How to Bid a Government Janitorial Contract

Government cleaning bids start with the solicitation, not a price per square foot. The agency defines the work, submission format, evaluation criteria and contract terms. Your estimate must cover that scope and the labor obligations attached to it.

This guide covers US federal janitorial contracts. State and local procurements have their own rules; a city or school contract is not automatically subject to the federal Service Contract Act. Sources were checked on October 11, 2026. Recheck the actual solicitation and its amendments before bidding.

BidLoom does not calculate Service Contract Act wage determinations or required fringe benefits. You can use its cleaning task estimates to plan hours, but its commercial pricing defaults are not a complete government-contract estimate. Keep a separate, reviewed contract cost worksheet before preparing an offer.

1. Register your business in SAM.gov

Use the official SAM.gov entity registration page. A Unique Entity ID (UEI) identifies your business; getting only a UEI does not complete the registration needed to apply directly for federal awards. SAM uses Login.gov for account access, and an active registration must be renewed every 365 days.

SAM.gov is free. Gather your legal business information and the information requested in its current registration checklist. Start early enough to address validation problems, and check that the entity is active before submitting. Do not confuse a paid registration service with a required government fee.

NAICS 561720 is Janitorial Services, according to the US Census Bureau's 2022 NAICS definition. It is a useful starting point for finding custodial work. Read the code and eligibility requirements assigned to each solicitation; having this code in your profile does not by itself qualify you for every set-aside.

2. Find an opportunity you can actually deliver

Start with SAM.gov Contract Opportunities. Public searching does not require an account; an account lets you save searches and follow changes. Search for janitorial, custodial or cleaning work, then narrow by location, agency, notice type, response date and the solicitation's NAICS code.

A notice is not necessarily an invitation to submit a priced offer. Check whether it is a solicitation, an earlier market-research notice, or an award announcement. Download the attachments and track amendments rather than pricing from the notice summary alone.

For each candidate, make a bid/no-bid sheet:

• Can your crew reach every location during the required service windows?
• Can you meet the stated experience, staffing, insurance and eligibility requirements?
• Is a site visit mandatory, and can you attend it?
• Can you fund mobilization, equipment and payroll until invoices are paid?
• Do you have time to ask questions and prepare every required submission volume?

3. Turn the solicitation into a scope and submission checklist

Read the performance work statement or scope, floor plans, cleaning schedules, pricing schedule, wage determination, contract clauses and evaluation instructions together. Record the required unit for each contract line item: monthly service, annual service, a visit, or a separately ordered task. Do not convert everything to a single monthly price if the agency asks for a different schedule.

During the walkthrough, verify cleanable areas, floor types, fixtures, waste handling, access restrictions and periodic tasks. Budget for security checks, key control, supervisor time, inspections, supply storage and replacing absent staff where the scope requires them. Ask the contracting officer about conflicting quantities or frequencies by the stated question deadline; keep the written answers and amendments with your estimate.

The commercial cleaning bidding guide explains task-based estimating. For this bid, replace its commercial assumptions with the agency's scope and the contract's labor requirements.

4. Read the Service Contract Act wage determination

The Department of Labor's SCA overview explains that covered federal service prime contracts over $2,500 require applicable prevailing wages and fringe benefits for service employees. Subcontracting does not remove those obligations. Coverage and exemptions matter: confirm the requirements for this contract instead of assuming that every government purchase has the same rules.

Locate the wage determination incorporated into the solicitation. Record its number, revision, locality and applicable job classifications. Match classifications to the work employees will perform. A general state minimum wage or a rate copied from another county's contract is not a substitute.

FAR 52.222-41 addresses wages, fringe benefits, unlisted classifications and successor contracts. If a needed classification is missing, ask about the conformance process rather than inventing a cheaper classification. A predecessor's collective bargaining agreement can determine successor wage and benefit obligations; obtain the relevant documents and scheduled increases before pricing.

Also check other applicable wage and leave requirements in the solicitation. An older blog's nationwide hourly figure cannot tell you the correct pay floor for a particular contract.

5. Price health and welfare separately from wages

Health and welfare (H&W) fringe benefits are additional to the required monetary wage. DOL Fact Sheet 67B explains that qualifying benefits, equivalent cash payments, or an allowed combination can satisfy the obligation. Paying a higher undifferentiated wage is not a substitute for separately accounting for fringe benefits.

Use the H&W requirement in the applicable determination. Do not treat every employer expense as a benefit credit, or assume that your existing health plan covers the full obligation. Maintain separate wage and fringe records, and have your payroll or benefits specialist review the proposed credits and any cash-in-lieu treatment.

The hours basis also matters. Most fixed-cost H&W determinations cover paid hours, including specified paid leave, subject to weekly and annual limits. Average-cost determinations use a different basis that includes overtime hours worked. Follow the actual determination and DOL's compliance principles, rather than multiplying every benefit by cleaning hours only.

Vacation and holiday obligations need their own budget. Check eligibility and predecessor service history, and avoid counting the same benefit cost twice. The DOL SCA FAQs explain these distinctions and benefit-equivalency rules.

6. Build a separate government-contract cost worksheet

Estimate each staffing role and each service period separately. Cleaning production rates help estimate productive task hours; staffing coverage, paid leave and fringe eligibility are additional calculations.

For a target margin, the planning formula is price = total cost / (1 - margin). Keep time units consistent and reconcile the result to every line item in the agency's pricing schedule. Review base and option periods separately; a monthly estimate does not automatically price an entire multi-year contract.

If FAR 52.222-43 applies, read its adjustment limits. It addresses certain wage/fringe changes and accompanying payroll costs, excludes added overhead or profit, and restricts contingency allowances for increases covered by that clause. It also has notice and documentation requirements. Do not assume the agency will reimburse every future cost increase.

7. Submit the agency's requested offer

Build a final checklist from the instructions: technical approach, staffing and quality-control plan, requested past performance, representations, pricing schedule and amendment acknowledgments. Use the specified submission channel and allow time for upload or delivery problems. A polished commercial proposal does not replace required forms or separate technical and price volumes.

Before submitting, check that your staffing plan matches your priced hours, every required line item has the requested unit, and the labor worksheet reflects the applicable wage and benefit requirements. Keep internal costing separate unless the solicitation expressly requests it. After award, use a payroll process that can document wage, fringe and hours compliance.

Where BidLoom can help today

Use the public cleaning time calculator to explore task hours and the free scope checklists to organize a walkthrough. Adjust them to the agency's specification; neither validates federal contracting requirements.

BidLoom does not import SCA wage determinations, validate classifications, calculate required H&W, or produce a government-compliance certification. Its ordinary labor settings and proposal PDF cannot replace your reviewed SCA worksheet or the agency's submission package. Use the estimate as a planning input, then have the contract-specific labor and benefits work checked before sending an offer.