Most offices have a daily housekeeping team and assume that covers it. Daily housekeeping maintains the visible surface. A deep clean addresses everything the daily routine cannot reach - and the gap between the two is where most workplace hygiene complaints originate.
Use this as your tender checklist
When you ask vendors to quote, send this list and require line-by-line confirmation. Vague quotes that say only 'complete office cleaning' are how scope gets cut later.
Workstations - quarterly
- Desk surfaces cleared, wiped and sanitised
- Partition fabric vacuumed and spot-cleaned
- Monitors, keyboards and mice detailed - the highest-contact surfaces in the building
- Desk phones sanitised, handset and keypad
- Chairs vacuumed, upholstery spot-cleaned, bases and castors wiped
- Under-desk CPU units and cable trays dusted
Floors - quarterly to half-yearly
- Carpet hot water extraction, not just vacuuming
- Hard floors machine scrubbed and, where applicable, re-polished
- Edges and corners hand-detailed - the area most commonly skipped
- Staircases including risers, nosings and handrails
Washrooms - monthly deep clean
- Full descaling of fittings, urinals and WCs
- Grout scrubbed and floors deep cleaned
- Exhaust fans and vents cleaned
- Drains flushed and deodorised
- Partitions, doors and locks sanitised
Pantry - monthly
- Refrigerator emptied, defrosted and cleaned inside
- Microwave interior degreased
- Coffee machine drip trays and internals
- Sink descaled and drain cleared
- Cabinet interiors wiped and pest-checked
The commonly skipped list
These are the items that separate a real deep clean from an expensive daily clean. Check every quote against them:
- AC vents, grilles and diffusers - a major source of circulated dust
- Tops of cabinets, lockers and partitions above eye level
- Light fittings and diffuser panels, inside as well as out
- Blinds, slat by slat
- Behind and underneath heavy furniture
- Skirting boards and door frames
- Server room and electrical panel exteriors, dry-cleaned only
- Reception glass and signage
- Fire extinguisher cabinets and emergency signage
Ask for the sign-off sheet
A vendor who works to a written checklist will hand you a completed, signed copy at the end of every visit. A vendor who cannot produce one is not working to a defined scope, which means the scope will quietly shrink over the life of the contract.
Scheduling that does not disrupt work
Deep cleaning during working hours is slower, noisier and more expensive than it needs to be. Carpet extraction in particular needs floor space and drying time. Almost all of our commercial work runs overnight, on weekends or over long holidays, so staff arrive to a finished office rather than to equipment in the aisles.
What it should cost
In Bengaluru, office deep cleaning generally runs between three and six rupees per square foot depending on floor type, workstation density and washroom count. Carpeted offices sit at the upper end because extraction is labour-intensive. Be cautious of quotes well below that range - the usual way to hit an unrealistic price is to skip the list above.
Written by the Facilities4u team. We are a deep cleaning company based in Mahadevapura, Bengaluru. These guides come from what our supervisors see on jobs across the city every day.
