The house where I’m working has a full-time maid. I have really made a mess upstairs, jusr sheetrock dust and such, but it’s everywhere. The maids grandaughter, about 18-19, cleaned it for me, and then asked if she could get into doing construction cleanup for other contractors.
So, what do you expect the cleaning crew to do, when the work is all done? Windows inside and out. Mirrors. Countertops. Vacuum/damp mop everywhere.
And how much do you pay?
I’m sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Replies
Are cleaning lady is about $30 an hour.
Our contracts say "Leave new structure/room/site/whatever broom clean. However we try hard to leave it as move in/new house clean as possible.
To me, broom clean is not final cleaning.
At $30/hr, how long does she take on your average house?
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
Broom clean is in the contract to cover our ####, usually we don't bring in the cleaning lady or wash windows. Exceptions are whole house remodels where we touch everything in the house or large scale additions that disrupt a large section of the existing.
To answer your question, on a remodel or addition anywhere from 250 - 350
smaller rooms are less.
Just last month she cleaned a house we did a whole remodel on, probably around 2500 sqft house, It cost around 500 for a top to bottom cleaning, carpet cleaners came in around 200 bucks, and window washers charges about 350 (lot of windows) and they are very good. all totaled up, over a grand just in clean up.
is this SYSOP or CAG?
what the hell's going on here?
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
We clean up to broom clean or better every day. Takes less time than you think. Then when the final clean comes it doesn't take long at all and we do the whole deal, windows, fixtures, everything. We get a lot of repeat business because of this. On drywall dust we use vacume attachment sanders for all sanding to minimize dust. DanT
Dan, what type of drywall attachment device do you use? Does it add significant time to the sanding?
blue
the whole discussion about being able to change your nickname... thought I'd give it a try...
whadda ya think?
I can play sysop now!
I am surprised that the software allows you to use SYSOP.One of the orginal forums, Compuserve, had filter to prevent people from doing that.Then they had to extend it to SYS OP and SYS-OP, etc.Now the these forums won't have much problems.And the SYSOP is mostly in the background.But in forums with a large number of newbies a fake SYSOP can do lot of damages.
Looks good on you. A career change, maybe?
the whole discussion about being able to change your nickname... thought I'd give it a try...
whadda ya think?
I can play sysop now!"
Nah Neil, You still need a way to attach a gavel. Maybe if you changed you name to Mark LOL.
Jon
It's not a gavel. It's a plumber's friend -- the stick with the rubber suction cup.
~SYSOP
I like it ...
don't let the power sick U over to the dark side ...
wait .. we're the dark side ... I forgot.
Don't let the power suck U into the light.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Ed
We used to do it years ago. Just debris haul off now. Too much supervision needed for the crews. Builders that didn't have thier act together, etc. a lot of headaches. About 10 years ago we were charging about 15 cents/SF. This was for dingers. And lots of em. Lined up right in a row. Bigger houses meant more $$$.
This was windows, scrub the tubs, counters. cabinets and floors. Basically every surface in the house needed to be touched. I guess it did not include walls and cielings though.
I am friendly with a cleaner in one market that does a carpet pre clean then goes back in for the final/final clean. And I think 1 spiff clean before move in. I think his price was about 40 cents/SF. I believe this was garage power washed too.
Tough way to make a buck. Every body thinks they can do it so there is lots of new competition. They come in, bid low to get the account and go out of business. Hardest person to find was the window cleaner. There are some real skills involved in cleaning windows.
HTH
Turn key cleaners are the last subs and the ones the really take a construction site and turn it into a home. They do windows in and out, clean all floors (so they look brand new - if they are brand new that is) vacuum carpets, clean cabinets drawers, behind drawers, tops of cabinets, tops of doors, removes any stickers left on tub or appliances, polish marble granite, hardwoods. Clean lights inside and out etc They don't leave surprises A good cleaning crew might cost 500 to 750 dollars around my neck of the nations capitol. These are for our condos which are about 1200 to 1800 sq ft,
Edited 6/21/2005 5:31 pm ET by quicksilver
The Good cleaners( the one's that really clean) , either don't do windows, or charge too much for them, so window cleaning is usually a seperate sub.
And then, all the scratched glass shows up.
Ed, that business is more profitable than carpentry.
Hauling away debris is far more lucrative than carpentry.
blue
I have it in my contracts that final cleaning is available at my cost +50%.
No matter how good your cleaning co. is, if your client is paying for it, it will never be spottless enough to satisfy.
When someone questions that, I explain that I am not in the cleaning trade and they would be better off hiring it out themselves.
We scrape paint off windows,but don't wash them. We will shop vac the floors, but we don't dust.
All debris of course is removed.
.20 per sq.ft is what we pay. 3 cleans. 1 sweep & rough clean before carpet. Full clean before HO walk thru. Re clean day before close. This includes windows & power wash of all flat work. If we need a 4th time it is about $50.00 So a 1500 sq.ft unit pays little over $300 maybe 10-12 hrs total.
I usually do it myself with my crew. It gets billed to the client at the same rates as when we're pounding nails or whatever.
If a place has had major gyprock or tile work done and there is dust everywhere, I'll bring in my #1 chambermaid to augment the crew. We do the grunt stuff; she's in charge of the fine work and also tells us what to do if we miss something. When she says it's clean, I stop worrying about what Mrs. HO is gonna say....
Dinosaur
A day may come when the courage of men fails,when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship...
But it is not this day.
C'mon....19 year old maids daughter.......details...don't wreck the mood with all this clean-up stuff.
I'm not a contractor, but when my home was finished the contractor brought in his wife and kids to do a thorough cleaning. They did not do the windows, but thoroughly vacuumed everything, mopped the hard floors, and washed down the fixtures.
Then the ladies at church held a cleaning bee (I had never heard of such a thing) for me and went over everything with a fine tooth comb. The windows shined. I told them they didn't have to do it, but they said it's fun to clean someone else's home.
I was referring to a new house final cleaning.
I'm sorry, I thought you wanted it done the right way.
I'm talking new construction... I have a cleaning lady who charges $.16 a square foot and $5 per window. She gives 1 return touchup cleaning in the price. This is for interior only (tilt sash windows in and out). When she leaves the place is immaculate. I can just about guarantee that those houses she cleans will never again be that clean.
Her husband (and employees) does the debris removal and I'm equally satisfied with that service and as an added bonus they give me 3 "construction sweepouts" that I can call for anytime during the building process - I love that.