Post construction cleaning is a project, not a contract, and pricing it like a recurring clean is the fastest way to be surprised. The work is heavy, the surfaces are dirty in ways a maintenance crew never sees, and it is usually done in phases against a build programme that moves. Rates for it sit well above the nightly figures elsewhere in this record, and they should.
Three phases, three prices
Rough clean during the build, a second clean once trades are out, and a final detail before handover. Each removes different material and each takes a different crew. A single number for all three is a number somebody will renegotiate.
Why the square foot rate is higher
Adhesive residue, paint overspray, drywall dust in every cavity, stickers on every fitting and windows that have never been cleaned. It is slow work with a high consumable cost, and the productivity assumptions behind a maintenance rate simply do not hold.
The programme risk is the real variable
A final clean booked for a date that moves twice costs the contractor mobilisations they did not price. Contracts that share that risk explicitly tend to price better than contracts that pretend the date is fixed.
Getting it comparable
Give every bidder the same phase definitions, the same square footage by surface type, and an honest programme. The bids will still vary, and they will vary for reasons you can read. And price the phases separately even if one contractor does all three, because the phase that slips is the one you will renegotiate, and a line item is much easier to move than a lump sum.
Who is responsible when the handover date moves
Post construction cleaning is the last trade on site and therefore absorbs every delay ahead of it. A crew mobilised for a Friday that becomes the following Wednesday has been paid for, and the question is by whom. Contracts that name a mobilisation fee and a notice window price better than contracts that leave it unsaid, because the contractor who cannot price the risk simply adds a margin for it.
Questions people ask about post construction cleaning
How much more than a normal clean is it?
Several times the per square foot rate of a recurring clean, and the exact multiple depends on the phase and the finish. Read it as a different product rather than a premium version of the same one.
Who normally pays for it?
Usually the contractor as part of the build, sometimes the tenant for the final detail. Establishing which before the bid stops an argument at handover.
Can our nightly contractor do it?
Sometimes, and it is worth asking, because they know the building. Check that they hold the equipment: this is not the same kit.
What is usually left out?
External areas, high-level glass and anything requiring access equipment. All three appear late and expensively when they were not specified.