Pillar/Free tools
Lancaster, PA
Commercial cleaning
bid calculator
Square footage and frequency in, contract price out. The bid updates as you type, and nothing asks for your email.
No signup
Total area serviced each visit.
5 is weekday service. Use 1 to 7.
Wage plus payroll taxes, insurance, and workers comp.
Supplies and overhead as a share of labor. Margin as a share of the price, not a markup on cost.
Hours per visit
2.9
Labor hours, one cleaner equivalent.
Price per visit
$131
Monthly contract price
$2,828
$0.28 per sq ft per month at 5 visits a week.
Annual contract value
$33,933
Per visit breakdown
- Labor
- $71
- Supplies and equipment
- $6
- Overhead
- $14
- Cost per visit
- $91
- Profit per visit
- $39
This is a starting number, not a quote. Walk the building and confirm restrooms, floor types, and detail work before you send it.
The math runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent or saved.
01The method
How to bid commercial cleaning
Five steps, worked on a 10,000 sq ft office at 5 visits a week. The calculator runs the same math with your numbers.
2.9 hours
Divide the area by a production rate to get time per visit. The table below has starting rates.
$71 labor
Use what an hour costs you with taxes, comp, and insurance on it. Not the wage.
$91 cost
Chemicals, equipment, insurance, and admin ride on every visit whether you price them or not.
$131 price
Divide by one minus margin. Adding 30% on top is a markup, and it leaves you less than you think.
$2,828 a month
5 visits a week times 4.33 weeks. A month is longer than 4 weeks.
02Reference
Production rates by facility type
Square feet one cleaner covers in an hour of routine service. Starting points, not gospel.
| Facility | Sq ft per hour | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant / food service | 2,000 | Degreasing and restrooms. The slowest routine work there is. |
| Medical / dental | 2,500 | Disinfection protocols and exam room turnover add time. |
| School / daycare | 3,000 | Restroom counts and touch point disinfection set the pace. |
| Gym / fitness | 3,000 | Equipment wipe downs and locker rooms slow the open floor. |
| Office / professional | 3,500 | Open plans clean fast. Dense cubicles and daily trash slow it down. |
| Retail / showroom | 4,500 | Big open floors. Entry glass and floor care are the time sinks. |
| Warehouse / industrial | 6,000 | Mostly open concrete. Offices inside it clean at office rates. |
These are the calculator's starting rates for one cleaner on routine service. Walk the building and adjust before you commit to a number.
03The traps
Where cleaning bids go wrong
Four mistakes do most of the damage. Every one of them looks fine on the day you send the bid.
Bidding off the raw wage
The wage is not the cost. Payroll taxes, workers comp, and insurance ride on every hour, so bid off the burdened rate.
Confusing markup with margin
Adding 30% to cost is a markup, and it does not leave a 30% margin. Divide cost by 0.70 instead, like this calculator does.
$100 cost + 30% markup = $130. Margin: 23%
$100 cost ÷ 0.70 = $143. Margin: 30%
Pricing a four week month
A month averages 4.33 weeks, not 4. Five visits a week is 260 visits a year, and billing 20 a month covers 240.
260 delivered - 240 billed = 20 free visits a year
Skipping the walkthrough
Restroom counts, floor types, and detail work move the production rate more than anything else. Walk the building before the number leaves your hands.
04Questions
Questions about bidding commercial cleaning
- How do you bid a commercial cleaning job?
- Divide the square footage by a production rate to get hours per visit, multiply by your fully burdened labor rate, add supplies and overhead, then divide by one minus your margin. Multiply the visit price by visits per month for the contract value. The calculator on this page runs exactly that math.
- What production rate should I use?
- Production rate is the square feet one cleaner covers in an hour of routine service. This calculator starts office space at 3,500 sq ft per hour and restaurants at 2,000, and you should tighten the number after you walk the building. Restrooms, floor type, and trash density move it the most.
- Should I bid off the wage I pay?
- No. Use the fully burdened rate, meaning the wage plus payroll taxes, workers comp, and insurance. Bidding off the raw wage is the most common way cleaning contracts end up underwater.
- What margin does the calculator use?
- It defaults to a 30 percent margin taken as a share of the price, which means cost divided by 0.70. That is not the same as a 30 percent markup on cost, which leaves you closer to a 23 percent margin.
- Why is my price per square foot different from numbers I see online?
- Frequency changes everything. The same building produces a very different per square foot number at one visit a week than at five, so only compare per square foot prices at the same frequency, or compare monthly totals instead.
- Can I send this estimate to the client?
- Treat it as the starting number, not the proposal. Walk the building, confirm scope and frequency in writing, and put the final price in a proposal that spells out what is and is not included.
- Does this calculator save or send my numbers?
- No. The math runs in your browser, there is no signup, and nothing you type is sent to us or stored anywhere.
05Keep going
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Get started
Bid it. Book it.
Bill it.
Pillar puts the route on a recurring schedule, sends the invoice, and takes the payment. Free for one person, at 100 jobs, 100 estimates and 100 invoices a month, with no credit card to sign up.
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