How Much to Charge for Commercial Cleaning Per Square Foot

"What do you charge per square foot?"

If you run a commercial cleaning company, you hear this question constantly — from prospects, from competitors, from people on Reddit trying to figure out if they should start a cleaning business.

The honest answer is: it depends. But that's not a helpful answer when you're trying to quote a job, so let's break down the real numbers and — more importantly — explain when per-square-foot pricing works and when it'll get you in trouble.

The Quick Answer: Ranges by Facility Type

Here are the typical monthly per-square-foot rates for standard janitorial service (5x/week evening cleaning) in the United States as of 2026:

| Facility Type | Low | Mid | High | Notes | |---------------|-----|-----|------|-------| | General office | $0.08 | $0.12 | $0.18 | Standard cubicle/office layout | | Medical office | $0.15 | $0.22 | $0.30 | Compliance requirements, specialty products | | Retail store | $0.06 | $0.10 | $0.15 | Fewer restrooms, simpler scope | | School/education | $0.10 | $0.15 | $0.22 | High-traffic, many restrooms | | Industrial/warehouse | $0.04 | $0.07 | $0.12 | Mostly floor care, lower detail | | Church/worship | $0.06 | $0.10 | $0.16 | Weekly use, deep clean needed | | Restaurant | $0.18 | $0.25 | $0.35 | Kitchen grease, health code standards |

These are monthly rates. For a 20,000 sq ft general office at $0.12/sq ft/month, the monthly price would be $2,400.

Why the Ranges Are So Wide

A 10,000 sq ft building could cost $600/month or $3,000/month depending on factors that square footage alone doesn't capture:

1. Cleaning frequency

| Frequency | Typical Multiplier | |-----------|-------------------| | 1x/week | 0.25-0.30x of 5x rate | | 2x/week | 0.40-0.45x | | 3x/week | 0.60-0.65x | | 5x/week | 1.00x (baseline) | | 7x/week | 1.30-1.40x |

A 20,000 sq ft office cleaned 2x/week costs roughly 40-45% of what 5x/week cleaning costs — not 40% exactly, because some tasks (trash, restrooms) need to happen every visit while others (dusting, deep vacuuming) are less frequent.

2. Restroom density

Restrooms are the biggest time variable that square footage ignores. Two buildings of identical size:

• Building A: 20,000 sq ft office, 4 restrooms → ~1 hour of restroom cleaning per visit
• Building B: 20,000 sq ft medical facility, 12 restrooms → ~3 hours of restroom cleaning per visit

Same square footage. Two extra hours of labor every night. At a burdened rate of $18.50/hour, that's $814/month more — a difference that per-square-foot pricing completely misses if you use a flat rate.

3. Floor type mix

Carpet vs. hard floor vs. specialty flooring changes the scope dramatically:

• All carpet: Vacuum only (3,000-3,500 sq ft/hr)
• All hard floor (VCT): Dust mop + damp mop (4,000-5,000 sq ft/hr combined) + periodic strip/wax
• Mixed: Different equipment, different chemicals, more transition time

Hard floors are faster for daily cleaning but add periodic specialty work (strip and wax, burnishing) that needs to be amortized into the monthly price.

4. Building layout

Open floor plans clean much faster than buildings with many small rooms, narrow hallways, or multiple floors. The production rates assume reasonably open layouts. For complex layouts, reduce the rates by 15-25%.

5. Regional labor costs

The same building costs more to clean in New York City than in rural Alabama because labor rates are different:

| Region | Typical Base Wage | Burdened Rate | |--------|------------------|---------------| | Rural South | $12-$14/hr | $14-$17/hr | | Mid-size cities | $14-$17/hr | $17-$20/hr | | Major metros | $17-$22/hr | $20-$26/hr | | High-cost (NYC, SF, LA) | $20-$28/hr | $24-$35/hr |

A building that costs $2,400/month to clean in Dallas might cost $4,000/month in San Francisco — same scope, same quality, just different labor economics.

When Per-Square-Foot Pricing Works

Per-square-foot pricing is useful as:

1. A quick sanity check: If your calculated bid comes out to $0.04/sq ft for a medical office, something is wrong. If it's $0.22/sq ft, you're in the right range.

2. A fast ballpark for prospects: "For a building like yours, you're typically looking at $0.10-$0.15 per square foot per month" gives a prospect a range before you invest time in a full walkthrough.

3. Comparing your pricing to competitors: If you're consistently bidding at $0.18/sq ft and losing to competitors at $0.12, you know where you stand — and can investigate whether they're cutting corners or whether you're overpriced.

