What it costs
How much does large-cabin jet detailing cost?
Condition sets the number, not the type. Two Gulfstreams of the same model, parked on the same ramp, can be a full day of work apart. What separates them is the state of the paint, what the cabin is actually made of, how high the tail sits, where the aircraft will stand while the work happens, and when it next has to fly. Each of those is set out below, so you can read any quote on your aircraft, ours included, and know exactly what you are being asked to pay for.
Why there is no number on this page
We publish scopes rather than figures, and the reason is commercial rather than coy. The same type in two conditions is not the same job, so a number printed here would be wrong for most of the aircraft that read it. A published figure also becomes a ceiling, and the work then shrinks to fit the number rather than the aircraft. There is a harder point behind it. Any vendor who commits to a firm figure before seeing the aircraft, or current photographs of it, is guessing: padded to protect themselves, or lean enough to win the job and revised once the covers come off. Ours is written down instead. Every surface named, what is being done to it, what is excluded.
What actually moves the number
Painted surface, and how much of it is over your head
A large-cabin airframe carries far more painted area than a midsize, and a large share of it sits above head height. The crown of the fuselage, the vertical stabiliser, and the horizontal surfaces of a T-tail on a Global or a Gulfstream cannot be reached from the ground. That is stand work and lift work: repositioning, tying off, climbing down to reload. The same panel takes far longer up there than it would at waist height, and it still has to blend with everything around it so the finish does not read in bands.
The cabin is six material problems wearing one name
Leather on the seats, Alcantara or wool on the sidewalls and headliner, high-gloss lacquered veneer on the tables and cabinetry, stone in the galley and lavatory, plated hardware, and acrylic window reveals. Each wants a different chemistry, a different tool and a different dwell time. The veneer is the sharpest example: a lacquered or polyester finish hazes if it meets the wrong solvent, or a machine held too long in one place, and a hazed table is a refinishing job rather than a detailing one.
Condition, which is not the same as age
An aircraft flown weekly and cleaned properly throughout its life is quicker to bring up than a low-hour aircraft that has sat. Neglect compounds. Oxidation dulls the paint, so correction has to happen before anything protective goes on. Soiling migrates into the grain of the leather and into the carpet backing rather than sitting on top of it. And odour lives in the insulation and the return air paths, not on the surfaces, which is why surface cleaning alone never settles it.
Aft-mounted engines and exhaust tracking
On most large-cabin types the engines hang at the tail, so exhaust deposit streams back along the aft fuselage and across the empennage on every flight. Baked-on tracking does not come off in a wash. It takes a controlled, stepped process that lifts the deposit without taking the paint with it or leaving that area brighter than the rest of the airframe. Aft of the wing root is routinely the slowest section of a large-cabin exterior, and the one a fixed quote tends to underestimate.
Where the aircraft will stand while we work
A hangar with lighting, power and a water source is a different job from a transient ramp spot. On many ramps a wet wash is not permitted at all, because there is no wash rack and runoff is controlled, so the work goes dry or rinse-less, which changes both the products and the time. Getting the aircraft into a hangar in the first place means a tug, the FBO's crew and a slot in their day, and all three have to line up with ours.
Staging space around the airframe
Hangared wingtip to wingtip, with a neighbouring aircraft inside the arc of the wing, stands cannot be set where they need to be and the crew works in sequence instead of in parallel. Everything stretches. Large-cabin work also arrives with equipment: extraction gear, air movers, mats and multiple stands, and that kit needs floor space. A tight hangar is one of the few constraints that adds hours without adding anything you can see afterwards.
The deadline you are working to
Scheduled work planned around a maintenance visit is one thing. A departure tomorrow morning is another. A compressed window buys crew size and night hours, not shortcuts, because the materials will not be hurried. Carpet extraction needs air movers and real drying time or the soil wicks straight back up. Coatings need cure time that a departure slot will not wait for. Tell us the deadline first, because it decides what can honestly be in scope.
What the last vendor left behind
This is the least predictable part of any large-cabin quote. Swirls from a rotary and a tired pad, most visible on dark paint in direct sun. Filler waxes hiding defects that reappear at the first wash. Silicone dressings on trim that have to be stripped before anything will bond. Alcantara matted flat by wet cleaning. Carpet overwetted so the soil wicked back. Acrylic crazed by an ammonia glass cleaner. Remediation is genuine hours, and it is the single strongest argument for looking at an aircraft before quoting it.
