Pricing commercial cleaning jobs can be tricky. Commercial cleaning prices vary considerably between jobs due to building size, special requests, demand, and service types.
It’s also not uncommon for already big and complex commercial cleaning jobs to become even larger and more complicated as the job progresses.
The result? Costs snowball out of control, and profits suffer.
But, you won’t be unprofitable if you learn to master commercial cleaning service pricing.
Jump To:
01 Average commercial cleaning rates (chart included)
02 How to price commercial cleaning jobs
03 Factors that influence pricing
04 Different pricing methods
Average commercial cleaning rates vary from $0.07 to $0.15 a square foot (sq. ft) or $50 to $100 an hour.
In addition to standard cleaning, here’s a commercial cleaning rate chart to give you an idea of what you can charge for specialty commercial cleaning services.
| Type of commercial cleaning | Average commercial cleaning rate |
|---|---|
| Stripping and waxing | $.30 to $.50 per sq ft |
| Buffing and burnishing | $.04 to $.12 per sq ft |
| Ceramic tile cleaning | $.12 to $.21 per sq ft |
| Carpet cleaning | $.08 to $.25 per sq ft |
| Window cleaning | $2 to $5 per windowpane |
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Use our free service price calculator to set the right prices and help your commercial cleaning business profit.
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Many commercial cleaners mistakenly set prices based on prevailing rates in the area. Some even choose to undercut the competition to win more business.
Don’t make these mistakes.
Instead, price for profit by following these four steps:
Step 1: Get clear on the job details
Consider all the factors listed previously, such as the job location, type of cleaning, and building size. The best way to get all this information is to visit the job site, speak to the client on the phone, or use your CRM to track every job detail.
Step 2: Calculate your labor cost
Follow these three steps to calculate your labor cost:
A. Determine the number of labor hours
First, determine how many hours a job will take. Then, take this number and multiply it by the number of employees on the job to get your labor hours. For example, if your job requires 50 hours and three employees, the labor hours are 150 (50*3 = 150).
Pro Tip: Knowing how long a job will take when you’re starting out can be tricky. To help, use time tracking software to track how long your crew spends on a job and use that information to estimate time spent on future jobs.
READ MORE: How to start a commercial cleaning business
B. Calculate your hourly labor cost
Your hourly labor cost includes the hourly wage and extras like worker’s compensation, taxes, and other employee-related expenses. Twenty percent is usually a reliable amount to add for these extras over and above your employee’s wage. For example, if you pay employees a $15 wage, your hourly wage is actually $18 ($15*1.2).
C. Multiply labor hours by labor cost
Your total labor cost for the job is now $2,700.00 (150*$18).
FREE TOOL: Get our cleaner salary guide, 100% free
Step 3: Factor in overhead, insurance, and equipment
There are monthly costs you should factor in when pricing. These include marketing, cell phone, data, travel, insurance, rent, and commercial cleaning business software like Jobber.
Your exact overhead costs will differ from other commercial cleaning businesses, but adding 20-25% to the previous total is usually a reliable marker.
Continuing with the previous example, multiply your total labor cost by your overhead costs. The job’s total cost is now $3,240.00 ($2,700.00*1.20).
Need help tracking your business expenses? Try expense tracking software.
Step 4: Add your markup
Finally, add your markup. Your markup, usually expressed as a percentage, is the amount you add to your cost to make a profit. For example, a 30% markup gets you a final price of $4,212.00 ($3,240.00*1.30). That’s a profit margin of 23%.
To dive deeper into the topic of pricing, markups, and margins, read How to Determine Pricing for Your Service Business.
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Factors that influence commercial cleaning service prices
There are several factors to consider before setting your commercial cleaning prices, determining your pricing strategy, creating a quote, and bidding on a cleaning contract:
1. The size of the building: As a general rule, you’ll bid a lower sq. ft price for a larger building, even though the overall project value will be more. A large building will also have more rooms to clean, increasing the work required and the overall rate.
2. Type of building: Certain buildings allow you to charge more per sq. ft due to more specialized cleaning needs. For example, you can charge more per sq. ft for a medical building than a general office block.
