commercial
Commercial and contract cleaning
Commercial cleaning is priced per visit from the floor area and the type of premises, not by the hour: a small shop runs £60 to £150 a week and an industrial unit £150 to £400. What separates it from a domestic arrangement is the paperwork around it, and on a change of contractor that paperwork includes TUPE, the rules that move staff across with the contract.
What this covers
What it costs. Commercial cleaning is quoted per visit from the floor area, and the rate moves with the premises rather than the hours: roughly £0.02 to £0.05 a square foot a visit for an office, more for a surgery or a food business and less for a warehouse. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Contract cleaning for offices, shops, surgeries and industrial units
- Daily, several-times-weekly or weekly schedules outside opening hours
- Washrooms, consumables and waste as part of the specification
- Periodic work: carpets, hard floors, high level dusting and windows
- Cover when a cleaner is off, which is most of what a contract buys
What is involved
The specification is the contract and it is where the value and the disputes both sit. Daily, weekly and monthly tasks should be listed separately, because the periodic tasks are the ones that need the clearest wording: high level dusting, under the desks, behind the fridge, the washroom grouting. Writing each one down is what gets it done.
Employer's liability insurance is a legal requirement for any business with employees under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969, and the minimum cover is £5 million. Ask for the certificate. A current certificate means the contractor's own staff are covered while they work on your premises.
Consumables are the other thing to settle in writing. Hand towels, soap, bin liners and washroom supplies are either in the price or billed on, and for a small office that is £40 to £90 a month, and leaving them out of one quote is enough to make two prices look further apart than they are.
What the evidence says
Standards and published measurements, cited so they can be checked.
The paperwork a commercial contract carries
An employer has to assess the substances its staff work with and record what it found, and cleaning chemicals are substances like any others. For a contract clean that means a named assessment, safety data sheets on site and staff who have been told what they are carrying. It is a fair question to ask for at tender, and it is quick to answer for a company that already has it.
Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002. The duty on an employer to assess the substances its staff work with, which covers cleaning chemicals like any others.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask for the specification before the price, then compare specifications rather than monthly figures. Two quotes three hundred pounds apart usually differ by a great deal more than that in what is being done.
Ask for both insurance certificates, public and employer's liability, and check the expiry dates.
Ask what happens when the cleaner is off. That is the answer you will care about most, and a company with cover arranged will tell you straight away who comes instead.
Worth reading first:
Common questions
How is commercial cleaning priced?
Usually per visit, worked out from floor area, the number of washrooms and the frequency, then quoted as a monthly figure. Hourly pricing is more common for small premises and one-off work.
What notice period is normal?
One to three months on an annual contract. On a first contract, a shorter notice period and a clear cancellation window on any automatic renewal keep your options open.