For facility managers and business owners comparing floor cleaning proposals for an office, retail space, medical office or other commercial property.
Two proposals for commercial floor cleaning can look similar and cover very different amounts of work. The quote that reads cheaper may leave out whole categories. A clear picture of what a floor program contains makes proposals much easier to compare.
Start with a list of your floors
Every surface needs different care. Walk the building and list what you have: resilient tile, carpet, sealed or polished concrete, and any entry flooring that takes weather. Note the approximate area of each and how heavily it is used. A contractor who skips this step is guessing, and the quote will show it.
Three kinds of work
A solid program usually has three layers, and a good proposal says which ones it covers.
- Routine care. Frequent, lighter work such as dust mopping, damp mopping and vacuuming. This is what keeps floors presentable day to day and keeps grit from wearing the surface down.
- Periodic care. Scheduled deeper work: scrubbing and recoating resilient floors, or extraction cleaning for carpet. It resets the floor between larger projects. For resilient floors, the choice between this and a full refinish is the subject of our guide to stripping and waxing versus a deep scrub.
- Restorative work. Occasional projects such as stripping and refinishing a worn floor, or restoring a concrete surface. These are planned separately and priced as projects.
Who does what
Many buildings split the work. Your own team or a general janitorial provider may handle trash, restrooms and daily vacuuming, while a floor-care specialist handles periodic and restorative work. Decide where the line sits and write it down, so no task falls between two providers. Our janitorial service and floor care service pages explain how the two connect.
Map where the wear is
Entrances, corridors, counters and break areas wear faster than a back office. A program should treat them differently, with more frequent attention where traffic is heaviest. Entrance matting helps keep grit off the interior floors, so ask whether the contractor recommends it for your doors.
Check that products and equipment fit the surface
Using the wrong chemical or machine on a floor can dull a finish, leave residue or damage the surface. Ask which products and equipment will be used on each floor type and why. You do not need to know the chemistry, but you should hear a clear answer.
Look for inspection and follow-up
A program is more than a list of tasks. Ask how the work is checked, who walks the building with you, how problems are reported and how quickly they are corrected. Regular walk-throughs catch small issues before they become a project.
How to compare proposals
Put the proposals side by side and compare scope before price. For each one, check:
- Which floors and how many square feet are included, and which are not.
- Which tasks are routine, which are periodic and which are priced as projects.
- How often each task happens.
- When the work is done and how it fits your hours. Our guide on scheduling floor care around business hours covers that side.
- What is excluded, such as furniture moving, repairs or after-hours access.
- How inspection and problem reporting work.
Questions to bring to a walkthrough
- What floor types do you see here, and how would you treat each?
- Which of these tasks are included in the regular price and which are separate?
- How often would you recommend periodic work for this traffic level?
- What would you advise for the entrances?
- How do we reach you if a floor is not right after a visit?
The next step
Spotless looks at your floors, your traffic and your schedule before proposing a plan, and will say so if a lighter option is enough. To start, share the floor types, approximate areas, how the space is used and the ZIP code when you request an estimate.
Related reading: commercial cleaning services, office cleaning, commercial carpet cleaning, floor stripping and waxing, and all floor-care guides.