3. Type of rooms: High-traffic rooms take longer to clean (e.g., bathrooms, breakrooms, and kitchens), increasing the overall cost.
4. The type of cleaning service: Certain commercial cleaning services have a higher price tag. For example:
- Stripping and waxing generally cost more than buffing and burnishing.
- A deep clean will have a higher price tag than a basic clean because it’s more thorough.
5. The state of the office building: A dirtier office building requires more cleaning, so you should charge more.
6. Job location: The further you have to travel to the job, the higher your rate to cover costs. To keep costs down, optimize your routes to reduce mileage and schedule all clients who are close to each other on the same day.
7. Demand for commercial cleaning services: You should charge a rate that’s unique to your business, based on costs and desired margins, and not fixed to industry averages. However, it helps to understand the demand in your area and use it to guide your price. For example, if there’s higher demand, you can set a higher price than a business operating in a low-demand area.
8. Cleaning frequency: It’s common for commercial cleaning professionals to charge less as cleaning frequency increases because each subsequent visit requires less cleaning.
9. Experience: A longer time in the industry means you have more experience and a better reputation, so you can charge more. We don’t ever recommend undercharging or discounting unnecessarily. Instead, build up your experience and reputation so you can charge premium prices.
Try our free cleaning estimate template
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Different methods for pricing commercial cleaning jobs
There are four different methods for pricing commercial cleaning jobs: hourly, fixed, per room, and per square foot.
The pricing method you choose will depend on your scope of work, preferences, and expertise. And, you may very well find that you alternate between the pricing methods at any given time.
1. Hourly rate
Charging an hourly price works when you’re unsure about the scope of work. This makes it ideal if you’re new to commercial cleaning.
There are a few drawbacks, though. First, you’re not rewarded for getting better and faster at what you do. Second, it can lead to price haggling and mistrust if the client feels you’re purposefully working slow.
2. Flat fee
By charging a single price, clients feel in control of their budget, you avoid price haggling, and don’t get penalized for doing your job efficiently.
A fixed fee works well when you understand the scope of work, making it ideal for established cleaners. The biggest con of this pricing method is that if you underestimate the costs, you’ll have to absorb them.
FREE TOOL: Try our free cleaning receipt template
3. Average room rate
Here you determine how many rooms to clean, work out the per-room rate, and average it out. For example, if you’re cleaning an office building, you may have a bathroom ($100), kitchen ($150), two separate offices ($75 each), and a reception ($50). Your average room rate would be $90 ($450/5).
4. Square foot rate
Your square foot rate will vary based on the size and type of surface. The bigger the building, the lower the square foot rate. Similarly, the harder it is to clean the surface, the longer it’ll take, and the higher your rate.
FREE TOOL: Get paid faster with our free commercial cleaning invoice template
Run a more profitable commercial cleaning business
Deciding what to charge for commercial cleaning jobs may seem tricky because each job is unique. But you can master pricing with some guidance and hard work.
Hopefully, this post provided that guidance by showing you what factors to consider when pricing, the four methods you can use, and the exact steps to price for profit.
Just remember that once you’ve mastered pricing, you have to send professional quotes, track crucial job details, and collect invoice payments. Try using commercial cleaning software, or a CRM, quoting, and invoicing tool, to see how you can organize your business and impress your customers.
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FAQs
How much should I charge for 2 hours of cleaning? ›
You should typically charge between $100 to $200 for house cleaning, or between $25 and $90 per hour, per cleaner. You can also charge specifically based on the area of the house you're tasked with cleaning, which should generally range between $0.05 and $0.10 per square foot.
What do cleaners charge hourly? ›The average hourly rates for House cleaning in London are between £12-£13 per hour for routine cleaning while a one-off deep cleaning service would be charged at a rate of £14p/h to £25 per hour. Get free estimates for End of tenancy and house cleaners near you in London.
What are the 3 types of cleaning? ›Depending on the type of business and level of need, there are three levels of “clean” to be aware of when it comes to keeping your workspace safe and healthy: CLEAN, SANITIZE, and DISINFECT.
