You understand you usually get what you pay for with professional cleaning, just like anything else. But before investing in a cleaning service, you need to answer the question, ‘how much does it cost to clean an office?’
If you’re informed about which variables contribute to office cleaning costs, you can anticipate the costs for your office and better gauge fair prices when comparing your options.
For example, you’re wondering about specific cleaning methods and related costs for your flooring types, windows, and high or hard-to-reach surfaces.
This is the perfect comprehensive guide to help you learn all the information you need to compile a reasonable office cleaning budget. We’re covering the factors in office cleaning pricing, whether professional cleaners are worth it, what to look for in a cleaning quote, and the rest of the major FAQs.
What Factors Influence Your Office Cleaning Cost?
Before deciding how much you’re willing to pay for office cleaning, you must account for the specific considerations of your office. Let’s establish how office size, labor-intensiveness, business type, cleaning frequency, and other details impact how much it costs to clean an office.
Office Size
The first and most obvious aspect involved is the size of the office. Most cleaning companies primarily base their pricing on square footage. This is because more space generally equates to more work, personnel, and resources required.
The cost of office cleaning services ranges from $0.05-$012 per sq ft for 40,000 sq ft buildings, and $0.09-$0.17 per sq ft for 12,000 sq ft of space. This comes out to an average cost for office cleaning of $0.11 per sq ft.
You might be wondering why the cleaning price per square foot tends to be higher for smaller office spaces. Most cleaning services structure their pricing this way because it’s more cost-efficient for them to do more work in one place instead of stopping to pack up supplies, drive to another job, and unpack the supplies before getting started again.
The Amount of Work to Clean
With a space in better condition, fewer specialized services involved, and more people cleaning at once, the more efficient the cleaning is. Overall, costs increase with more space, more specialized/demanding services, and more accumulated dirt and dust.
Counterintuitively, cleaning a smaller office, say 1,500 square feet, might be trickier than expected to clean due to limited space. Though the cleaning team are experts in how to clean an office effectively and efficiently, there is a minimum amount of work to thoroughly clean even a small space.
Aside from square footage and staffing, other details affect how much work it takes to clean an office. Cleaning may less efficient at certain times of the day or week, or if there are special features like very high ceilings, a high number of windows, or any areas requiring specialized services.
Offices can also be harder to clean if they are crowded with people and furniture, or if they have a difficult floor plan to work around.
Cleaning Frequency
The predominant frequency for general office cleaning is three to five times weekly. If you have a smaller office with an extremely small workforce, you might opt for cleaning once per week. Or, you may have the type of facility that needs to bring in professional cleaners every single day, throughout the day.
Typically, the more often the office is cleaned, the faster and less expensive those individual cleaning sessions will be. That’s because there’s less time for dirt and mess to build up, and the staff has less to clean up during each visit. One-time cleanings may cost the most.
Type of Space
Let’s consider some different kinds of offices. Small offices experiencing little foot traffic usually accumulate less mess, so they might be easier and cheaper to clean. On the other hand, large, extremely busy office buildings with an abundance of common areas get messier faster, requiring more intensive cleaning.
Also, compared to a regular corporate office, the most specialized spaces like medical facilities cost more to clean. Healthcare environments like hospitals and doctors’ offices have more complex procedures and higher standards of cleaning to minimize infection-causing bacteria and viruses.
Other Features
Find out the square footage of more demanding areas to clean like restrooms, breakrooms, and kitchens. Bathrooms and rooms that come into frequent contact with food need more intensive cleaning and disinfection for obvious reasons. Cleaning these spaces may cost up to $3 per square foot.
Additionally, windows, areas in need of specialized cleaning, and high surfaces requiring a ladder add to cleaning costs. For example, if you need the windows cleaned, expect to pay an additional $2-$7 per window.
DIY Cleaning or Professional Cleaning: Which is More Efficient?
Many business owners and facility managers might start to get overwhelmed when they think about how much office cleaning costs. While it makes sense to expect employees to clean up after themselves to some extent, could DIY cleaning make more sense than hiring a company?
DIY Cleaning
Especially for smaller businesses, it’s common for employees to help clean the kitchen or breakroom, vacuum, take out the trash, wipe down workspaces and frequent touch points or do basic dusting occasionally.
