Commercial Cleaning Bid Calculator
Calculate competitive pricing for commercial cleaning contracts based on facility type, size, frequency, and special services.
About this calculator
This calculator builds a janitorial bid from a base per-square-foot price that varies by facility type — medical space prices highest at $0.10/sq ft per visit because of stricter sanitation standards, retail lowest at $0.04, with office at $0.05 and schools at $0.06 in between. That base is then multiplied twice: once by a special-services factor (1.0 for basic cleaning, 1.25 with floor care, 1.5 for full floor/carpet/window service) and once by a frequency discount that rewards more visits per week with a lower per-visit rate, stepping from full price at 1 day down to 80% of base at 7 days — the standard commercial-cleaning logic that more frequent contracts justify volume pricing. Multiplying the resulting per-square-foot price by facility size gives cost per visit, and multiplying that by 4.33 visits-per-week-per-month gives the monthly bid, times 12 for the annual contract.
Labor hours per visit come from a separate cleaning-rate assumption per facility type (medical is slowest at 2,000 sq ft/hour, retail fastest at 4,000), and profit margin compares the bid against labor cost (hours × $18/hr burdened rate) plus a flat $0.005/sq ft supply estimate. Treat the output as a starting point, not a final number: local labor rates, competitive pressure, union requirements, and building-specific complexity (multiple floors, security clearances, specialized equipment) can all shift real-world pricing well outside these generic per-square-foot assumptions.
Inputs
Results
Monthly Bid
$18,402.50
Annual Contract
$220,830.00
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter facility size in sq ft and select facility type (office, medical, school, or retail).
- Set service frequency (days per week) and choose the level of special services (none, floor care, or full floor/carpet/window care).
- Review Monthly Bid and Annual Contract — use these as a starting point and adjust for local labor rates and competition.
- Check Price per Sq Ft, Labor Hours per Visit, and Profit Margin to sanity-check the bid against your staffing and cost assumptions.
How the result changes with Facility Size
| Facility Size | Monthly Bid | Annual Contract |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $9,201.25 | $110,415.00 |
| 15,000 | $13,801.88 | $165,622.56 |
| 30,000 | $27,603.75 | $331,245.00 |
| 50,000 | $46,006.25 | $552,075.00 |
What each input means
- Facility Size
- Total cleanable square footage of the facility.
- Facility Type
- The type of facility being cleaned.
- Days per Week
- Number of cleaning visits per week.
- Special Services
- Level of special services included in the bid.
What each result means
- Monthly Bid
- Recommended monthly contract price.
- Annual Contract
- Total annual contract value.
- Price per Sq Ft
- Effective price per square foot per visit.
- Labor Hours per Visit
- Estimated staff hours needed per cleaning visit.
- Profit Margin
- Estimated profit margin after labor and supply costs.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters4 parametersFacility Size = 20000, Facility Type = 0, Days per Week = 5, Special Services = 0 = 4 input(s) provided
- Calculate Monthly BidMonthly Bid18402.5 = $18,402.5
- Calculate Annual ContractAnnual Contract220830 = $220,830
- Calculate Price per Sq FtPrice per Sq Ft0.0425 = $0.043
- Calculate Labor Hours per VisitLabor Hours per Visit5.71 = 5.71
Engine last updated . Checked against 2 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the frequency discount lower the per-visit price as I add more days per week?
The calculator applies a stepped discount to the base per-square-foot price — full price at 1 day/week, dropping to 95% at 2 days, 90% at 3, 85% at 5, and 80% at 7 — because more frequent contracts are standard volume-pricing territory in commercial cleaning: the client is committing to more total revenue, so each individual visit is priced a bit lower. Note this discounts the per-visit rate, not the monthly total, so more visits per week still means a higher monthly bid overall, just at a better per-visit rate.
Why does medical facility type cost more per square foot but also take longer per visit?
Medical space carries the highest base price ($0.10/sq ft vs. $0.04-$0.06 for the others) because of stricter sanitation standards, and separately uses the slowest cleaning rate (2,000 sq ft/hour vs. up to 4,000 for retail) in the labor-hours calculation. Those are two independent assumptions in the model — one drives price, the other drives estimated crew time — reflecting that medical cleaning genuinely takes both more skill/product and more time per square foot than a retail sweep-and-mop.
How is profit margin calculated, and what costs does it actually account for?
Profit margin is `(costPerVisit - totalCostPerVisit) / costPerVisit`, where totalCostPerVisit is labor (laborHoursPerVisit × $18/hr burdened rate) plus a flat supply estimate of $0.005 per square foot. It does not include overhead like insurance, equipment depreciation, management time, or travel between sites, so the real margin on a contract is typically lower than what this figure shows.
Why should I treat the monthly bid as a starting point rather than the final number to quote?
The pricing model uses generic per-square-foot base rates and a flat $18/hr labor cost that don't reflect local wage rates, competitive pressure in your market, union requirements, or building-specific complexity like multiple floors, security clearances, or specialized equipment needs. All of those can shift a real bid well outside what a generic square-footage formula produces, so use this as a sanity-check baseline and adjust for what you actually know about the job and the market.
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