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.
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. 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 what goes wrong is nearly always the periodic ones: high level dusting, under the desks, behind the fridge, the washroom grouting. Anything not written down is not happening, whatever anybody intended.
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 contractor sending a team into your premises without it is a contractor whose problem becomes yours.
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, which is enough to make two quotes look different when they are not.
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 contractor who cannot give it is one person rather than a company.
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. Be wary of anything longer on a first contract, and of automatic renewal with a short cancellation window.