Guide
Domestic or commercial: which kind of company you need
The two halves of this trade run on different hours, different equipment and different contracts. A company set up for offices is not usually the right answer for a house, and the reverse is more often true than people expect.
Two trades wearing one word
Domestic cleaning is a person, or two, working in an occupied home during the day, usually weekly or fortnightly, on an arrangement either side can end with a fortnight's notice.
Commercial cleaning is a contract. It runs early in the morning or after the premises close, it is priced per square metre or per visit rather than per hour, it usually carries a fixed term, and the people doing it are employed and supervised rather than self-employed. The equipment is different too: scrubber dryers, industrial vacuums and colour-coded systems that a domestic round has no use for.
Both call themselves cleaners, which is why a search for one returns a good deal of the other.
When a commercial company is the right answer for a small job
Three situations where the commercial side is what you want even though the property is small.
Communal areas in a block of flats. It is scheduled, the customer is a managing agent rather than a resident, and it needs the insurance and the method statements a contract cleaner already has.
A holiday let or a serviced flat. Changeovers are same-day, to a checklist, with linen, and a company with cover is worth more than a person who might be away.
After builders. Two stages, a lot of dust, and equipment domestic rounds do not carry.
When a domestic cleaner is the right answer for a business
A small office of five or six people, a shop floor, a therapy room or a village hall is often better served by a local sole trader than by a contract cleaner. The hours are short, the work is ordinary, and a national contractor's minimum charge and mobilisation costs are set up for something larger.
What the business still needs is the insurance, and employer's liability if anybody is employed. The work being small does not change that.
What to check before you choose
Ask the question the other way round. Rather than asking a company whether it does domestic work, ask what proportion of its work is domestic and what a typical customer looks like. A company that does one house a month among forty offices will treat the house like a small office.
Then ask about cover and continuity. A sole trader is often better at the work and always worse at being in two places at once, and which of those matters more depends entirely on what the clean is for.
Common questions
Is commercial cleaning more expensive?
Per hour, usually yes. Per visit it can be less, because the work is measured and scheduled rather than open-ended, and the rate includes cover and supervision.
Can one company do both?
Plenty do, and in smaller towns most do. What to look for is whether the domestic side is a real part of the business or an accommodation.
Do I need a contract for a domestic cleaner?
Not a formal one, but a written note of the hours, the rate, the notice period and what happens on holidays and cancellations prevents nearly every dispute that arises.