What Is Included in Commercial Move-Out Cleaning?

What commercial move-out cleaning covers, area by area

The scope covers everything a broker, an inspector or the incoming tenant will look at, plus the places a nightly janitorial visit never reaches because furniture, files and people were in the way. Once the suite is empty, the floors, walls and fixtures are fully exposed for the first time in years.

Use the table as a starting checklist and strike or add lines after you walk the suite.

Where move-out cleaning falls in the turnover sequence

Cleaning should come after anything that makes dust and before anyone walks the space to decide whether to lease it. If the suite is getting new paint, patched walls, new carpet or a light refresh of tenant improvements, a single cleaning before that work is wasted money, because construction dust settles on every surface.

For most suites, the turnover runs in this order, with cleaning near the end:

• Departing tenant removes its furniture, equipment and cabling it is required to take
• Landlord or property manager walks the suite against the lease surrender terms and photographs it
• Abandoned items are hauled away and any repairs, paint or carpet replacement are completed
• Move-out cleaning is performed once the trades are finished
• A light touch-up is done just before showings or the new tenant's move-in date

Keeping a vacant suite presentable until it leases

Vacant suite cleaning is easy to forget. An empty space still collects dust from the HVAC system, dead insects along window sills and fine grit tracked in by brokers and contractors. Restroom and kitchen drains also dry out when nobody runs water, and a dry trap lets sewer odor into the suite, which is the first thing a prospect notices.

A short recurring visit, often monthly or before scheduled tours, keeps the suite ready: run water in sinks and floor drains, flush toilets, dust horizontal surfaces, vacuum, wipe the entry glass and report any leaks, pest activity or damage to the property manager.

What to send your cleaning contractor before the job

The more the contractor knows before the walkthrough, the tighter the scope and the fewer surprises on the day. Most of the information below is already in the lease file or the building's move-in rules.

• Floor plan or suite square footage, with floor types marked
• Photos of carpet stains, damaged finish and anything left behind
• Whether water and power will stay on (extraction and scrubbing equipment needs both)
• Freight elevator, loading dock and after-hours access rules
• Key or badge arrangements and who can let the crew in
• The date of the first showing or the incoming tenant's move-in
• Whether the departing tenant or the landlord is paying

How EBS handles tenant turnover cleaning

Move-out work falls under EBS Maintenance's specialty and project cleaning, using the same crews that handle floor care, carpet extraction and glass on recurring accounts. A supervisor walks the suite with you, then writes a scope and price for that suite; the walkthrough and estimate are free.

Crews travel from the Corona office to suites in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties, working evenings or weekends when neighboring tenants are open. Completed work is checked against the scope before the suite is handed back, and once a new tenant signs, the same suite can move onto a recurring janitorial program.