Here’s the problem. You still need someone to do a more thorough clean sometimes and clean the bathrooms and kitchens up to health and safety standards. It would be unreasonable, time-consuming, and inefficient to ask an untrained worker to conduct that kind of office cleaning.
So, do you start an in-house cleaning operation instead? This might appear more efficient or affordable at first. But in-house cleaners are a more complicated endeavor than you may think. It’s like running a separate business. Someone needs to have the expertise, time, and funds to manage another subset of cleaning staff, supply inventory, equipment, and maintenance.
Professional Cleaning
Professional cleaning companies already have the cleaning expertise, training, dedicated staff, competitively priced supplies, and equipment to clean your office efficiently. Plus, they’re certified, bonded, and insured against the many potential risks of cleaning, janitorial, and routine maintenance work.
When you outsource cleaning, your office will likely benefit from cost and time savings, higher cleaning standards, and fewer occupational hazards.
Professional Office Cleaning Services Can Save You Money
Beyond the savings of not having to create your own in-house cleaning operations, here are the many significant ways you can save money by hiring professional cleaning services to keep your office clean:
Prevent Damage to Facilities and Equipment
Neglected bathrooms, floors, and appliances rack up enormous bills over time when damage occurs, necessitating repairs and replacements. When professional cleaners take care of your office, you’re preventing costly water damage, rot, warped or cracked floors, appliance failure, and even structural damage.
Boost Workplace Efficiency
Aside from basic measures like removing any trash, crumbs, or spills after eating, your employees can fully focus on their most important work tasks. Not only will they get more done when they don’t have to clean out a microwave, coffee maker, or fridge, or wipe down desks and tables, but your staff likely deal with fewer sick days and distractions in a clean, organized office.
Improved Professional Impressions
When professional cleaning leaves your office cleaner, healthier, and safer, you’ll make more positive impressions with business associates, clients, customers, and other visitors. Anyone who spends time at the facility will feel more comfortable and confident in your competence as a business.
Things to Look For in a Cleaning Quote
When you’re comparing cleaning services and office cleaning quotes, these are some of the items to check off your list:
Payment Arrangements
Whether you’re discussing a long-term or short-term contract, the financial terms should be clear. This includes a cost breakdown, when payment is due, payment methods, late fees or penalties, and how long the quote will be valid.
In particular, check the travel fees included in your rate, and don’t accept a quote listing travel costs ‘to be confirmed.’ Make sure you know whether the company is charging by the square foot or flat rates per task, and whether they’re applying any discounts.
Scope and Frequency of Cleaning
Your office probably doesn’t need full deep cleaning and top-to-bottom disinfection every day. Determine which individual tasks you want, and the frequency of each.
A trustworthy cleaning service will help you optimize any routine and specialized cleaning procedures by adjusting them for the unique needs of your space.
Equipment to be Used
Your quote should mention all the equipment and cleaning supplies the cleaning team needs to do the job. Sometimes, you may be asked to provide something, and that should be agreed upon in writing.
This is especially relevant if you have any spaces like high surfaces that require special equipment and training, e.g. ladders. You may also request biodegradable and eco-friendly cleaning materials, etc.
Insurance Coverage
There are risks associated with cleaning work potentially endangering the worker and present risks to property.
The cleaning company should be fully insured in case the safety of staff or property is compromised. You should also verify the cleaning company properly vets their staff and upholds security procedures.
Reputation
This is actually a step you should take before you even obtain a quote from a company. Your search isn’t complete until you’ve looked into any available reviews, testimonials, or recommendations.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you quote an office cleaning?
An office cleaning quote or cost estimate includes all the terms of the agreement. The cost breakdown is often based on the square footage and features of the office, how long it takes to clean, the scope frequency of cleaning, and any in-depth services.
What should a cleaning quote include?
A cleaning quote should include all cost breakdowns and payment details, a list of services and equipment, the frequency of cleaning, and verification of insurance.
How often should a small office be cleaned?
The industry standard is to conduct general cleaning 3-5 times per week. But if your staff is exceptionally small, you may be able to get away with cleaning once or twice per week.
Ask Us for an Office Cleaning Price Quote!
With some of the lowest employee turnover in the business, Dallas Janitorial Services provides personalized and dedicated cleaning throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Contact us for a free quote, and we’ll precisely customize our services to your needs, so you can see the difference for yourself with no need for long-term contracts.
