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Cleaning and Janitorial

Office cleaning services for multi-site businesses

Office cleaning services keep workstations, meeting rooms, kitchens and restrooms clean and ready each morning, in buildings that are often shared, secured and occupied late. Facility First manages office cleaning through vetted local providers, with one written cleaning plan, one visit record and one invoice format across every office.

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What office cleaning involves

Office cleaning services are recurring janitorial work built around shared desks, equipment, kitchens and restrooms, often in a multi-tenant building with its own access rules. The work is usually done in the evening after occupants leave, with a day porter covering restrooms, kitchens and spills during the day where traffic is heavy. General scope is covered under janitorial services. The office-specific tasks are:

Workstations and shared desks. Dusting clear desk surfaces, cleaning phones, keyboards and monitors where the scope allows, emptying bins and recycling. Many offices exclude papers and personal items, so the scope should state what cleaners may move.
Meeting and training rooms. Tables, chairs, whiteboards and shared presentation equipment, with rooms reset for the next day.
Kitchens and break rooms. Counters, sinks, microwaves, refrigerator and coffee machine exteriors, tables and floors. Many offices also schedule a periodic refrigerator clear-out with notice to staff.
Restrooms. Fixtures, partitions, mirrors and floors, and restocking soap, towels and paper.
Entrances, lobbies and elevators. Entry mats, door glass, push plates, elevator buttons and stair rails.
Floors. Vacuuming carpet, dust mopping and damp mopping hard floors, with carpet extraction and hard floor refinishing on a periodic schedule.

The scope should separate cleaning from disinfecting. The CDC explains that cleaning with soap or detergent removes most harmful germs from surfaces, that surfaces must be cleaned before they are disinfected, and that a disinfectant only works if the surface stays wet for the full contact time on the label. The CDC recommends cleaning high-touch surfaces regularly, cleaning other surfaces when they are visibly dirty, and disinfecting where someone has been ill. It does not recommend fogging, fumigation or electrostatic spraying as primary disinfection methods unless the product label allows it. EPA notes that many general cleaning tasks, such as walls, floors and surfaces with little hand contact, do not typically need a disinfectant, and suggests limiting disinfectant use to areas such as restroom fixtures, door handles and other high-touch surfaces.

Office cleaning standards and requirements

Federal workplace rules set the baseline. State plans, local health codes and building rules can add to them, and the authority having jurisdiction for each location decides what applies.

Clean, dry floors. OSHA’s walking-working surfaces rule, 29 CFR 1910.22(a), requires workplaces to be kept clean, orderly and sanitary, and workroom floors to be kept clean and, to the extent feasible, dry.
Sanitation. OSHA’s sanitation rule, 29 CFR 1910.141, requires places of employment to be kept clean to the extent the nature of the work allows, receptacles for putrescible waste to be leak-proof and cleanable, and washing facilities to be kept sanitary with hand soap or a similar cleansing agent and individual hand towels or air blowers.
Cleaning chemicals. Under OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, the employer of the cleaning crew must have a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) for each hazardous chemical used, keep SDSs readily accessible during each shift, label workplace containers, and train workers when they are first assigned. In a 2005 interpretation letter, OSHA explained that the consumer product exemption can cover office staff who occasionally wipe their own workstations with a household cleaner, outside a required work assignment, at the frequency and duration of a normal consumer. The letter did not address cleaning crews, who use products far more often as part of their assigned work.
Green cleaning. Green Seal GS-42, the standard for commercial and institutional cleaning services (Edition 2.3), is a certification standard, not a law. It requires a written cleaning plan for each building, reviewed at least once a year. In restrooms, areas where pathogens collect and surfaces touched by hands must be cleaned and disinfected daily, more often under high traffic. Vacuums must meet the Carpet and Rug Institute Seal of Approval/Green Label program and operate below 70 dBA. Entryways call for 6 to 10 feet of scraper/wiper matting followed by 6 to 10 feet of wiper matting. New staff receive at least 12 hours of training on hire and 12 more within the first year, then 24 hours a year. EPA’s Safer Choice and Design for the Environment labels identify certified products.

Preventive maintenance schedule for office cleaning services

A planned schedule keeps restrooms, kitchens and floors from reaching the point where an emergency cleanup or a complaint forces the work. Periodic floor care extends the life of carpet and hard flooring, and a dated record shows each office met its cleaning plan.

