Most cleaning companies will not put a number in writing before a walkthrough. Here are ours: the per-square-foot rates, the minimum visit, and four worked examples.
Ask five Atlanta cleaning companies what office cleaning costs and you will get five versions of "it depends on the space." That is true, and it is also a non-answer. So here are our actual rates, our actual minimum, and four worked examples with the arithmetic left in.
Everything below is what our own estimator uses. A real quote still follows a walkthrough, because we measure the space, score each area from 1 to 5 on its current condition, and put a written scope in front of you before anybody discusses price. But you should not have to sit through a sales visit just to find out whether a company is in your budget range.
The rates
Commercial cleaning is priced per square foot per visit, then adjusted for restrooms and frequency. Ours, per square foot per visit:
- Warehouse and industrial: $0.025
- School and childcare: $0.042
- Office: $0.045
- Gym and fitness: $0.047
- Retail: $0.050
- Restaurant and bar: $0.066
- Medical and dental: $0.075
Restrooms are priced separately, because a restroom takes a fixed amount of time no matter how large the rest of the floor is. One restroom adds $8 a visit, two adds $16, three or four adds $30, five or more adds $48.
Then frequency, which is the biggest lever on the whole sheet:
- Five nights a week: 45% off the per-visit rate
- Three nights a week: 35% off
- Once a week: 25% off
- Every other week: no discount
And the number that surprises people most: our minimum in Atlanta is $150 per visit, before the frequency discount.
Why a small suite does not get a small price
At $0.045 a square foot, an office has to reach roughly 3,300 square feet before the square footage alone clears the $150 minimum. Below that, the minimum sets the price. A medical suite reaches it at about 2,000 square feet, a restaurant at about 2,300, a warehouse not until 6,000.
The reason is that a visit has a floor cost that has nothing to do with your square footage. Two people, drive time across the city, equipment, supplies, insurance and payroll, on a route that only fits so many stops in a night. A 1,200 square foot suite in Kirkwood takes a crew off the road for the same slot as a 3,000 square foot suite, and the slot is what you are buying.
If somebody quotes a 1,200 square foot office at $60 a visit, ask how many minutes they have budgeted and how many people are coming.
Four worked examples
1,500 sq ft office, one restroom, once a week
The minimum applies: $150, plus $8 for the restroom, less 25% for weekly service. About $119 a visit, or roughly $472 to $575 a month.
3,000 sq ft office, two restrooms, three nights a week
Still under the minimum threshold: $150, plus $16, less 35%. About $108 a visit, or roughly $1,290 to $1,571 a month across 13 visits.
5,000 sq ft office, four restrooms, three nights a week
Now square footage drives it. 5,000 at $0.045 is $225, plus $30 for restrooms, less 35%. About $166 a visit, or roughly $1,982 to $2,413 a month. That works out at about $0.43 per square foot per month, which is the number to carry into a bid comparison.
10,000 sq ft office, six restrooms, five nights a week
10,000 at $0.045 is $450, plus $48, less 45%. About $274 a visit, or roughly $5,468 to $6,657 a month across nearly 22 visits.
The ranges are ranges for a reason. Condition, floor mix, break room load, and how much of the space is genuinely cleaned nightly rather than weekly all move the number inside them. You can run your own combinations on our commercial page.
What changes the number in your part of Atlanta
Downtown and Midtown towers
High-rise work carries costs a low-rise building does not. Access is after hours only, the freight elevator is shared with every other vendor and has to be booked, building management wants a certificate of insurance naming the owner and the management company, security may require badges or an escort, and there is nowhere free to put a van full of equipment. Same square footage, more overhead. Budget above the numbers above rather than below them.
Decatur and Avondale Estates
Mostly low-rise, own entrance, flexible hours, park at the door. This is where the per-square-foot math lands closest to the list above, and where three nights a week is usually the sweet spot for a professional office.
Kirkwood and East Atlanta
A lot of converted retail and older buildings: original floors, older restroom fixtures, several different surfaces inside a small footprint. Here the condition score from the walkthrough matters more than the square footage does. An older tile and grout restroom is a bigger line item than the extra 300 square feet next to it.
Tucker and Stone Mountain
Light industrial, flex space, and warehouse with an office suite attached. If your building is 12,000 square feet of warehouse and 2,000 square feet of office, it should not be priced as 14,000 square feet of anything. The warehouse is $0.025 work and the office is $0.045 work. Ask for the two areas to be priced separately, and be suspicious of a bid that blends them into one rate.
How to compare three bids honestly
- Normalize everything to cost per square foot per month. Per-visit prices are not comparable until you multiply by the number of visits.
- Ask for a task frequency matrix, not a task list. "Restrooms" means nothing. "Restrooms: floors, fixtures and dispensers nightly, tile and grout quarterly" means something.
- Find out who supplies consumables. Paper, liners and hand soap can run several hundred dollars a month in a busy building. A cheap bid that excludes them is not cheap.
- Ask whether the cleaners are employees, then ask for the certificate of insurance and check it actually covers what is in the scope.
- Get the term and the notice period in writing before you sign anything, along with what happens if the scope changes.
Common questions
What is your minimum for commercial cleaning in Atlanta?
$150 per visit, before frequency discounts. On a five-nights-a-week schedule that same minimum works out at about $83 a visit, which is why small suites often end up better off on a more frequent schedule than they expected to buy.
Do you clean after hours?
Yes. After-hours and overnight scheduling is standard for our commercial work, and in Downtown and Midtown buildings it is usually the only option the building permits.
Will you provide a certificate of insurance?
Yes, on request. We are insured, bonded and background-checked, and building management in most Atlanta towers will want the certificate naming them before your first visit is scheduled.
How accurate are the numbers on this page?
They are what our estimator produces, so they are accurate as estimates and not as quotes. The walkthrough is where an estimate becomes a price: we measure, score each area from 1 to 5 on current condition, and write the scope down before anybody talks about cost.
Which areas do you cover?
Decatur, Avondale Estates, Downtown Atlanta, East Atlanta, Kirkwood, Midtown, Stone Mountain and Tucker. Each has its own page under service areas.