How are cleaning rates calculated? ›Square footage is the measurement used for the size of homes and buildings. This method of pricing requires you to decide on a rate per square foot. For example, you may charge $0.10 per square foot. If the home you are cleaning is 2,000 square feet, then you would multiply 10 cents by 2,000.
How do you calculate cleaning costs? ›To give a customer an estimate, add the times for the areas given by the customer, divide those times by 60 to get how long it will take to clean and multiply that number by your hourly rate. For example, 200/60 = 3.33 x $30 = $100.
What can a cleaner do in 3 hours? ›- Wiping down countertops.
- Cleaning the bathrooms, including bathtubs, shower heads, and toilets.
- Vacuuming.
- Dusting and vacuuming baseboards.
- Wiping the sink, kitchen surfaces and washing the dishes.
- Mopping the floors.
- Washing the clothes.
- Mop your kitchen floor quickly.
- Wipe your kitchen counters down.
- Clean a small number of dishes in the sink.
- Hoover the main floors in a house – this does not mean moving furniture around.
- Clean a toilet.
- Wipe the sinks/taps around your home down.
- Scrape.
- Rinse (first time)
- Apply detergent.
- Rinse (again)
- Sanitize.
- Rinse (last time)
- Dry.
The seven-step cleaning process includes emptying the trash; high dusting; sanitizing and spot cleaning; restocking supplies; cleaning the bathrooms; mopping the floors; and hand hygiene and inspection.
What are the 4 stages of cleaning? ›- Cleaning. The first step is to remove all organic material. ...
- Washing. ...
- Disinfecting — This is a critical step in the cleaning process that requires some use of science. ...
- Drying time.
What is the most powerful type of cleaning? ›
Acid cleaners are the most powerful type of cleaning agent and should be used with care. If they are not diluted correctly, acid cleaners can be very poisonous and corrosive.
What are the four 4 major cleaning agent? ›There are so many cleaning supplies on the market, but all formulas ultimately fall into one of four distinct categories: detergents, degreasers, abrasives, and acids.
What are the 2 stages of cleaning? ›Cleaning needs to be carried out in two stages. First use a cleaning product to remove visible dirt from surfaces and equipment, and rinse. Then disinfect them using the correct dilution and contact time for the disinfectant, after rinse with fresh clean water if required.
How do you calculate commercial cleaning costs? ›The average cost of commercial cleaning is $0.11 per sq ft, with average cleaning rates ranging from $. 07 to $. 15 per sq ft according to PriceItHere. Commercial cleaning prices per hour equal about $75 per hour with average prices ranging from $50 to $100 per hour.
How do you calculate cleaning hours? ›Cleaning time can be calculated as the amount of square footage to be cleaned divided by the production rate per hour multiplied by 60 to generate an output in minutes.
How long does it take to clean 1000 square feet? ›60 - 90 minutes per 1000 sqft (square feet) for a Standard Clean. 90 - 120 minutes per 1000 sqft for a Deep Clean. Homes That Require a Heavy Duty Clean: 90 - 120 minutes per 1000 sqft for a Standard Clean.
How many square feet can be cleaned in an hour? ›The industry standard on general office cleaning (usually 3 – 5 days a week, including vacuuming, moping, bathrooms, kitchens, mostly carpet in the building etc.) usually takes ONE person ONE hour to clean 3000 – 4000 square feet.
How much does Molly Maid cost? ›Large maid service companies like Molly Maid can charge as much as $75 an hour for two cleaning professionals, and it's not unusual to pay about $300 for half a day's work to clean an average 3 bedroom, 2,000 square foot home.
How do you calculate cleanable square footage? ›Cleanable Square Feet = Gross Square Feet minus walls (1.5% of gross square feet) minus non-cleanable areas (i.e., electrical closets, mechanical rooms, storage rooms).
How can I make my cleaning job faster? ›- Tackle Oven Spills Quickly.
- Wipe Down Shower Walls.
- Skip the Ironing Board.
- Store Garbage Bags in a Convenient Spot.
- Declutter Every Room.
