Commercial Cleaning Bid Calculator: Price Office and Janitorial Jobs
To bid a commercial cleaning job, work out how many labor hours the building takes (square feet divided by your production rate), multiply by your wage plus payroll costs, add supplies and overhead, then set your profit as a share of the price. Our commercial cleaning calculator below does that math for any office or janitorial account and shows the monthly price, the price per cleaning and the price per square foot.
Commercial cleaning bid calculator
| Labor hours per cleaning | |
|---|---|
| Cleanings per month (per week x 4.33) | |
| Labor hours per month | |
| Labor cost, wages plus burden | |
| Supplies | |
| Overhead | |
| Total cost | |
| Profit | |
| What you bill per labor hour |
How the commercial cleaning calculator works
We follow the same four steps that CMM, the trade magazine for cleaning contractors, lays out in its bidding guide: estimate the production rate, work out labor cost, add supplies and overhead, then add profit.
- Hours per cleaning. ISSA, the cleaning industry association, calculates cleaning time as the square feet to clean divided by the production rate per hour. 10,000 square feet at 3,500 square feet per hour is 2.86 labor hours.
- Hours per month. Cleanings per week times 52 weeks, divided by 12 months, gives 4.33 visits per weekly cleaning. Five nights a week is 21.7 visits.
- Labor cost. Monthly hours times the wage, plus labor burden for payroll taxes and insurance. Labor is the biggest cost: BSCAI, the building service contractors association, puts it at 50 to 80 percent of janitorial service costs.
- Supplies and overhead. Both are entered as a share of labor cost.
- Profit. We set profit as a margin on the price, so a 20 percent margin means 20 percent of what the customer pays is profit.
Where the starting numbers come from
Every default is there to give you a sensible first answer. Change any of them to your own numbers; a real bid should use your wages and your walkthrough of the building.
| Input | Starting value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Production rate, office | 3,500 sq ft per hour | A Dallas County janitorial bid listed 3,500 sq ft per hour as its maximum cleaning production rate |
| Production rate, medical or dense | 2,500 sq ft per hour | BSCAI example: a 25,000 sq ft medical building cleaned in 10 labor hours a night |
| Wage | $17.27 per hour | US Bureau of Labor Statistics median for janitors and building cleaners, May 2024 |
| Labor burden | 20% of wages | Our starting assumption. Employer Social Security and Medicare alone are 7.65%; state unemployment and workers’ comp vary by state |
| Supplies | 5% of labor | Our starting assumption; use your own invoices |
| Overhead | 15% of labor | The worked example in CMM’s bidding guide uses 15% of labor |
| Profit margin | 20% of price | Our starting point. CMM’s worked example uses 30% |
Example: a 10,000 square foot office cleaned five nights a week
With the starting values, the calculator gives these numbers:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Labor hours per cleaning | 2.86 |
| Labor hours per month | 61.9 |
| Labor cost with 20% burden | $1,282.91 |
| Supplies and overhead | $256.59 |
| Total cost | $1,539.50 |
| Monthly price at a 20% margin | $1,924.37 |
| Price per cleaning | $88.82 |
| Price per square foot per month | $0.192 |
The same office as a medical building at 2,500 square feet per hour needs 4 hours a night and comes to $2,694.12 a month. The building type changes the bid more than any other input, which is why we would time a walkthrough before quoting a building we do not know.
How much to charge for commercial cleaning per square foot
There is no single right price per square foot, because it depends on how often you clean. Our 10,000 square foot example works out like this at the starting values:
| Cleanings per week | Monthly price | Per sq ft per month |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $384.87 | $0.038 |
| 3 | $1,154.62 | $0.115 |
| 5 | $1,924.37 | $0.192 |
That is why we price from labor hours first and only then look at the per square foot figure. A per square foot price copied from another market can be right for five nights a week and badly wrong for one.
How much to charge for commercial cleaning per hour
The last line of the calculator shows what you are really billing per labor hour. At the starting values it is $31.09 per hour against a $17.27 wage. If that number is lower than what other contractors charge in your area, your bid is probably low; if it is far higher, check your production rate before you send the quote.
How many square feet can a janitor clean in an hour?
It depends on the task and the building. ISSA’s cleaning times are per task: its guide gives 5,355 square feet per hour for damp mopping with a 14 inch flat mop, and Janitorial Manager’s article on ISSA times gives 34.8 minutes to vacuum 1,000 square feet with a 12 inch upright. Whole-building rates are lower than single tasks because they include trash, restrooms and dusting, which is why the BSCAI medical example comes out at 2,500 square feet per hour.
Equipment changes these numbers. A wide-area or backpack vacuum covers more carpet per hour than a 12 inch upright, and a walk-behind scrubber replaces mopping on large hard floors. Our guides to the best commercial backpack vacuums and best walk-behind floor scrubbers compare the machines.
Mistakes that lose money on a cleaning bid
- Confusing markup with margin. Adding 20 percent to a $1,539.50 cost gives $1,847.40, which is only a 16.7 percent margin. The calculator uses a true margin.
- Using an office rate for a medical building. More restrooms, more touch points and stricter disinfection slow the work down.
- Leaving out periodic work. Floor stripping and refinishing, carpet extraction and window cleaning are usually priced as separate line items. CMM’s guide estimates a skilled team strips and waxes about 250 square feet per hour including setup and cleanup.
- Forgetting the equipment. Machines wear out and need replacing. Our commercial cleaning equipment list covers what a cleaning business needs to buy.
Frequently asked questions
How do you bid a commercial cleaning job?
Walk the building and measure the cleanable square feet. Divide by your production rate to get labor hours per cleaning, multiply by the cleanings per month, then by your wage plus payroll costs. Add supplies and overhead, then add your profit margin. The calculator above does each step.
How much should I charge for office cleaning?
Price it from labor hours. At the starting values in our calculator, a 10,000 square foot office cleaned five nights a week comes to about $1,924 a month, or $88.82 a cleaning. Your wages, building type and local market will move that number.
How much do you charge per square foot for commercial cleaning?
It depends on how often you clean. In our example the same office is $0.038 per square foot per month at one cleaning a week and $0.192 at five. Work out the labor hours first, then convert to a per square foot price.
What is a good profit margin for commercial cleaning?
The worked example in CMM’s bidding guide uses a 30 percent margin; our calculator starts at 20 percent. Pick the margin your business needs, then check the billing rate per labor hour against what other contractors charge in your area.
How many janitors do I need for a building?
Divide the labor hours per cleaning by the length of one shift. In our example, 2.86 hours a night is one cleaner on a three hour shift; the medical version at 4 hours is one cleaner on a four hour shift, or two cleaners for two hours each.
Sources
- ISSA, How to calculate cleaning times
- CMM, Commercial cleaning bidding 101
- BSCAI, Commercial cleaning production rates
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Janitors and building cleaners
- Janitorial Manager, ISSA cleaning times