01 / Recurring
Janitorial services
Nightly or weekly janitorial care that keeps the whole building in order, visit after visit.
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Guide
Writing a janitorial scope of work: what to list and how often.
A scope of work turns a clean building into a list anyone can check. Here’s how to build one, area by area and task by task.
Printable template
What a scope of work is for.
A scope of work is the document that says what the cleaning crew does in your building, where it does it and how often. It sits behind the agreement and outlasts every conversation about it. When a new cleaner starts, when a supervisor walks the floors or when someone asks whether the breakroom fridge was supposed to be wiped, the scope settles it.
It is a different document from a quote. A quote puts a price on the work, while the scope defines the work being priced. Our guide on what goes into a commercial cleaning quote covers the price side. This one covers the list itself, which deserves to be right before anyone talks numbers.
Start with the areas, not the tasks.
Walk the building and divide it by how each space is used rather than by the floor plan. A typical office breaks into the entrance and lobby, open work areas, private offices, meeting rooms, kitchens and breakrooms, restrooms, corridors and stairs, and support rooms such as copy rooms and storage. A school adds classrooms, the gym and the library. A warehouse adds locker rooms, the shipping office and the dock.
Give each area a name and a count: six restrooms, two kitchens, fourteen private offices. Note the floor type in each, because carpet, vinyl tile and bare concrete each bring their own tasks. Then list the rooms the crew skips, such as server rooms, labs or a locked executive suite, so nobody has to guess on the first night.
Write the tasks as plain actions.
Under each area, write the tasks as things anyone can see were done. Empty trash and replace liners. Clean and disinfect toilets, urinals and sinks. Refill soap, paper towels and tissue. Wipe kitchen counters, the sink and appliance fronts. Vacuum carpeted walkways. Damp mop hard floors. Wipe door handles, light switches and elevator buttons.
Steer clear of vague words such as tidy or refresh standing alone. They read well in an agreement and mean something different to every cleaner. When a task only happens once something looks dirty, name the trigger instead: spot clean interior glass once smudges show at eye level, for example.
Give every line a frequency.
Frequency is where most scopes go soft. The cure is an interval for each task instead of one schedule for the whole building. A common office pattern runs like this. Every visit: restrooms, kitchens, trash, entrance glass, touch points and the main walkways. Two or three times a week: full vacuuming of private offices and wiping of meeting tables and chairs. Weekly: baseboards and door frames in public areas, plus partition glass. Monthly: vents, ledges and a detail clean of breakroom appliances.
Match each interval to use, not habit. A restroom on a busy floor earns attention on every visit, while a records room opened twice a week sits comfortably on a weekly cycle. If your people come in three days a week, the heavier tasks can follow those days and the quiet days get a lighter pass.
Put periodic work on its own calendar.
Some work happens only a few times a year, and it belongs in the scope as firmly as the nightly list. Vinyl tile needs burnishing on a short cycle and stripping and refinishing on a longer one. Carpet needs hot-water extraction. Windows, light fixtures, upholstery and high ledges each keep their own rhythm.
List each periodic job with its area, its interval and the month it lands in: lobby tile refinished each summer, office carpet extracted in spring and fall, walk-off mats deep cleaned every quarter. Writing the months down keeps the work from drifting a year. Our guide to reading floor wear helps you set those intervals.
Spell out supplies and equipment.
Every scope should say who buys what. Consumables are the paper towels, tissue, hand soap, seat covers and trash liners that run down every week. Some buildings buy their own to match their dispensers; others have the cleaning company supply them. Both arrangements work well once the scope names one, along with who checks stock and when it gets reordered.
Chemicals, vacuums, mops and floor machines normally travel with the crew. Note where they are stored, whether your building wants particular products such as unscented soap, and who holds the key to the janitor’s closet.
Two scopes, side by side.
A twelve-person accounting office on one floor needs only five areas: reception, open desks, two private offices, a kitchen and a single restroom. Its scope fits on a page, with the kitchen and restroom covered on each of three cleaning nights, desks dusted weekly and carpet extracted twice a year.
A church with a sanctuary, fellowship hall, nursery and six classrooms reads very differently. The sanctuary and restrooms get a full clean before weekend services, the hall kitchen is cleaned after each event, nursery tables and toys are wiped on every visit and classroom carpet is extracted over the summer.
Inspect the work against the list.
A scope proves its worth when you use it to check the cleaning. Pick a few areas each week, open the scope to those lines and look for the evidence: liners changed, dispensers full, no grit along the baseboards, the kitchen sink clear. Mark each line done or missed instead of judging the room as a whole. A printout of the template above works as that check sheet, with room beside every line to mark it.
Walk the building with the cleaning supervisor once a month and bring those notes. A missed line points to one of three causes: a task the crew didn’t know about, an interval set too light, or a room that takes longer than the schedule allows. Each has its own fix, and the scope gets updated in writing.
Building your scope with Fieldstone.
Every Fieldstone quote starts with a walkthrough, and that walk is where your scope begins. We go area by area with you, note the floors, count the restrooms and ask how each room is used. The written plan that follows lists every area, its tasks and how often they happen, and our supervisors check the work against that same page. Once the routine is set, the guide to commercial cleaning cost shows how each line shapes the monthly figure.
A few useful answers
Quick answers.
How detailed should a janitorial scope of work be?
Detailed enough that a cleaner on the first night knows every task without asking. One line per task, per area, with its own interval, is the right level.
Who should write the scope, the building or the cleaning company?
Both, ideally. We draft it from the walkthrough, and you mark up anything that reads wrong for your building.
Do restricted rooms belong in a scope of work?
Yes. Name them in the scope, so every cleaner sees the list before the first visit.
How often should a cleaning scope be reviewed?
Once a year, and again whenever your headcount, hours or layout change. Small edits go into the written plan as they come up.
What should the scope say about restroom supplies?
Who provides each item, who checks the stock and how low it can run before it is reordered.
Services
Services this guide covers
02 / Offices
Office cleaning
Workstations, kitchens, meeting rooms and restrooms reset for the next working day.
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