Janitorial cleaning services, and the four different units they are priced in
The hardest thing about buying janitorial service is not finding a contractor, it is that no two quotes arrive in the same unit. One company prices per square foot per visit, the next per square foot per month, the third by the hour and the fourth as a monthly figure for a building of roughly your size. All four are legitimate and they cannot be compared without converting, so this record keeps every figure in the unit its publisher used and shows you the conversion rather than hiding it in an average.
- median published rate, in the unit each company used
- 13companies that will print a rate
- 0metros with measured demand in this record
Figures on this page are quoted from the company's own page, in the unit that company used, with the date the page was read. Nothing is averaged across units.
- 13 company pages checkedevery figure matched verbatim to the company's own page
- Quoted and dated, never estimatedlast verification pass 2026-09-11
- 0 metros with measured demandcover evidenced by the company's own live page
What the companies publish
| # | Company | Published rate | Unit · What it covers | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anago Cleaning Systems | ||||
| 2 | Big League Clean | ||||
| 3 | Buildingstars | ||||
| 4 | Clean Estimator | ||||
| 5 | CleanNet USA | ||||
| 6 | Commercial Cleaning Corp | ||||
| 7 | Fraser Commercial Cleaning | ||||
| 8 | Idaho Maintenance & Cleaning | ||||
| 9 | ISSA (the worldwide cleaning industry association) | ||||
| 10 | JAN-PRO Cleaning & Disinfecting | ||||
| 11 | LeadDuo | ||||
| 12 | Method Clean Biz | ||||
| 13 | Millennium Facility Services | ||||
| 14 | Plan B Facility Services | ||||
| 15 | Smart Janitorial | ||||
| 16 | XIRI Facility Solutions | ||||
| 17 | Ziva Cleaning |
Getting quotes that can actually be compared
- Fix the square footage everyone prices against. Cleanable square footage is not the lease area: mechanical rooms, lift shafts and unfinished storage usually come out. Give every bidder the same number and the same plan.
- Fix the frequency before you ask. Five nights a week and three nights a week are different products. Rates per square foot fall as frequency rises, so a cheaper per-visit rate at higher frequency can be the more expensive contract.
- Ask for the unit you want, not the unit they prefer. Any contractor can quote per square foot per month if asked. Asking all of them for the same unit removes most of the difficulty in the comparison.
- Get consumables and periodics named. Paper, liners and hand soap, and periodic work such as carpet extraction and floor care, are the two lines that most often sit outside the headline rate.
Common questions
- What is a normal per square foot rate?
- The published ranges in this record run from about five cents to about twenty-five cents per square foot, and the spread is mostly explained by whether the figure is per visit or per month and by the building type. Read the unit column before the number.
- Is hourly or per square foot better for a buyer?
- Per square foot transfers the productivity risk to the contractor, which is usually what a facility manager wants. Hourly is easier to audit and suits small or irregular scopes.
- Why do medical rates sit higher?
- The companies that publish a medical rate explain it the same way: stricter sanitation, more frequent disinfection and longer dwell times on the product, which is labour.
- Does a bigger building get a lower rate?
- Per square foot, usually yes, because setup and travel spread over more area. Several of the companies in this record publish tiered monthly figures that show the effect directly.
Ask several contractors for a price
By market
Sources
Cite or embed this figure
Cite as: "Buffrota Price Record", updated 2026-09-11, https://buffrota.com/janitorial-cleaning-services/.