How to Measure a Building for a Cleaning Bid
If you're in the commercial cleaning business, then one of the steps necessary in bidding a new account is to measure the building. Sometimes the customer will tell you the total square footage, but this number is not always accurate. Plus, it doesn't break down how many square feet there are per type of floor surface.
In order to bid accurately, you'll want to measure the building yourself. And you'll want to take it one step further and measure each type of floor surface (ie. carpet, VCT tile, ceramic tile, concrete, marble, and so on).
So how do you measure a building? First, start out by using the right tool. A tape measurer is not very efficient, and a laser measurer works ok for small areas, but is not very accurate for larger areas. The best tool you can use is a measuring wheel, which you can buy at your local hardware store. With a measuring wheel, you simply place it on the floor and walk with it. Then record your number and start again.
Let's say you've been asked to do the general cleaning on a building. In this particular case, you're just doing the cleaning, and no project work such as carpet cleaning or hard floor care is required. Take a look at the picture below. If you just need total square footage, then you could break down the measuring of this building into the three colored areas as shown, and then add the three numbers together. In the Red Section, there is a hallway and open doorway, so you can walk from one end of the space to the other. Then measure the width of that space. Multiply the two numbers for the square footage of that area. Now move to the blue space and measure this section as shown, moving on to the green section last. Now that you have your three measurements, add them together for your total square footage.
In the next picture, you'll see the floor surfaces labeled by color. There are 3 types of floor surfaces: carpet, ceramic tile, and concrete. You'll need to measure each of these areas separately. Be sure to have a pad of paper to record your measurements and keep them separated by type of flooring. In the green section below is an area that says, "Mechanical Room, Non-Cleanable Space". After measuring this space, you'll need to subtract this number from your total square footage number since you won't be cleaning this area.
The next picture has the square footage listed in each area that you've measured. Totals are added up below the floor plan. You'll see that in the blue carpeted areas, we added up the square footage of the four carpeted rooms for a total of 670 sq ft. The red ceramic tile areas have a total of 295 sq ft, and the green concrete areas add up to 2235 sq ft. In order to get the total square footage of the building, add up the total for each area as shown below in black. To get the total cleanable square footage, just subtract the non-cleanable square footage.
The next step is to take the measurements for each of these areas and give bids on different types of floor care. See the following examples:
Carpet Cleaning: 670 sq ft at $.20 cents per sq ft = $134.00 per service
Ceramic Tile (Machine Scrub): 295 sq ft at $.25 cents per sq ft = $73.75 per service
Concrete (Strip/Wax): 2115 sq ft at $.35 cents per sq ft = $740.25 per service
Concrete (Spray Buff): 2115 sq ft at $.04 cents per sq ft = $84.60 per service
In your bid, you can suggest a floor program for each of these areas. For example:
Carpet Cleaning: twice per year
Ceramic Tile: quarterly cleaning
Concrete: Strip and wax once per year, monthly buffing
Did you notice in the last illustration we also added up the number of windows in the building? Now you can give prices for window washing as well. There are 11 windows total, and each window has 2 panes. There are 2 door window panes, for a total of 24 panes.
When bidding on window washing, it's best to give the customer a price for outside windows and a price for inside windows, as the outside windows may be cleaned more often. For example, you could bid the windows like this:
Outside Windows: 24 panes at $1.00 each = $24.00 per service
Suggested service: twice per year
Inside Perimeter Windows: 24 panes at $1.00 each = $24.00 per service
Suggested service: once per year.
Now that you've got your prices for the additional services, you can figure out your price for the general cleaning. If bidding by the square feet, you know that you have a total of 3080 sq ft. If you've decided to charge $.10 cents per sq ft, then your monthly price will be $308.00.
Please note that the prices listed here are for illustration only. We are not suggesting that you use these prices when bidding on commercial buildings, as there are many variables that you must consider when deciding on prices.
It's easy to be intimidated the first few times you have to measure a commercial building, especially if it is a large building with lots of offices. But if you break it down into small steps as in the example above, the bidding process becomes much easier. Probably the hardest thing you'll need to determine is your pricing strategy, but with practice, you get that down too.
And if you haven't figured it out yet, it is very profitable to bid on project work and specialty cleaning. Rather than just charging $308.00 per month (or $3696.00 per year) for general cleaning, you could also be charging them throughout the year for all the other services listed above. If you get them onto your suggested programs, you could potentially make an additional $2390.45 per year!
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Steve Hanson helps owners of small cleaning companies build a more profitable and successful cleaning business through his online community at TheJanitorialStore.com. Read inspirational cleaning success stories at http://www.cleaning-success.com, and sign up for weekly cleaning tips at //www.thejanitorialstore.com.
