How to Bid Commercial Cleaning Jobs: Per-Square-Foot Pricing, Production Rates and a Worked Example

Why Per-Square-Foot Guesses Go Wrong

New commercial cleaners often ask "what's the going rate per square foot?" and bid on that. The problem: two 10,000 sq ft buildings can take very different amounts of time. One is an open-plan office with carpet and two restrooms. The other is a medical practice with twelve exam rooms, hard floors, six restrooms and strict disinfection. A rate that's profitable for the first loses money on the second.

Per-square-foot price should be the result of your calculation, useful for comparing bids, not the starting point.

Step 1: Walk the Building

Always do a walkthrough. Record:

• Total cleanable square footage, broken down by type: offices, open areas, restrooms, break rooms, lobbies, stairs, specialised areas.
• Floor types: carpet, VCT, tile, sealed concrete, wood.
• Number of restroom fixtures (toilets, urinals, sinks).
• Number of trash receptacles and desks.
• Traffic and occupancy: how many people use the space and when.
• Required frequency: nightly, 3× a week, etc.
• Special tasks: periodic floor care, window cleaning, high dusting, supply restocking.
• Access: alarm codes, keys, times you can be in the building, security rules.

Step 2: Estimate Hours With Production Rates

A production rate is how many square feet a worker can clean per hour for a given type of space and level of service. Industry references, such as ISSA's cleaning times, publish detailed rates. Your own timed data is better once you have it. Rates vary widely with building layout, clutter, service level and equipment, so use conservative figures until you've timed your own crews.

A simple approach:

1. Split the building into space types.
2. Apply a conservative production rate to each.
3. Add time for fixtures (restrooms), trash, and set-up/wrap-up.
4. Add travel within the building and any special tasks.

Step 3: Worked Example

An illustrative example, not a benchmark. Your rates, wages and costs will differ.

Building: 10,000 sq ft office, cleaned 5 nights a week. 7,500 sq ft carpeted offices and open areas, 1,500 sq ft hard-floor break room and lobby, 1,000 sq ft restrooms (4 restrooms, 10 fixtures total).

Monthly hours: 5.0 hours × about 21.7 nights = 108.5 hours.

Step 4: Full Labour Cost

Wages are only part of labour cost. Add payroll taxes, workers' comp, and any benefits and paid time off. This "labour burden" commonly adds a significant percentage on top of wages. Check your own figures with your accountant or payroll provider.

• Wage: $17.00/hr
• Labour burden (assumed 22%): $3.74/hr
• Loaded labour cost: $20.74/hr
• Monthly labour: 108.5 × $20.74 = $2,250

Step 5: Supplies, Equipment and Overhead

• Supplies (chemicals, liners, microfibre): assume $120/month. Paper products and soap are often billed separately or supplied by the client. Clarify this in the bid.
• Equipment wear (vacuums, mops, carts): assume $40/month.
• Supervision and quality checks: assume 4 hours/month of supervisor time at $28 loaded = $112.
• Overhead share (insurance, admin, vehicles, software, marketing): many companies allocate overhead as a percentage. Assume 12% of direct costs.

Direct costs: $2,250 + $120 + $40 + $112 = $2,522. Overhead at 12% = $303. Total cost ≈ $2,825/month.

Step 6: Add Profit

Decide your target net profit margin on the contract. If you want 15% net profit, divide total cost by (1 − 0.15):

$2,825 ÷ 0.85 = $3,324/month

Per square foot: $3,324 ÷ 10,000 = about $0.33 per sq ft per month for five-nights-a-week service in this example.

Note the difference between markup and margin: adding 15% to cost ($2,825 × 1.15 = $3,249) gives a smaller profit share than a 15% margin. Many new bidders confuse the two and end up with less profit than they intended.

Step 7: Sanity-Check the Number

• Labour share: here labour is about 68% of the price. Commercial cleaning is labour-heavy, and many companies track labour as a percentage of revenue to spot bids that are too thin.
• Market check: compare with what similar buildings pay locally, if you can find out. If you're far above, re-check your production rates. If you're far below, you may have missed tasks.
• Hourly check: $3,324 ÷ 108.5 hours = about $30.60 billed per labour hour. Compare that with your minimum acceptable billing rate.

Step 8: Write the Proposal

A clear proposal wins more contracts and prevents disputes:

• Scope of work by area and frequency (nightly, weekly, monthly, quarterly tasks).
• Exclusions: for example, carpet extraction, exterior windows, and floor stripping are quoted separately.
• Supplies: who provides paper products, soap and liners.
• Price per month, and pricing for extra services.
• Insurance and bonding details, with a certificate on request.
• Quality control: how you inspect and how the client reports issues.
• Terms: start date, notice period, and annual price review.

Pricing Periodic and Extra Services

The monthly price covers routine work. Many commercial clients also need periodic services, which are usually priced separately:

• Carpet extraction: priced per square foot or per room, often quarterly or twice a year.
• Hard floor care: scrub-and-recoat or strip-and-wax for VCT, priced per square foot and depending on condition.
• Interior windows and glass partitions: per pane or per hour.
• High dusting: vents, light fixtures, high ledges.
• Day porter services: an hourly rate for someone on site during business hours.

List these in your proposal with prices, even if the client doesn't order them now. It shows you're thorough and makes add-on sales easier later.

Build In Price Reviews

Wages, supplies and insurance costs rise over time. A contract with no increase clause slowly turns from profitable to break-even. Include an annual review or a fixed yearly adjustment in your terms, and remind the client a month before it applies. Also include a clause for scope changes: if they add a floor or extend hours, the price is re-quoted.

Timing Your Crews

After the first month on a new contract, compare actual hours with your estimate. If the crew is consistently over, find out why. It could be a slow process, unclear scope or a bad estimate. Feed what you learn into your production rates for the next bid. Your own timed data will soon be more accurate than any published table.

Common Bidding Mistakes

• Using someone else's per-square-foot rate without calculating time.
• Forgetting labour burden, so real labour cost is far higher than wages.
• Leaving out supervision, travel between sites and set-up time.
• No annual price increase clause, so wage increases eat your margin.
• Bidding low to "get a foot in the door." Low bids rarely get raised later.

For how commercial work compares with residential overall, see commercial vs residential cleaning profitability. To find these contracts in the first place, see getting office cleaning contracts without cold calling.

Want a second pair of eyes on a commercial bid before you send it, or help building a commercial landing page that brings in bid requests? Book a call below.