Dalton, GA · 7 days a week
How long does a full detail take?
Short version: 4 to 8 hours for a full inside and out detail on a normal car. Here is where that time actually goes, and what pushes it either way.
The short answer
A full detail on an average sedan or small SUV takes 4 to 8 hours. An interior only job runs 2 to 4 hours, an exterior hand wash and seal is 1.5 to 3 hours, and paint correction adds anywhere from 4 to 12 hours on top depending on how many stages the paint needs. A ceramic coating is usually a two day job once you count cure time.
Those ranges are wide for a reason. The single biggest variable is not the size of the vehicle, it is how long it has been since the last proper clean. A car detailed every three months is a predictable job. A car that has never been detailed in eight years is not, and anybody who quotes you a flat two hours without seeing it is guessing.
Typical time by job
- Exterior hand wash and seal, 1.5 to 3 hours. Wheels, two bucket wash, dry, sealant. Longer if the paint needs decontaminating first.
- Interior detail, 2 to 4 hours. Longer with pet hair, kids, or anything that soaked into carpet padding.
- Full detail inside and out, 4 to 8 hours. The standard reset. Most of a working day.
- Paint correction, 4 to 12+ hours. One stage polish at the low end, multi stage on hard or badly swirled paint at the high end.
- Ceramic coating, 1 to 2 days. Nearly all of that is prep and correction. The coating itself goes on in under an hour and then has to be left alone.
- Engine bay, 45 to 90 minutes. Usually added onto something else rather than booked alone.
What actually makes it take longer
Vehicle size matters less than people expect. A three row SUV has more carpet than a sedan, but the time difference is maybe an hour. What genuinely doubles a job is condition.
Pet hair is the classic one. Embedded hair in loop carpet can add two hours on its own because it has to be lifted before it can be vacuumed. Spilled drinks that went into the padding need extraction and drying rather than a wipe. Paint that has never been decontaminated has bonded iron and tar in it that has to come off chemically before a polisher touches it, or you just grind it into the clear coat. And white or black cars show everything, so the finishing standard is higher on both.
Why mobile does not take longer than a shop
A common assumption is that a mobile detailer must be faster and therefore less thorough. The work is the same work. What changes is that nobody is waiting on a bay, and your car is not sitting in a queue behind three others that got dropped off at eight in the morning.
The real saving is on your side of it. A shop booking costs you the drive there, a ride home, a ride back and the drive home again, which is often more of your day than the detail itself takes of ours. When we come to you, the hours the car is being worked on are hours you are doing something else.
Booking around the time it takes
Because we run 7am to 8pm seven days a week, a full detail can start early enough to finish inside a single day. If the car sits at your work all day, that is usually the easiest option of all, since it was going to be parked there for eight hours anyway.
Tell us the vehicle and be honest about its condition when you book. You get a real time window before we start, and it does not move halfway through. We would rather quote six hours and be right than quote three and disappoint you at hour four.
Related
What this covers.
Full Detail
The whole car in one visit, inside and out, in your driveway.
Read more →Full Interior Detail
Seats, carpet, headliner and vents cleaned by hand at your house.
Read more →Paint Correction
Machine polishing that removes swirls, wash marks and light scratches.
Read more →Ceramic Coating
Years of protection, once the paint underneath has been prepped properly.
Read more →All services
Everything we do, in one place.
See all →Common questions
Questions we get asked.
Can a car be detailed in an hour?
Do I need to be there the whole time?
Does a bigger vehicle cost more time?
How long before I can drive it after?
Free estimate
Free estimate, no pressure.
Tell us the vehicle, what it needs and where it is parked. You get a clear price before anything starts.