Key points
- Use and footfall set a schedule, not floor area.
- Washrooms, the kitchen, reception and bins each need a line of their own, apart from the general floor.
- The 1992 workplace regulations ask for a workplace to be kept "sufficiently clean" and give no number of visits, so you decide the frequency and write it down.
- Review the schedule when headcount, in-office days, layout or opening hours change.
Offices in London run on very different rhythms, so there is no single office cleaning frequency. The right schedule depends on who is in the building, on which days and what they use. Too many visits and you pay for cleaning nobody needed. Too few and the washrooms or the kitchen let down everything else.
This guide works from the site outwards. It gives you a way to turn what you know about your office into a schedule, area by area, that you can hand to any supplier.
How do you set the cleaning frequency for an office?
Work from use, not floor area. A wide floor with few people at desks may need less than a small suite with a busy front desk, a kitchen and a shared washroom.
- List every area your premises include: reception, desks, meeting rooms, the kitchen, washrooms, corridors and stairs.
- Beside each, note who uses it, on which days and how heavily.
- Mark each as an area that must be hygienic, one that must look presentable or one that is barely used.
- Give each area its own frequency and write down why.
That list is also the brief a supplier needs before it can quote.
Which areas of an office need cleaning most often?
Washrooms, the kitchen and reception see more use than their floor area suggests. Put them on the same line as the open-plan floor and they are the first places people notice slipping.
| Area | Look at | Decide |
|---|---|---|
| Reception | How many visitors come, and when | Whether it is done before the first visitor or after the last |
| Washrooms | How many people share them, on which days | A frequency of their own, apart from the floor |
| Kitchen or break room | Whether food is prepared or only drinks made | How often surfaces, the fridge and the bins are done |
| Desks and open floor | Who sits there, and on which days | Whether the clean follows attendance |
| Meeting rooms | How often they are booked | Daily, or only after use |
| Bins and waste | How much is produced and where it is held | How often bins are emptied |
Does the workplace regulation say how often an office must be cleaned?
Not in numbers. Regulation 9 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (opens in a new tab) is headed "Cleanliness and waste materials". Its three paragraphs say:
- Every workplace, and its furniture, furnishings and fittings, "shall be kept sufficiently clean".
- The surfaces of floors, walls and ceilings inside buildings "shall be capable of being kept sufficiently clean".
- So far as is reasonably practicable, waste materials "shall not be allowed to accumulate in a workplace except in suitable receptacles".
None of the three gives a number of visits. What "sufficiently clean" means for your site is for your schedule to define, which is why writing the frequency down area by area matters. For what applies to your own premises, ask your own adviser.
How does hybrid working change office cleaning frequency?
When attendance varies by day, a plan written for a full office can pay for visits to an empty floor while the busiest day gets no more attention than the quietest.
- Count heads on your fullest and quietest days for a fortnight.
- Move the general clean to the day after the fullest one, if the supplier can.
- Keep washrooms and the kitchen on a line of their own, since even a quiet day leaves them used.
- Ask whether visits can change at short notice when your in-office days change.
Put the question to each supplier early. A fixed plan that cannot flex is one you keep paying for, whatever the office is doing.
How do you check your schedule is right, and when should you review it?
A fortnight of notes tells you more than a theory. Write down what the washrooms, the kitchen and reception look like at the start of the day and again at the end. Tired washrooms despite regular visits mean they need their own line. Quiet floors cleaned on days nobody came in mean the general clean should follow attendance.
Then review the schedule whenever the way the office is used changes:
- People join or leave in numbers.
- The days people come in change.
- A team, tenant or meeting room is added or removed.
- The kitchen is extended, moved or closed.
- Your opening hours shift.
- One area draws repeated complaints.
Put a review date in the diary and check that your agreement lets the schedule change without a dispute. What to settle in a commercial cleaning contract in London covers notice, scope and missed visits.
What should you tell a supplier before they set your schedule?
Give them what you have just worked out: the areas, headcount on busy and quiet days, visitor numbers, how the washrooms and kitchen are used, your opening hours, how operatives get in and any area that needs extra care.
Ivory prices commercial work after a site survey, so the schedule is built around your premises. We cover all 32 London boroughs and the City of London, carry £2m public liability and send vetted operatives. Request a site survey and tell us how the office runs. A reply comes within 30 minutes, 8am to 10pm, seven days a week.
Jobs outside a routine visit, such as carpets, are a separate question. Ask any supplier what is in the routine price and what is billed on top. We offer carpet cleaning as its own service.
Questions people ask
Regulation 9 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 says a workplace must be kept "sufficiently clean" and gives no number of visits. For what applies to your own premises, ask your own adviser.
There is no fixed number, so set it from use: how many people share them and on which days. Give washrooms a line of their own in the schedule, apart from the general floor.
It means the office is busier on some days than others, so the general clean can follow your fullest days. Keep the washrooms and the kitchen covered on quiet days too, because someone still uses them.
Ask the building's management who cleans the shared parts, and agree with your supplier which areas are yours. Tell us which parts of the premises you want cleaned when you request a site survey.
We cover all 32 London boroughs and the City of London. Commercial work is quoted after a site survey, and a reply comes within 30 minutes.
Sources
Written by M.A. Published .
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