Commercial Cleaning Contracts: What to Put in Writing and How to Choose a Cleaner
If nobody can say what your cleaner is supposed to do on each visit, nobody can say whether it got done. Here's what to write down, how often to clean, and a simple way to check.
Plenty of businesses pay for cleaning without a list of what they're paying for. The cleaner comes and goes, the office looks fine when people arrive, and nobody can say whether the conference room was wiped down or the bins under the desks were emptied, because nobody wrote down that they should be.
A written scope fixes that. It turns "clean the office" into a list you can check. This guide comes from Way Beyond Cleaning, an owner-run commercial cleaning company based in Fairfield, CT, working across Fairfield County and Westchester County, NY. The advice holds whoever you hire, us included.
What should a commercial cleaning contract include?
The scope is the heart of it. Price and schedule matter, but the scope is the part you'll check against every week. A useful one covers these ten points.
Where the job starts and stops
The address, the floors or suites included, and anything left out. In a shared building, say which lobby, hallway or restroom is yours to clean and which the landlord's cleaner handles.
Each area and its tasks
Reception, offices, conference rooms, restrooms, the kitchen or break room, hallways and floors, with the tasks listed under each. For a restroom that means fixtures, mirrors, floors and dispensers.
How often each task happens
Some tasks belong on every visit and some don't. A single frequency for the whole space tends to over-clean the quiet rooms and under-clean the busy ones.
Visit days and timing
Which days the visits fall on and roughly when. If you want the cleaning done outside your business hours, write that in, along with what happens on holidays.
Access and locking up
Keys, door or alarm codes, the building's contact for vendors, and who locks up and sets the alarm when the visit ends.
Supplies and products
Who stocks paper towels, toilet paper, hand soap and bin liners. Add any product rules you have, such as fragrance-free.
What not to touch
Papers on desks, locked rooms, equipment you'd rather nobody moved. Written down, the rule still holds when you're not there to repeat it.
How a miss is reported and put right
Who you contact, by phone, text or email, and what happens next. Settle it before you need it.
The price and what changes it
What the quoted price includes, and how extra visits, an event or a change in how many people use the space get priced.
How either side changes or ends it
The notice either of you gives to change the schedule or stop the service. Read this part before you sign.
Way Beyond Cleaning's proposals come in writing. If any of these points is missing from a proposal you're handed, ours included, ask for it before you agree to anything.
How often should a commercial space be cleaned?
It depends on the space, so be wary of anyone who names a frequency before they've heard about yours. The answer comes from a short list: how the building is used, how many people come through it, your business hours, your budget, which areas matter most, and anything that changes occupancy, like events or a busy season.
A busy medical office may need cleaning every day. A small office with a handful of people may manage on a weekly visit, and plenty of spaces sit in between with a few visits a week. The more useful question is how often each area needs attention.
Every visit
Restrooms, kitchen counters and sinks, trash and liners, and the entry floor. They get used every day, so they show neglect first.
Every week or so
Vacuuming the quieter offices, dusting desks around your work, and wiping down conference tables that only see occasional meetings.
On a longer rotation
Interior glass, partitions and dusting the higher surfaces that are still within reach. Agree the rotation and write it into the scope, or these jobs drift.
Winter changes the entryway more than any other spot. Between December and March, salt and sand come in on every pair of boots, so the entry mat and the floor just inside it may need more attention than the rest of the space put together.
How do you check the cleaning actually got done?
Check it against the written scope, the morning after a visit. It takes a few minutes and needs nothing more than the list and a phone.
Keep the scope where the first person in can find it
A printed copy in the office manager's desk or a shared file. Whoever opens up is the one who notices.
Pick three or four tell-tale spots
A desk bin, a restroom dispenser, the kitchen sink and the entry door glass. Checking them takes a minute, and they're a quick sign of whether the visit happened.
Write down what was missed, with a photo
The date, the area and what was wrong. A phone photo settles it faster than a description does.
Report it the same day, to one person
The contact named in the scope. One miss reported the next morning is simple to fix. A month of them saved up is a harder conversation.
Review the scope after the first month
Some tasks will need doing more often than you guessed and some less. Update the written scope so it matches how the space is used now.
If the same item keeps showing up on your list, raise it with the cleaner and point to the line in the scope. That conversation is far easier with the scope in writing.
How do you choose a commercial cleaner?
Ask every cleaner you're considering the same questions before you compare prices, and listen for specific answers rather than reassurance.
Will you put it in writing?
The scope, the schedule and the price, before the first visit.
Who do I contact when something is missed?
A name and a number, plus how the miss gets put right.
How will you get in, and who locks up?
Keys, codes and the building's rules for outside vendors.
What happens when our hours or headcount change?
How the schedule moves, and how a change is priced.
Can visits happen outside our business hours?
If that matters to you, ask what it depends on in your building.
How do we change or end the agreement?
The notice each side gives, in writing.
Then read each cleaner's recent Google reviews for the thing you're actually buying: turning up when agreed and doing the same job every visit. A low price on a vague scope can hide what's being left out.
Getting a written proposal from Way Beyond Cleaning
Way Beyond Cleaning handles recurring janitorial service and one-time commercial cleans for offices, medical and wellness suites, showrooms, retail and shared workspaces across Fairfield County, CT and Westchester County, NY. The business is owner-run and based in Fairfield.
Estimates are free and the proposal comes in writing. Tell us about the space, how it's used, your hours and what matters most to you, and ask about anything on the checklist above that you want spelled out.
Cleaning contracts: questions people ask
Is a cleaning contract the same as a scope of work?
Not quite. The scope of work lists the areas, the tasks and how often each one happens. The contract or service agreement wraps around it with the price, the schedule and how either side changes or ends the service. The scope is the part you'll use every week.
Should the scope list every room separately?
For most offices, area by area is enough: reception, offices, conference rooms, restrooms, the kitchen and the floors. Give a room its own line when it's treated differently, like a records room nobody should touch or a conference room that has to be ready before a morning meeting.
What should I do if the cleaning keeps getting missed?
First check the written scope, so you know the task was agreed. Report each miss the same day with a photo to the contact the scope names. If the same items keep slipping, sit down with the cleaner and go through the scope or the schedule. A written scope also makes it simple to compare other cleaners like for like.
Can the scope change after the cleaning starts?
It should. Headcount changes, a new tenant moves onto the floor, a busy season comes around. With Way Beyond Cleaning, tell us what's changed and we can talk through a schedule that fits.
How is commercial cleaning priced?
On the size of the space, what needs cleaning and how often. Way Beyond Cleaning's estimates are free, and the price is in the written proposal before any work starts.
Get a written proposal in three steps
Three steps, no obligation. You see the scope and the price before anything is booked.
Tell us about the space
Call or send the form: what the property is, what needs doing and the date that matters to you.
We work out the scope
We go over what the space needs and ask what matters most to you.
You get a written scope and price
Everything we'll do, in writing, with the price, before any work starts.
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