Task	Recommended frequency	Basis
Clean and disinfect restroom fixtures and hand-contact surfaces	Daily, more often under heavy traffic	Green Seal GS-42
Clean high-touch surfaces such as door handles, push plates and elevator buttons	Each visit	CDC recommends regular cleaning; frequency is a Facility First program default, adjusted per site
Vacuum carpet and damp mop hard floors	Each visit	Facility First program default, adjusted per site
Carpet extraction in traffic lanes and entrances	Quarterly	Facility First program default, adjusted per site
Hard floor scrub and recoat	Twice a year	Facility First program default, adjusted per site
Quality inspection with corrective actions	Monthly	Facility First program default, adjusted per site
Hazard communication training for cleaning staff	At initial assignment	OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200
Review the chemical list and SDS file	Each time a product changes, and every year	OSHA 29 CFR 1910.1200 requires an SDS for each hazardous chemical; annual review is a Facility First program default
Review the written cleaning plan	At least once a year	Green Seal GS-42

The authority having jurisdiction, the manufacturer of flooring and equipment, and the property’s insurer can require more frequent service, and each location’s schedule is set in its program and recorded on every visit.

How often offices are cleaned, and signs the scope needs to change

No federal rule sets a cleaning frequency for an office. OSHA sets outcomes, and the frequency is built to meet them. The CDC notes that high-traffic areas may need more frequent cleaning. Each task in the cleaning plan is assigned a frequency, adjusted for headcount, days in office and floor area.

Signs that an office needs a change in scope or frequency:

Restroom or kitchen supplies running out before the next visit
Full bins or recycling at the start of the day
Repeat complaints logged by staff or the building manager
Soil build-up in carpet traffic lanes and at entrances
Occupancy changes, such as a move to hybrid schedules or a new floor

Records to keep

For each office, keep:

The written cleaning plan, with tasks and frequencies by area, and the date of its last review
A list of the chemicals the provider keeps on site, with an SDS for each
Hazard communication training records for the provider’s staff
Visit logs showing when each visit started and ended
Quality inspection results and the corrective action for each failed item
Floor care records, including dates of carpet extraction and refinishing
Equipment maintenance logs, where the scope includes provider equipment
A key, card and alarm-code log showing who has after-hours access

How Facility First runs office cleaning services across a portfolio

Facility First manages office cleaning through vetted local providers that hold the licenses and insurance the work requires. It does not clean offices itself.

Scope. One cleaning plan is written for the portfolio, with frequencies set for each office’s size, headcount and floor types.
Onboarding. Each provider’s insurance, chemical list and SDSs, staff training and building access arrangements are checked before the first visit.
Recurring visits. Each visit is checked in and out and recorded against the office, with photos of agreed areas at close-out.
Requests. Extra work, such as a spill, a cleanup after a leak or a deep clean after an office move, is submitted through the platform or by phone, triaged and dispatched. Cleanup after fit-out work goes to post construction cleaning.
Verification. Quality inspections are recorded by office, and failed items stay open until corrected.
Invoice. Work is invoiced in one format. Client approval limits decide what extra work proceeds automatically and what is quoted first.

Night crews work in closed offices, so access control matters. Where a door or alarm is left unsecured, McCray can post an officer until the office is secured. See Security by McCray. For scheduling across trades, see work order management.

What affects the cost of office cleaning

Cleanable square footage and layout
Headcount and days in office
Number of restrooms, kitchens and fixtures
Carpet versus hard floors, and the periodic floor care in the scope
Visit frequency and whether a day porter is added
Whether paper, soap, liners and other supplies are included
Green cleaning requirements
Building access rules and contractor hours
Local labor market conditions

Office cleaning for retail stores, restaurants and offices

Corporate and regional offices. Executive floors, records rooms and IT spaces often have restricted access. The cleaning plan should list which rooms are cleaned, by whom and under what escort, and whether shredding bins are left untouched.

Back offices in retail stores and restaurants. Store and restaurant back offices hold safes, cash and personnel files and are usually cleaned during the store visit under the same access rules. Restaurant kitchens follow the local food code and are scoped separately. See retail cleaning services.

Multi-tenant office buildings. The lease and building rules decide who cleans common areas and set contractor hours, freight elevator use and waste handling.

Frequently asked questions

What is included in office cleaning services?

Recurring cleaning of workstations, meeting rooms, kitchens, restrooms, entrances and floors, with periodic carpet extraction and floor refinishing. The written cleaning plan lists each task and its frequency.

How often should an office be cleaned?

No federal rule sets a single frequency. Green Seal GS-42 calls for daily restroom cleaning and disinfection, and each other task is assigned to every visit, weekly, monthly or quarterly according to headcount, traffic and floor area.

Do office surfaces need to be disinfected every day?

The CDC recommends regular cleaning of high-touch surfaces, disinfection where someone has been ill, and more frequent cleaning or added disinfection in high-traffic areas. Green Seal GS-42 calls for restroom areas where pathogens collect and restroom surfaces touched by hands to be cleaned and disinfected daily.

What is green office cleaning?

Cleaning with certified products and practices. EPA’s Safer Choice and Design for the Environment labels identify certified products, and Green Seal GS-42 is a certification standard for cleaning services.

What chemical records should an office cleaning provider keep?

A Safety Data Sheet for each hazardous chemical on site, labeled containers and records that staff were trained when first assigned, as OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard requires.

Sources

Put every office on one cleaning plan and one record.