Office cleaning
Tenant suites, desks, kitchens and meeting rooms inside the building.
Commercial cleaning
Janitorial Cleaning Services in Boston
Janitorial cleaning services in Boston keep a building running from one week to the next: trash out, restrooms restocked, floors maintained and shared areas ready for tenants and visitors. It is routine work on a fixed schedule, written down so property managers and owners can see exactly what happens on each visit.
- Lobbies, stairwells, elevators, corridors and restrooms
- Trash, recycling and restocking from your supplies
- A routine that stays the same until you change it
Janitorial upkeep versus project cleaning
Janitorial service is maintenance. It repeats on a set rhythm, a few times a week or every weekday, and its job is to keep dirt and trash from building up in the first place. Project cleaning is a one-time job with a start and an end: a vacant unit before a new tenant, a floor after a renovation, a function room after an event.
Many buildings need both. The routine keeps the lobby and restrooms in shape, and a project clean handles the occasional heavy job. Keeping the two separate in the scope makes it clear what the regular price covers and what gets quoted on its own.
This page is written mainly for property managers, condo associations and owners of buildings with shared space. For a single office suite, office cleaning is usually the better fit.
Janitorial routine by area
Tasks are split between every visit and a weekly or monthly rotation. The final version reflects your building and the traffic it gets.
Lobby and entrances
- Entry doors, glass and push bars cleaned of smudges
- Mailbox area and directory boards dusted
- Walk-off mats vacuumed, hard floors swept and mopped
- Lobby seating and furniture wiped
Stairwells and corridors
- Stairs swept or vacuumed and landings mopped
- Handrails wiped along their full length
- Corridor floors vacuumed or mopped
- Light switches and door hardware wiped
Elevators
- Call buttons and interior panels wiped
- Interior walls and doors cleaned of fingerprints
- Cab floor and door tracks vacuumed
Restrooms
- Fixtures cleaned and disinfected, floors mopped
- Paper products and hand soap restocked from supplies you provide
- Items running low noted so you can reorder in time
Trash and recycling
- Common-area bins emptied and liners replaced
- Bags taken to the building's trash room or dumpster
- Recycling placed in the containers your hauler requires
Floor stripping, waxing and machine scrubbing are not assumed in a janitorial scope. If your floors need them, ask, and we will tell you whether we can take them on.
How a janitorial routine is set up
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Map the building
List the floors, entrances, elevators, restrooms, trash rooms and any areas that are off limits. Tenant suites and common areas are kept on separate lines.
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Split the tasks
Each task gets a frequency of every visit, weekly or monthly. High-traffic spaces such as the lobby and restrooms usually land in the every-visit column.
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Agree on supplies
Tell us what you stock, such as paper products, soap and liners, and where it is kept. Restocking comes from your supply.
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Set access and contacts
Building keys or fobs, alarm procedures and the person who should hear about a problem, such as a leak or a broken fixture, are agreed at setup.
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Review the routine
After the first few weeks, tasks often move between columns. Tell us before the next visit and the written routine is updated.
Janitorial work in Boston buildings
Many of Boston's multi-tenant buildings are older, and plenty have no elevator, so the stairwell carries every tenant, delivery and move. In those buildings, stair treads and handrails get dirty faster than any other common area and deserve a spot on the every-visit list. If the building is on a resident-permit street, tell us where a vendor vehicle can stop.
Winter is the other big factor. Between December and March, salt and sand come in on boots and leave white residue on lobby tile and stair landings. A winter routine usually adds more frequent mopping of entries and closer attention to walk-off mats. Shoveling, exterior salting and sidewalk snow clearing are not part of janitorial cleaning, so those stay with your snow contractor.
Related commercial services
Between-tenant and event cleanups
One-time project cleans for vacant spaces and function rooms.
Post-construction cleaning
Dust removal after a lobby renovation or a unit build-out.
Commercial cleaning overview
Every business type we clean, with a link to each one.
What affects the price of janitorial service
A janitorial quote is mostly about the routine itself: how many tasks, how often, and how much of the building they cover. The factors we look at:
- Number of floors, entrances and elevators
- Restrooms and trash rooms, and how heavily they are used
- Frequency, from a few visits a week to every weekday
- Floor types and the routine they need (vacuuming, sweeping, damp mopping)
- Time windows, such as cleaning before tenants arrive or after a business closes
- Seasonal changes, such as heavier entry care in winter
More detail is on the pricing page.
Janitorial service questions
What is the difference between janitorial and commercial cleaning?
Commercial cleaning is the broad category for any business space. Janitorial service is the routine part of it: recurring upkeep of restrooms, trash, floors and shared areas on a fixed schedule. A one-time job like a post-renovation clean is commercial cleaning but not janitorial.
Do you provide paper towels, toilet paper and soap?
Restocking is done from the supplies you provide. If you would rather we source them, say so in your request and we will confirm whether that is possible and how it would appear on the quote.
Do you strip and wax floors?
Not by default. The regular routine covers sweeping, vacuuming and mopping. If your floors need stripping, refinishing or machine scrubbing, ask in your request and we will tell you honestly whether we can do it.
Can you clean the common areas of a condo or apartment building?
Yes. Lobbies, hallways, stairwells, elevators, laundry rooms and trash rooms are the typical common areas in a residential building. The scope covers shared spaces only; individual units can be booked separately through apartment cleaning.
Do you take trash bins to the curb on collection day?
Tell us your collection days and how the building handles trash now. Whether bins go out to the curb is settled in the scope, so nobody is unsure who is responsible on pickup day.
What happens if something on the routine is missed?
Tell us what was missed and where. Your building contact and our scope are the reference point, and the routine is reviewed before the next visit so the gap does not repeat.
Start with a written janitorial routine
Call or email us with the type of space, its rough size, your ZIP code and what you need done. We reply with a free quote, and nothing is booked until you approve it.