- Make Your Bed Before You Get Up.
- Add a Donation Box in Every Closet.
- Put Your Appliances to Work.
What should a cleaning checklist include? ›
- Vacuuming carpets and floors.
- Sweeping and mopping floors.
- Emptying trash.
- High and low dusting.
- Cleaning door handles and light fixtures.
- Dusting windows, window sills and ledges.
- Changing linen (often as an additional service)
- High attention to detail.
- Communication skills.
- Loyalty and flexibility.
- Time management skills.
A 20/10 is 20 minutes of cleaning followed by a 10-minute break, and the work/break cycle just might change the way you look at cleaning from now on. If nothing else has worked for you so far, trying something new just might be worth a shot.
Do you clean before cleaner comes? ›“Items like clothes, toys and dishes get in the way and prevent cleaning professionals from doing their best job.” “For the most effective use of the cleaning team's time, it is best if the homeowner does the tidying up prior to the cleaning team's arrival.”
How do you know if cleaning is not good enough? ›If something does go wrong, don't be afraid to speak up and let your service know that you're not happy. It doesn't have to be confrontational—keep calm and describe the situation to your cleaner and let them know that the cleaning did not meet your expectations.
What's the difference between a cleaning and a deep cleaning? ›While regular cleaning focuses more on the gum line to scale and polish the teeth' outer surface, deep cleaning teeth involves removing bacteria colonies and tartar from the roots of the teeth.
What is the difference between a deep clean and a standard clean? ›While regular cleaning is for your cleanliness upkeep, deep cleaning is a lot more extensive than your standard weekly clean. Deep cleans involve a complete rubdown and giving attention to the often neglected and hard-to-reach spots. Anything inside your home that can be reached with a stool will be hand-wiped.
How long does a deep cleaning take? ›The average time for a deep cleaning visit is approximately 45 minutes. In most cases, a deep cleaning will take two visits to clean both sides of the mouth.
What are the 5 rules of smart cleaning? ›- Declutter. ...
- Vacuuming and Mopping. ...
- Always have basic cleaning supplies on hand. ...
- Involve everyone. ...
- Make a schedule and stick to it. ...
- 9 Tips for Keeping Your Kids' Room Clean & Sanitised.
Main clean – use a detergent to loosen surface trash and grease. Rinse to get rid of any leftover food, oil, or detergent. Disinfection is the process of killing microorganisms using a disinfectant or heat. Remove the disinfectant with a final rinse.
What are the 4 elements of a master cleaning schedule? ›
A master cleaning schedule includes cleaning of equipment, tools, containers, structures, and grounds, and identifies the area or equipment to be cleaned, the time period between each cleaning, and the person(s) responsible for the cleaning.
What is involved in commercial cleaning? ›The scope of commercial cleaning will include routine and general cleaning – Including tiles, floors, internal walls, partition walls, furniture, lighting, suspended ceilings, window cleaning, dining and kitchen areas, washing facilities and more.
What is the 6/10 cleaning list? ›The six daily tasks include making the bed, washing dishes, scrubbing the sink, wiping down counters, vacuuming floors and doing a load of laundry. On top of those are 10 weekly tasks, which the Tiktoker says she does on one day of the week.
What is the highest level of cleaning? ›STERILIZATION is the ultimate level of clean – it is defined as “annihilation of all microbial life” – bacteria, fungus, virus and spores.
What are the three main components to cleaning? ›Cleaning is often achieved with detergent, water and agitation, with the visible dirt and detergent then rinsed and removed with clean water. Detergents are chemicals that remove dirt and grease, however detergents do not kill bacteria and other microorganisms.
What is a cleaning schedule? ›A cleaning schedule is an easy and effective way of demonstrating all equipment is regularly cleaned. It is a set of instructions that describe everything that needs to be done in order to maintain the premises in a clean and sanitary condition.
What are super clean people called? ›fastidious. adjective. keeping your clothes, possessions, and property very clean and tidy.
