For many people, commercial cleaning and office cleaning mean the same thing. While there is some truth to that, there are some key differences. For instance, cleaning a warehouse is a much more painstaking task than that of an office.
The Scope of Cleaning
Cleaning involves getting rid of dirt on surfaces and other accessories like carpets. Most such cleaning is done by hand and, in some instances, using equipment like vacuum cleaners.
Sometimes this is done on a small scale. A good example is cleaning an office. Other times, the cleaning is done on a massive scale. A good example is cleaning an entire office building. The scope of the cleaning is key.
This scope characterizes the differences between commercial and office cleaning.
What Does Commercial Cleaning Entail?
Undertaking cleaning tasks on a large scale is the hallmark of commercial cleaning. This typically involves contracting such cleaning tasks to a third party, usually a professional commercial cleaning company or contractor.
A cleaning company offers cleaning services in different settings. These may include:
- Restaurants
- Government facilities
- Industrial facilities
- Factories
- Schools
- Public places like malls, gyms, and sports arenas
Commercial cleaning involves typical tasks like vacuuming carpets, cleaning dusty surfaces like window panes, removing trash, getting rid of accumulated dirt in air vents, and anything that involves making a place look clean. Disinfection of regular surfaces like kitchen countertops is also part of commercial cleaning. Occasionally, commercial cleaning may involve things like the removal of wall graffiti.
Deep cleaning is a much more thorough type of cleaning. It involves the removal of dust or dirt in unconventional, hard-to-reach places. An example is cleaning the interior doors of your oven or soap scum from your shower head or kitchen sink. Basically, deep cleaning involves tasks not usually covered by regular cleaning routines.
In addition to deep cleaning, commercial cleaning may also entail niche types of cleaning. These include:
Power washing and pressure washing: This involves the use of water under extreme pressures to get rid of dirt on hard surfaces like pavements and walls. While these two terms are often used interchangeably, the water in power washing is heated.
Steam carpet cleaning: This involves using hot water to get rid of dirt particles like dust, skin cells, or stains within carpet fibers.
It’s crucial to remember that many commercial cleaning companies choose to focus on specific types of commercial cleaning services like power washing or steam carpet cleaning. However, many of them also include such niche services as part of their regular commercial cleaning services.
Office Cleaning
Office cleaning involves the regular tasks associated with keeping an office environment clean. These include doing things like:
- Buffing floors
- Vacuuming carpets and floor surfaces
- Dusting desk and table surfaces
- Cleaning and disinfecting restrooms
- Taking out the trash
- Mopping floors
Differences Between Commercial and Office Cleaning
It’s crucial to remember that office cleaning can fall under commercial cleaning. This is because the tasks involved in office cleaning are also performed by commercial cleaning companies, except on a much larger scale. However, one can set up a cleaning business that caters exclusively to small offices—a typical office cleaning business.
A commercial cleaning company will perform cleaning tasks in various settings. Such settings can include offices. Office cleaning services focus exclusively on offices.
Commercial cleaning companies aim to provide their services almost exclusively to businesses and individuals. Of course, an office that is used for conducting business can be considered commercial. In such instances, commercial cleaning companies can cater to such places.
Another crucial difference between commercial cleaning and office cleaning is how frequently each service is needed.
Most commercial cleaning projects tend to involve large-scale tasks. For example, thoroughly cleaning an industrial facility requires a lot of manpower and time. As such, these kinds of commercial cleaning projects are performed once in a while, usually a few times a year. Office cleaning projects, on the other hand, are smaller tasks, requiring them to be performed at least monthly.
What About Janitorial Services?
A discussion of office cleaning would be incomplete without talking about janitorial services. Nearly all offices have full-time janitors. These workers help to keep the office environment clean by performing tasks like mopping and getting rid of the trash. They can also take care of any unexpected mess, like spilled coffee. However, an office with full-time janitors still requires professional office cleaning services. This is because janitors are not equipped to handle certain aspects of office cleaning.
Which Type Suits Your Needs?
Knowing which kind of cleaning services you need depends on your situation. For the most part, office cleaning is for small offices that require monthly thoroughness to supplement what their janitorial staff is doing. If you’re an office manager looking for professional cleaning services, this should be a simple choice.
If you’re a building manager or a factory owner that wants to have a thorough cleaning of your facility or property, a commercial cleaning company is the best option. They’ll come with the right equipment to handle any type of cleaning project you may have.
The overlap between the different kinds of cleaning projects means that hiring a commercial cleaning company may be your best option, even for an office setting. For example, if you need to clean your office and its adjacent spaces like the pavements and the parking lot, hiring a commercial cleaning company that offers a full range of services is the smart move.
Costs
Costs tend to vary for office cleaning and commercial cleaning. Most office cleaning projects are smaller. This means they tend to be charged by the hour.
Commercial cleaning projects tend to be larger, meaning they are charged on a per-project basis. Of course, several other factors will determine the cost of each project. For example, a home office in a large house will cost more to clean than a few cubicles in a single-story building.
All in all, commercial cleaning and office cleaning share a lot of similarities. However, the scope of the task, the setting, and the type of cleaning involved separate them.
Salman is a prolific environmental writer, and has authored more than 500 articles in reputed journals, magazines and websites. He is proactively engaged in creating mass awareness on renewable energy, waste management, sustainability and conservation all over the world.
Salman can be reached on salman@cleantechloops.com
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Commercial cleaning emphasizes how spotless places used for business. Greater cleaning activities are performed annually or every six months in business offices. Thanks for sharing the article.