What Is Cleanable Square Footage in a Janitorial Bid?

Cleanable vs gross square feet and other measurements

Buildings carry several area figures, each made for a different purpose. Gross area is for construction and valuation, and rentable and usable area are lease measurements, usually calculated under the BOMA office standard (ANSI/BOMA Z65.1). None of them describes the cleaning job. Cleanable area is not a BOMA term at all, which is exactly why your request for proposals should define it.

What to leave out, or list separately

Most of the gap between gross and cleanable area comes from a short list of spaces. Some should be dropped from the cleaning count entirely; others are still cleaned but belong on their own line because they are priced by a different unit or frequency.

• Mechanical, electrical and telecom rooms, unless they are in scope
• Elevator, pipe and duct shafts, plus wall thickness and columns
• Stairwells, which are better priced per flight or per visit
• Parking structures and exterior hardscape, priced as separate work
• Vacant suites or floors, listed with their reduced frequency
• Spaces cleaned by a tenant's own vendor
• Secure rooms the crew cannot enter
• Warehouse or production floor priced by machine time

How to measure cleanable square footage for janitorial work

Start from CAD files or architectural plans and measure the inside of each space to be cleaned. Split the result two ways: by floor finish, because carpet, resilient tile, stone and sealed concrete are cleaned at different rates, and by space type, because a private office, an open work area, a lobby and a break room each carry different tasks and frequencies. Then walk the building with the plans in hand, since renovations and furniture changes rarely make it back into the drawings.

Record everything in one schedule and attach it to the bid package, so every vendor prices exactly the same spaces at the same frequencies. The example below shows a workable format; the figures are illustrative only, not drawn from any real building.

Why janitorial bid square footage changes the comparison

A price per square foot means nothing without its denominator. If one vendor applies a low rate to the rentable area and another applies a higher rate to measured cleanable area, the lower rate can produce the larger monthly total, or it can hide fewer labor hours spread across more space. Either way, the per-square-foot figures are not comparable. Give every bidder the same schedule, ask them to price against it, and compare monthly totals and the hours behind them, not the rates alone.

Where area stops being the right measure

Some spaces are driven by counts rather than area. Restrooms are cleaned fixture by fixture, so list toilets, urinals and sinks per restroom. Clinical suites depend on exam room counts, stairwells on flights, glass on panes and elevators on cabs. Trash collection depends on the number of bins and desks. A schedule that includes these counts alongside the area gives bidders what they need to estimate hours honestly.

How EBS confirms the area it prices

The EBS walkthrough is where the cleanable area is confirmed on site: a supervisor reviews floors, surfaces, traffic and access requirements, and the scope that follows states which spaces are in and which are out. Tasks can be organized by area, frequency and service window, so the proposal can be checked line by line against your own measured schedule. The walkthrough and the estimate cost nothing.