How Your Floor Plan Impacts Commercial Cleaning Prices

Do you know the unique variables that impact commercial cleaning prices?

Using a floor plan to calculate prices for commercial cleaning services is a common way to estimate cleaning costs. But to create an accurate estimate for cleaning services, you’ll have to understand the variables that drive rates up and down.

Each space is unique, making it challenging to narrow down a price without an in-person visit. Trustworthy companies won’t offer a blanket quote over the phone due to the complexity of variables. The mark of a genuinely professional company is its willingness to provide a custom proposal at no charge.

In this article, we’ll cover how your floor plan influences commercial cleaning prices. You’ll be able to calculate pricing based on your office space configuration and the services you need. By the end, you’ll understand how cleaning companies arrive at pricing and will be able to gauge the value of their services.

Calculating Commercial Cleaning Prices Based on Floorplans

Keeping an office clean and healthy for employees is mandatory. With COVID-19, employees want to feel safe when they come into the office. Owners can’t risk hiring a company that doesn’t provide a visibly clean and safe workplace. Standards are constantly changing due to the pandemic, and having an emergency response plan in place is one of them.

At Sentral Services, we’ve helped many businesses reopen after the COVID-19. We’ve seen first-hand how the virus has changed the working environment, with many employees still afraid to return to the office full-time. Many prefer a hybrid work schedule, so it’s even more critical to provide the safest environment when employees come into the office.

The following variables will help you understand how your floor plan impacts the cost of commercial cleaning prices, along with other services you’ll need to maintain a healthy working environment for employees.

1. Size of Space

The most obvious factor of commercial cleaning pricing is the size of your space. How large are each room? Do you have a handful of small offices, a reception area, and a break room or a large office that you need to be cleaned?

You can estimate how much it will cost to clean your space by using square footage. Small offices under 1,000 sq. ft, on average, are $120, and large areas like a warehouse with 10,000 sq. ft are $880. These estimates are national averages collected by Thumbtack for commercial cleaning services.

Not all commercial cleaning services are the same. You have to consider the training of the staff, track record, and the chemicals they use. These factors contribute to how they will take care of your office or facility. A company with the “best rates” won’t always be as thorough with your space. Even worse, they can take shortcuts that can put your visitors and employees at risk.

One major factor that has changed commercial cleaning pricing is COVID-19. We only use EPA-approved chemicals when we provide sanitization and disinfection services. Of course, these chemicals are more pricey compared to soap and water. Going back to the size of your space, the price of using these life-saving chemicals on an area that is 1,000 versus 10,000 sq. ft will vary.

2. Type of Space

The type of space is another factor that influences commercial cleaning prices. For example, an office building has a more straightforward floor plan than a medical office, with a network of hallways, patient rooms, and reception areas that can feel like a maze.

The extensive medical campuses that we service through Maryland are complex, spanning multiple buildings, all with unique floor plans. The facilities have many windows and multiple breakrooms, making them more time-consuming to clean than an office with one hallway and a breakroom.

Commercial cleaning services will use the number of hallways, bathrooms, meeting rooms, windows, offices, and waiting rooms to estimate how long the project will take to complete. The amount of time influences how many crew members are on the job and how much equipment they’ll need to complete it to your satisfaction.

The best commercial cleaning companies plan by evaluating which staff they need on specific job sites, how long, and what tools they will need to provide the best service. By looking at your floor plan, they’ll be able to provide:

Reasonable rates for a variety of services
Custom proposals
Flexible crew
Completion dates

3. Layout of Space

The setup of each room plays a factor in commercial cleaning prices like routine janitorial services. When comparing two offices with similar sizes but different layouts, the amount of time it will take to clean will vary. An office with an open design compared with one with many cubicles, desks, chairs will be more expensive due to its layout.

It’s helpful to think about the prep work that the cleaning company will have to perform to start and complete their work. Is there equipment or chairs that the cleaning company will need to move out of the way? What about obstacles? What about a heavy table situated under a carpeted area you’d like cleaned? The amount of furniture will influence the price of cleaning.

In addition, how many flights of stairs does your office have? Not only will the cleaning crew have to travel between different levels, but you may also want the stairways themselves clean. Stairs aren’t generally included in the square footage estimate and run between $2 and $3 per step, on average.

Most people who are searching for commercial cleaning will have many questions about their space. The most reputable companies will be happy to walk you through their process and how it will impact the price of their services.

Here’s a list of criteria you can follow for great commercial cleaning services.

4. Services Needed

Anytime you contact a cleaning company, the service you need (and how often) will be one of the first questions they ask you. A small office will most likely not require the same services or cleaning schedule as a 24/7 medical complex will require. Even so, small spaces will need a combination of vacuuming and commercial floor waxing.

Pricing will vary significantly between companies for each service. Why? Each company has a different crew with a range of experience and the type of clients they serve. These variables impact prices for each standard service like commercial carpet cleaning and regular and advanced disinfection services.

Still, hourly rates are helpful to give you a ballpark. According to Commercial Cleaners on Thumbtack, the national average for commercial cleaning services is $39 per hour, ranging from $30 on the low-end and going up to $90 on the high-end.

The issue with evaluating your space with the above rates is that they don’t come from professionals with the experience to develop a customized cleaning plan.

Part of the job of a reliable commercial cleaning company is to advise you on a custom cleaning proposal that works within your budget and provides a safe environment, ensuring that you’re only paying for services that you need.

When to Hire a Commercial Cleaning Service

The factors listed in this article are not exhaustive but a starting point for estimating commercial cleaning prices. At Sentral Services, we rarely compare our pricing to competitors in our area simply because we are focused on delivering exceptional quality to each one of our clients.

From our experience, companies trying to win business over price don’t have a successful track record with long-term clients. That’s why evaluating the quality of a company by its pricing leads to a wide range of estimates. What makes the difference is the level of experience and attention to detail that a cleaning company provides.

We provide reliable walkthroughs for free, and you can get yours by filling out our custom cleaning proposal. As mentioned, you’ll be most satisfied with a detailed plan that serves your exact space requirements rather than a guess. We look forward to providing a service package that will help your business thrive.