorter list still: things we simply don't offer, so nobody ever quotes you on them here. No ceramic coating, no paint correction, no polishing or buffing, no clay bar, no wax or sealant, no scratch removal, no tint, no wraps, no PPF. We clean vehicles. That's it.

The Bottom Line

Flat-rate pricing works when the job is predictable. Pet hair, odour, salt, leather and seat extraction aren't predictable — the spread between the easy version and the nightmare version is too wide to fake a number.

So we look, we tell you straight, and then you decide. Book at dirtydetails.ca/book or call (604) 845-4060. We're at 44344 B Yale Rd in Chilliwack, appointment-based, and we've been quoting it honest since 2020.

FAQ

Q: Can you at least ballpark it over the phone? A: We can talk through what we'd be looking at and what pushes it up or down, but we won't throw out a number we might have to walk back. Describe the vehicle when you call and we'll give you the honest picture.

Q: Will the quote change once you start? A: The number you get before we start is the number. If we find something genuinely unexpected, we call you and you decide — we don't do surprise line items at pickup.

Q: Are the flat-rate add-ons ever quoted instead? A: No. Engine bay is $100 and headliner is $100. Those are consistent enough jobs to price flat, so we do.

Q: Why isn't the Complete Detail a flat price either? A: It starts at $425 and climbs with size and severity. A commuter sedan and a neglected three-quarter-ton work truck aren't the same amount of labour, and we'd rather say that than average it out.