What is the very harsh cleaning agents? ›The most acutely dangerous cleaning products are corrosive drain cleaners, oven cleaners, and acidic toilet bowl cleaners, according to the Washington Toxics Coalition. Shop for cleaners, laundry detergents, and personal care products labeled “fragrance-free” or “unscented”.
What are the 8 cleaning chemicals? ›- Abrasives. Abrasives are materials that wear off dirt by rubbing. ...
- Acids. Acids are beneficial in removing hard-water deposits, discoloration from aluminum, brass, bronze, and copper and iron rust stains. ...
- Alkalies. ...
- Bleaches. ...
- Detergents. ...
- Sanitizers. ...
- Spirit Solvents. ...
- Making a Cleaner.
Taski R2 Hard Surface Cleaner is specially formulated soap oil that helps to remove lime-scale deposits and stubborn stains.
What is the simplest cleaner of all? ›
- WATER: Water is the simplest cleaning agent and some form of dirt will be dissolved by it, but. ...
- DETERGENT: Detergents are those cleaning agents, which contain significant quantities of a group of. ...
- ABRASIVES. ...
- DEGREASING AGENTS. ...
- ACIDS AND TOILET CLEANSERS. ...
- ALKALIS:
4 Types of Cleaning Agents and When To Use Them
Four steps to effective cleaning and disinfecting
Six Stages of Cleaning | Key Steps & Safety Factors
Generally, they should be able to do some basic hoovering, cleaning down worktops and cleaning a toilet in a two hour period, at a minimum. The important point to remember is that you should always try and make the most out of a two-hour-long cleaning session.
What can a cleaner do in 1 hour? ›Do some light dusting of mirrors, the TV and a few units. Hoover the living room and hallway – As long as they are small and there is no furniture to be moved around. Mop your kitchen floor – A very basic clean, no stains and spills treatment. Spray and wipe the countertops in the kitchen – Just the visible surfaces.
How long does it take to clean a 4 bed house? ›Generally however we budget the following number of hours cleaning for each property type: 1-bed (2.5hrs); 2-bed 2-bed 1-bath (3hrs), 2-bed 2-bath (3.5hrs), 3-bed (4hrs), 4-bed (5hrs), 5-bed (6hrs).
How do you calculate cleaning hours? ›Cleaning time can be calculated as the amount of square footage to be cleaned divided by the production rate per hour multiplied by 60 to generate an output in minutes.
What should a cleaning checklist include? ›- Vacuuming carpets and floors.
- Sweeping and mopping floors.
- Emptying trash.
- High and low dusting.
- Cleaning door handles and light fixtures.
- Dusting windows, window sills and ledges.
- Changing linen (often as an additional service)
- Tackle Oven Spills Quickly.
- Wipe Down Shower Walls.
- Skip the Ironing Board.
- Store Garbage Bags in a Convenient Spot.
- Declutter Every Room.
- Make Your Bed Before You Get Up.
- Add a Donation Box in Every Closet.
- Put Your Appliances to Work.
Some of the tasks that they can do for you in three hours are: Wiping down countertops. Cleaning the bathrooms, including bathtubs, shower heads, and toilets. Vacuuming.
How many hours should you clean a day? ›Based on the size of your house and the severity of the mess, it could be 2 – 3 hours out of your day dedicated to cleaning. That's why most cleaning experts recommend daily cleaning.
How long should a cleaner take? ›
It takes a professional domestic cleaner around 1.5 hours to clean a one bedroom home with one bathroom. However, it will only take this long if the home is cleaned on a regular weekly basis. If the cleaning in the home is not maintained then it can take at least 2.5 hours.
What is a good cleaning schedule? ›A Room (or Two) a Day: Decide how many days you'll clean. Then, assign specific areas to specific days. For example, Monday: clean the kitchen, entry, and laundry room; Tuesday: living room and dining room; Wednesday: bathrooms; and Thursday: hallway and bedrooms.
How often should a cleaning lady come? ›If you live alone and don't have pets, we still recommend a weekly or fortnightly clean, to avoid buildup of grime, dust, cobwebs and dirt. If you have a smaller property, like a one bedroom apartment, a regular two hourly clean will keep on top of everything.