When Per-Square-Foot Pricing Fails

Never use per-square-foot pricing as your final bid calculation. Here's why:

Example: Two "identical" 15,000 sq ft offices

Office A — Simple scope:

• Open floor plan, 80% carpet
• 4 restrooms
• 20 trash cans
• No kitchen, no specialty areas
• Calculated hours: 5.5/visit
• Monthly cost: $2,238
• Per sq ft: $0.149/sq ft

Office B — Complex scope:

• Cubicle-heavy layout with 6 conference rooms
• 8 restrooms (2 per floor)
• 40 trash cans
• Full kitchen, server room, executive suite
• Glass conference room walls throughout
• Calculated hours: 9.2/visit
• Monthly cost: $3,741
• Per sq ft: $0.249/sq ft

Same square footage. 67% higher price. If you'd quoted both buildings at $0.15/sq ft, you'd profit nicely on Office A and lose money every month on Office B.

The Right Way to Price: Bottom-Up Calculation

Instead of starting with $/sq ft, start with the actual work:

Step 1: Calculate labor hours

Break the building into tasks and use production rates:

Hours per task = Square footage / Production rate (sq ft/hr)

Or for unit-based tasks:

Hours per task = Count × Minutes per unit / 60

Add all tasks. Apply a transition factor (10-15%). That's your hours per visit.

Step 2: Calculate labor cost

Monthly labor cost = Hours per visit × Burdened hourly rate × Visits per month

The burdened rate includes FICA, FUTA, SUTA, workers' comp, and benefits. It's typically 14-25% higher than the base wage.

Step 3: Add supply costs

Use a facility-type percentage:

• General office: 3-5% of labor
• Medical: 7-10%
• School: 5-7%
• Restaurant: 8-12%

Step 4: Apply your margin

Monthly price = Total cost / (1 - Target margin)

Use margin, not markup. Industry standard is 10-28% depending on the contract.

Step 5: Sanity check with per-square-foot ranges

Now convert your calculated price to per-square-foot and compare to the ranges above. If it's wildly outside the range, investigate why — you may have made a calculation error, or the building may genuinely require more (or less) work than average.

Real-World Pricing Example

Building: 25,000 sq ft medical office complex Frequency: 5x/week Location: Texas Base wage: $16/hour, burdened rate: $18.25/hour

| Task | Qty | Rate | Hours | |------|-----|------|-------| | Vacuum carpet (18,000 sq ft) | 18,000 | 3,250 sq ft/hr | 5.54 | | Damp mop hard floor (7,000 sq ft) | 7,000 | 4,750 sq ft/hr | 1.47 | | Restroom cleaning (10 restrooms) | 10 | 12 min each | 2.00 | | Trash/recycling (45 cans) | 45 | 2.5 min each | 1.88 | | Dusting | 25,000 | 7,000 sq ft/hr | 3.57 | | Glass partitions | 1,500 sq ft | 300 sq ft/hr | 5.00 | | Kitchen (2 break rooms) | 2 | 20 min each | 0.67 | | Medical adjustment (+20%) | | | +4.03 | | Transition time (+10%) | | | +2.42 | | Total hours per visit | | | 26.58 |

Monthly calculation:

• Labor: 26.58 hrs × $18.25 × 22 visits = $10,670.79
• Supplies at 8% (medical): $853.66
• Total cost: $11,524.45
• At 22% margin: $11,524.45 / 0.78 = $14,775/month

Per square foot: $14,775 / 25,000 = $0.591/sq ft/month

Wait — that's way above the $0.22 average for medical. What happened?

The glass partitions. 1,500 sq ft of glass interior walls at 300 sq ft/hr adds 5 hours per visit (110 hours/month). Without the glass, the price drops to about $0.38/sq ft — still above average because the building has 10 restrooms and 45 trash cans.

This is exactly why per-square-foot pricing by itself doesn't work. The building's specific scope determines the price, not a generic rate.

Quick Reference Card

When you need a fast estimate before doing a full calculation:

| If the prospect says... | Quick estimate range | |------------------------|---------------------| | "20,000 sq ft office, 5 nights" | $1,600 - $3,600/mo | | "10,000 sq ft medical, 5 nights" | $1,500 - $3,000/mo | | "30,000 sq ft school, 5 nights" | $3,000 - $6,600/mo | | "5,000 sq ft retail, 3 nights" | $200 - $450/mo | | "50,000 sq ft warehouse, 3 nights" | $1,200 - $3,600/mo |

Use these ranges to set expectations on a call. Then do a proper walkthrough and bottom-up calculation for the actual bid.

Automate the Calculation

Per-square-foot pricing is tempting because it's fast. But the bottom-up approach — task-by-task hours, burdened labor cost, supply costs, margin — gives you an accurate, defensible price every time.

The good news: you don't have to do this by hand.

BidLoom walks you through each step: select facility type, enter areas and tasks, and the calculation engine handles ISSA production rates, burdened labor cost by state, and supply estimates. You get an accurate bid in 15 minutes — with a professional PDF proposal ready to send.

Create up to 3 bids free — no credit card required.

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Related: 5 Pricing Mistakes That Kill Cleaning Company Profits | How to Calculate Labor Costs for Cleaning Bids