What the work actually consists of
Days, not hours, and a crew rather than a person. A large-cabin reset at this tier runs with several detailers working defined zones, so the aircraft is not open longer than it needs to be. Exterior: decontamination, then a stepped wash appropriate to the ramp, paint film measured where the substrate allows before any correction is proposed, correction where the finish can take it, brightwork brought up through multiple stages so leading edges and nacelles match rather than shine in patches, then protection. Interior: dry soil removal first, controlled-moisture extraction with air movers, leather cleaned and conditioned to the hide, Alcantara worked dry, veneer by hand, stone sealed, plated metal hand-finished, galley and lavatory stripped and sanitised. Then a walkthrough with photographs, and the defects we did not touch named as well as the ones we did.
Questions to put to any vendor
Including us. If a vendor cannot answer these plainly, that tells you more than the number at the bottom of their quote.
- Will you look at the aircraft, or at least current photographs, before you quote? A figure produced from the type alone is a guess about condition, and condition is most of the work. Either it is padded, or it gets revised upward once the covers come off and you are already committed.
- Can I have the scope in writing, surface by surface, with the exclusions listed? Full detail means whatever the vendor decides it meant afterwards. A written scope naming the veneer, the headliner, the belly, the wheel wells and the empennage is the only way two quotes can be compared at all.
- How many people will be on the aircraft, and for how long? The outcome tracks total crew hours, not the heading on the quote. One person for a day on a large-cabin jet is a wash, whatever it is called. Crew and duration tell you which product you are actually buying.
- Name the products going on the veneer, the Alcantara and the acrylic. A vendor who uses one cleaner on every surface will eventually meet a surface it is wrong for. If they cannot name what touches the lacquer or the transparencies, they have not thought about them separately.
- Do you check remaining paint film before you propose correction? Clear coat is finite and cannot be put back. Correcting without knowing what is left is how an aircraft ends up needing paint years early. The honest answer is sometimes that the finish cannot take correction.
- Send me your certificate of insurance, the limits, and whether the cover is aviation-specific. Liability cover written for cars does not contemplate a stand going into a leading edge or a hangar full of other people's aircraft. Your FBO will want a COI regardless, so ask for it before the work, not during.
- If something is not right at handover, who fixes it and on whose time? The answer separates a vendor who expects to be back next quarter from one who is passing through. Ask it while you still have the leverage of an unsigned quote.
Questions we get
- Can you give me a ballpark before you see the aircraft?
- We can tell you what the work involves on your type, how long it will take and what the crew will be. For the figure we want photographs at minimum, ideally a walk of the aircraft. Sight unseen we would be guessing, and a guess helps neither of us.
- Why do two quotes for the same aircraft come back so far apart?
- Almost always because they describe different work. Compare crew size, days on the aircraft, whether correction is included or only a wash and a sealant, and whether the belly, wheel wells and empennage appear at all. Put the two scopes side by side before you compare anything else, and the gap usually explains itself.
- Is the interior or the exterior the bigger part of the job?
- On an aircraft in regular service the interior usually takes more crew hours, because six materials each need their own treatment. The exterior overtakes it the moment paint correction or heavy exhaust tracking enters the scope. Condition decides it, not the split you might expect.
- Does rush or AOG work change what you charge?
- Yes. A compressed window is not the same job: it buys crew size and out-of-hours labour, and it narrows what can responsibly be in scope, because extraction needs drying time and coatings need cure time regardless of your departure slot. We would rather tell you what genuinely fits the window than promise the full scope and rush the materials.
- How long will the aircraft be out of service?
- Plan in days for a full large-cabin reset. It is often less disruptive than it sounds, because the work can sit inside a maintenance visit you are already taking. If you only have a night between legs, tell us and we will scope what genuinely fits.
- Does detailing actually protect the aircraft, or is it presentation?
- Both, and they are connected. Contamination left on paint, exhaust deposit left on the empennage and soil left in leather all keep working on the material underneath. Presentation is what a buyer or a charter client notices first; condition is what the airframe records.
- Will you come to my hangar, or does the aircraft come to you?
- We come to the aircraft. Crews work at PDK, Georgia's busiest general aviation field, and at RYY, ATL, FTY and LZU, across Metro Atlanta and out to Georgia fields well beyond it for scheduled work. Hangar, FBO ramp or during maintenance, we coordinate with whoever is holding the aircraft.
Send us the tail number, the airport and the hangar or FBO, the type, and the date it next has to fly. Add recent photographs of the paint and the cabin, and tell us when it was last detailed and by whom. That is enough for a written scope, surface by surface, with a firm number against it rather than a range.
Request service
Get a number against your actual aircraft
Tail, airport, aircraft type and your deadline. That is enough for a written quote against a written scope.
Urgent or AOG? Call dispatch on (770) 999-9740 — faster than any form.
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