A house cleaning service will not handle biohazards, active mold, or pest infestations; will not do other trades’ work like carpet extraction, ductwork, or exterior pressure washing; will not move heavy furniture or climb past what is safely reachable; and usually will not organize your belongings. Good companies publish those lines — here is the full list and the reason each exists.
The safety refusals
Every legitimate cleaning company has conditions under which it will not work, and the honest ones write them down. JAS’s Terms say it verbatim: we reserve the right to refuse or stop service where conditions are unsafe for our team — such as mold, infestation, or biohazards. That is not squeamishness; it is the boundary between cleaning and professions with different training, equipment, and licensing. Across the industry, the same refusal category covers things like bodily fluids beyond routine bathroom cleaning, sharps, animal waste accumulations, and rodent or insect infestations — the pattern in every reputable company’s policy is the same: if it needs protective equipment or certification, it is not a cleaning visit.
Mold deserves its own sentence, because it is the one people most often expect a cleaner to fix. A cleaning visit is not remediation, and the film Miami’s humidity leaves on grout is a different problem from growth spreading on a wall. When each applies is its own article: can a cleaning service clean mold?
Another trade’s job entirely
A second group of “no” answers isn’t about safety — the task simply belongs to different equipment and a different profession:
- Carpet shampooing and steam extraction. The published floors scope is vacuuming carpet and rugs and mopping hard floors; extraction machines are their own trade.
- A/C ductwork. Vent covers — what you can see and reach — are on the checklist. Behind them is HVAC-contractor territory, and in a city where the A/C runs twelve months a year, that distinction matters.
- Exterior work. Pressure washing, lanai screens, gutters, roofs, and exterior glass. In Miami condos, exterior glass is usually the building’s vendor under association rules anyway.
- Anything past “reachable.” JAS’s deep-clean scope publishes qualifiers like “reachable light fixtures” and “reachable areas under furniture” for a reason: a two-person team cleans what it can reach safely without dismantling your home. The double-height foyer chandelier and the wall unit that takes three movers stay where they are.
- Repairs. Scrubbing cannot fix chipped grout, worn finish, or water stains in drywall — a cleaner who says “that’s damage, not dirt” is telling you the truth.
A different service in the catalog
Some “won’t do” answers are really “not in this visit.” Laundry is the clearest case: it is not on JAS’s home-cleaning checklists, but it does exist in the catalog — as an Airbnb-turnover extra, wash, dry and fold from $30 per load. The full story is in do house cleaners do laundry? Cabinet, drawer, closet, and shelf interiors follow the same logic: excluded from occupied-home cleans, in scope on the vacant-property move-in/out clean, from $409 — because empty interiors are cleanable and full ones are your belongings. Decluttering and organizing — deciding what stays, sorting closets — is a different service with a different name, and no cleaning checklist includes it.
And some items are simply add-ons rather than defaults: at JAS, the refrigerator interior ($49 empty, $69 with food), inside the oven ($49), and interior windows (from $10 per pane) are published add-on prices you can attach in the booking flow. The full walk-through of what a deep clean leaves out is in what does a deep cleaning NOT include?
Why the “no” list is a good sign
A company that will do “anything” is a company improvising at your door — with your surfaces, your ceiling height, and your invoice. The exclusion list is what keeps a price honest: what is on the published checklist is in the visit, what is not has a name, a separate price, or a different owner. Before you book anyone, read what IS promised — we published ours in what is included in a standard house cleaning? and on the residential cleaning in Miami page — and treat a vague answer to “is that included?” as your cue to ask harder.
Quick answers
Will cleaners move my furniture to clean under it?
Light furniture, yes, within reason; heavy pieces, no. The published scope language is “reachable areas under furniture” — a safety boundary for your floors and their backs. If under-the-sofa matters to you, slide it out before the visit.
Do house cleaners do dishes?
A sink of dishes is not a named line on JAS’s published package cards, and across the industry it varies by company. Ask before booking rather than assuming — a good company answers in writing.
Can I ask for a task that isn’t on the checklist?
Ask, always — the answer is sometimes a published add-on, sometimes a different service, and sometimes an honest no. What you want to avoid is agreeing on it verbally at the door; if it is in scope, it should be in the quote.