Janitorial services, explainedWhat a janitorial service includes, and how to set one up
"Janitorial" gets used for everything from a weekly office tidy to a full-time custodial program. For facility and operations managers in Bellevue, Seattle and the rest of the Puget Sound area, the useful question is what the program covers, how often, and who makes sure it keeps happening.
Everything a janitorial program covers
A janitorial program is recurring cleaning plus the routine upkeep that keeps a building usable between deep cleans. In a typical commercial building it covers:
- Restrooms cleaned and disinfected, with soap, paper and liners restocked.
- Trash and recycling collected from every room and taken to the building's containers.
- Floor care: vacuuming carpet, mopping hard floors and buffing where the floor needs it.
- Kitchens, breakrooms and common areas cleaned; high-touch points such as handles, rails and elevator buttons disinfected.
- Entry glass, lobbies and reception kept presentable.
- Supply tracking, so consumables are reordered before they run out.
- Regular walkthroughs with the client to check the work and adjust the scope.
Janitorial, custodial and commercial cleaning
Custodial service is the same work under another name, used more often for schools, churches and public buildings. Commercial cleaning is the broader term: it includes janitorial programs, but also one-time jobs like a post-construction clean or a restaurant turnover. If you need the building cleaned on a schedule, week after week, you are looking for janitorial service.
Nightly, weekly or day porter
Most janitorial programs run at night, after tenants or staff leave, so the crew has the building to itself. Busy offices and buildings with heavy restroom traffic usually need nightly service five days a week. Smaller buildings often run two or three nights a week, with restrooms and trash on every visit.
Buildings that get dirty during business hours, such as lobbies, busy restrooms or shared kitchens, can add a day porter: one person on site during the day who keeps those areas in shape while the night crew handles the full clean.
How we run a janitorial account
Each account gets an assigned, background-checked crew, so the same people clean your building and learn its layout, alarm codes and priorities. The scope is written down task by task with a frequency for each one. When something is missed, you tell one point of contact and it is fixed on the next visit, not argued about.
We work in offices, clinics, retail stores, schools, churches, warehouses and multi-tenant buildings across Bellevue, Seattle, Kirkland, Redmond, Everett and South King County. A company with several sites can keep one vendor and one standard for all of them.
What to ask a janitorial company before you hire
- Will the same crew clean our building every time?
- Can you provide a certificate of insurance and a W-9 before the first visit?
- Is there a written scope with frequencies for each task?
- Are supplies and restroom consumables included?
- How do we report a problem, and when is it fixed?
- Can we change the schedule without renegotiating a long contract?
