Calculating Cleaning Times (Needed for Pricing)

Probably the most important component to your pricing is your ability to figure out how much time it will take to clean your prospect's location. Overestimating time can inflate your price which can throw you out of contention for that bid. Miscalculating time can create a loss at a location, and at the very least, it can add stress to you, your business, and your team. 

Before I dive in, know that there are many different variables that impact your cleaning production rate (ie how many square feet you can clean in 1 hour). I've never done residential cleaning as a business. For those of you reading that do residential cleaning, I acknowledge that cleaning speeds for homes, for example, are a lot slower than an office suite of the same size. There are many reasons why that is, though I do touch on it in this post. For the sake of this blog entry, I'm focused on commercial cleaning rates.

So, how many square feet can you clean in one hour? Loaded question. There are many variables that can impact that cleaning speed:

1) Niche type. Cleaning a 5000 sqft medical office can take longer than clean a 5000 sqft office suite.

2) Floor types. Cleaning tile takes longer than cleaning carpet, when mopping is added in.

3) Level of Clean. Cleaning a 2500 sqft hospital operating room can take longer than a 2500 sqft pediatrician's office. 

4) Layout. It takes longer to clean a 10,000 sqft space filled with cubicles than it does to clean 10,000 sqft of enclosed offices. 

5) Frequency. Cleaning 5X/week always is faster than cleaning the same space 1X/week. More trash, dirt and dust can accumulate. 

6) Scope of Work. Every client has different needs. As we saw with COVID, it takes longer to add disinfecting than it does for basic cleaning alone. 

7) Surface types. A 2500 sqft office suite with glass walls and delicate flooring, like bamboo, will take longer than an office suite without.

8) Level of trash. If trash is a part of your SOW, you've probably noticed that some clients produce a lot more trash than others and that takes time.

9) Occupancy. As many of us saw at the start of COVID for the offices we continued to clean, it was a ghost town for some locations. Our production rates sped up and began to slow down with the return of staff.

10) HVAC Systems. Some of our clients change their filters religiously and there's very little dust. Others never change their filters and dust bunnies procreate like...well, bunnies. That adds time.

11) Equipment Used. A fellow BSC brought up a great one. Equipment used factors into your production rate. For example, cleaning with a Proteam Backpack vac could have a production rate of 7,500-10,000 sqft per hour but a Sanitaire upright vacuum is 2500-3500 sqft per hour depending on the model. Or if you're cleaning wide open tile floors, a 48" dust mop will be 2X faster than a 24".

I've always stressed to never bid on a rate per sqft basis, and the above highlights that (and check out 7 Reasons Why a Rate per Sqft Does Not Matter). When we bid, we guesstimate time needed to clean, and factor in these variables into our timing. 

Here are the different ways we guesstimate the time needed to clean:

Production Rate -

According to industry sources like BSCAI and ISSA, you should be able to clean up to 5000 sqft per hour in an office setting. Our company has a rule that requires all of our employees to comfortably clean 3000 sqft per hour. When factoring in the above 10 variables, we'll overlook that 3000 in lieu of these factors. I'll often help others with their pricing in these FB groups. I'll use a 2500 sqft rate for tile floors and 3500 for carpet. Whether fast or slow, you need to nail down these production rates. 

Experience - 

Have you ever calculated your production rate using current clients and data? It's easy. Take the amount of hours worked and divide it into the total cleanable square feet. That's YOUR production rate. See how it stacks up to ISSA's and BSCAI's rates. 

ISSA's Cleaning Times - 

ISSA publishes their Cleaning Times. It breaks down tasks like vacuuming, mopping, dusting, trash removal, and a whole lot more down to the granular level. You can pull up your SOW and assign cleaning times to each to come up with a guesstimated time. 

Comparison Method - 

It'll come to a point where you're bidding on a location and you swear you've been there before. Your prospect might have their doppleganger in the form of a current client. It's easy to compare and contrast locations when they're similar in size and scope.

Count Method - 

What happens if you need to bid a 20-story office building? Well, if you can calculate the cleaning time of just 1 floor, and assuming all of the floors are the same size, then multiply that timing guesstimate by 20 to come up with the total cleaning time. Or let's say you're bidding a school and this school has 18 classrooms. Calculate the time to clean one, let's say 10 minute to keep my math simple, then the total needed for all classrooms is 180 minutes or 3 hours. Repeat the process for restrooms, offices, etc. and add up the totals to come up with your guesstimate. 

ISSA's Restroom Calculation - 

ISSA has a guide on cleaning restrooms. To calculate the time needed, add up each toilet, urinal, and sink in a restroom, then multiply that total by 3. That product is the total time needed to clean the entire restroom. So if there are 5 toilets, 2 urinals, and 2 sinks, then that's 9. Nine times three is 27. 27 minutes is the total time needed to clean those fixtures, remove trash, clean partitions, clean mirrors, etc. 

Just Ask - 

Ask your client. Now you don't know if your predecessor over or underbid anything, or if they have more experience than you, but it's not going to hurt to ask your prospect how many people they had cleaning and what hours did they clean. More often than not the answer is wrong, but at least you have a general idea from the customer's viewpoint. 

What if you don’t know the square feet?

We base our pricing on time and square feet is largely irreverent to us. But sometimes you want to track things internally or even use square feet as a backup in your timing guesstimate. Below are some ideas to find that information. 

1) Measure it  There are tools out there like the DTAPE Laser Measure DT100 which measures up to 328 feet  All you need is to multiply length x width and you have your square feet.

2) Public Records  Your County or other municipality keeps records on the square footage of any given property.  You can tap into those records, often online, and often find that info. 

3) LoopNet or CoStar. Both of these sites track both building and suite square feet if the commercial properly was either sold or leased.  Sometimes the answer isn’t obvious but be sure to look at any brokers’ pitch sheets as those often reveal more.

4) Count. Count ceiling tiles. They’re often 2ft x 2ft  If you count 100 of them, that’s 200 feet. You can also count your steps, or even count VCT tiles.  

5) Google the Address  Just by googling the address you will find some valuable information. For example, a search could lead to an architect if the property was recently remodeled or built out, and you can find square feet, or at least the architect’s name so you can reach out for more info.

6) Stacking Plans. If the property has leased suites, the property manager or owner might have a stacking plan. It breaks down the sqft by floor and by suite. 

7) Google Earth. Google Earth has a measuring tool you can use to guesstimate length and width of a property. You can the go on Street View and see how many floors that property has. Another method is to count parking spaces. If a parking space is about 9 feet, and you count 50 of them in a satellite view, then you know the length is 450 feet on the exterior. 

I hope the above helped in some way. In the next blog post we'll dive into pricing with timing guesstimates at the central focus for that pricing.