What Happens in the First 30 Days of a Janitorial Contract?

A week-by-week startup for the first 30 days of a janitorial contract

Mobilization plans vary with building size, but the order rarely changes: stabilize, restore, measure, then lock in. The table shows a typical sequence for a single building.

Orientation: what the crew must learn first

A crew that knows the building works faster and makes fewer mistakes, and most first-week complaints trace back to something nobody explained. Give the vendor time with your building engineer or facility coordinator, and expect its supervisor to turn what they learn into written site instructions the crew can follow.

• Alarm arming and disarming, lock-up order and who to call after hours
• Restricted rooms, clean-desk rules and areas that must not be entered
• Waste streams, including where trash, recycling and organics each go
• Floor types and the approved product and method for each
• Closet locations, stock and the par level for each supply
• Tenant habits: early arrivals, late meetings, rooms in use overnight
• How to report leaks, burned-out lights or damage to building staff

The initial deep clean comes before judgment

Routine cleaning maintains a condition; it does not create one. If restrooms carry mineral scale, carpets hold months of traffic soil or floor finish is worn through in the corridors, nightly service will not change that, and scoring the new vendor against it is unfair to both sides.

That is why most startups include a restorative pass in the second week: descaling fixtures, extracting or spotting carpet, scrubbing hard floors and dusting high surfaces that were skipped. Ask at the bid stage whether this work is included as startup or priced separately, and schedule the louder tasks for evenings or weekends.

The baseline inspection sets the yardstick

Around the third week, walk the building with the vendor's supervisor and score a sample of every area type using the form your contract names. Photograph what you see. This joint score becomes the reference for SLA thresholds and for every later conversation about quality.

Record conditions cleaning cannot fix, such as stained ceiling tiles, worn carpet, etched stone or chipped tile, so they are not counted against the vendor later. Then agree how often inspections will happen after day 30, who performs them and how results are shared.

Signs the startup is working, and warning signs

By the end of the month you should know whether the program is settling in. Watch for these patterns rather than single nights.

• On track: the same people each night, a shrinking punch list, requests logged and closed
• On track: supplies never run out, and the supervisor answers when you call
• Warning: crew turnover in week two or three, or a supervisor you rarely see
• Warning: the same complaint repeating after it was marked fixed
• Warning: no inspection records, or periodic work already slipping

How EBS runs a startup

EBS assigns trained team members to a building for consistency, so the people learning your site in week one are the people cleaning it in month six. A field supervisor oversees startup, eHub inspections and corrective-action tracking begin with the first walks, and backup staffing covers absences while the crew settles in. Supervisors keep in touch with your contact throughout, and the scope is adjusted in writing as the building's real needs become clear.