How to Bid a Janitorial Cleaning Contract
Build a janitorial bid from production rates, not from a monthly guess: estimate cleanable square feet per hour for each area type, multiply out to hours per night, multiply by nights per month and your fully-loaded labor cost, then add supplies, overhead, and margin. Typical office production runs 2,500–4,000 square feet per hour, restrooms far slower, and the resulting monthly price commonly lands between $0.05 and $0.20 per square foot per month depending on frequency.
Build from hours, never from a feeling
The failure mode in janitorial bidding is picking a monthly number that “feels competitive.” Work it the other way instead:
- Walk the building and record areas, floor types, restroom and fixture counts
- Apply production rates — square feet per hour, per area type
- Total the hours per service night
- Multiply by nights per month
- Multiply by fully-loaded labor cost
- Add supplies, equipment, overhead, and margin
Production rates to start from
- Open office — 2,500–4,000 sq ft/hr
- Congested cubicles — noticeably slower
- Restrooms — priced by fixture count and time, not area
- Breakrooms — slow, high-touch
- Hard floor dust and damp mop — faster than carpet vacuum
Time your own crews and swap in your real numbers — that table ends up being one of the most valuable things your business owns.
Use fully-loaded labor, not the wage
Wage plus payroll taxes, workers’ comp, and benefits usually comes out to 1.25–1.4× the hourly rate. Bid off the bare wage and you’ll find out months later, when it’s too late to reprice, that the contract you thought was profitable wasn’t.
Count restrooms, not square feet
A building with twelve restrooms and one with two can have identical square footage and a completely different amount of labor. Restrooms are the slowest, most complaint-generating area in any facility, so count fixtures and price them properly instead of eyeballing it.
Don’t win the account you can’t keep
A bid at break-even has no room for a wage increase, a supply price rise, or the month a crew member quits. Losing a bid you should have lost is actually a fine outcome — janitorial is full of companies that grew by winning underpriced contracts and then failed trying to service them.
Quote periodics separately, always
Strip and wax, carpet cleaning, and window work should never disappear into a monthly rate. Keep them on separate lines with their own schedule — it keeps them visible, keeps them profitable, and gives you something to sell to an account you already have.
Frequently asked questions
What production rate should I use?
Roughly 2,500–4,000 square feet per hour for open office areas at standard frequency, considerably slower for restrooms, breakrooms, and congested cubicle areas. Time yourself on your own first accounts and build a personal rate table — published rates are a starting point, not your numbers.
What's a fully-loaded labor cost?
Wage plus payroll taxes, workers' comp, and any benefits — commonly 1.25–1.4× the hourly wage. Bidding off the raw wage is the single most common way small janitorial companies win contracts that lose money.
How much margin should I build in?
Enough to survive an account leaving — typically 15–30% after labor, supplies, and overhead. Janitorial is a low-margin, high-turnover business, and a contract bid at break-even has no room for a raise, a bad month, or a supply price increase.
Should I walk the building before bidding?
Always, and count restrooms, fixtures, and floor types. Square footage from a listing tells you almost nothing about the labor — a building with twelve restrooms and one with two can be identical in area and hours apart in work.