Apartments & housing

A turn is not late on the day you notice. It is late on the day the lease starts.

Apartment communities, student housing and multi-family portfolios — unit turns scheduled against lease dates, and the recurring common-area cleaning that decides what a prospect thinks before they reach the model unit.

What it is

Apartment work is two services that get confused with each other. The turn is project work with an immovable date: a unit is vacated, it has to be cleaned to move-in condition, and the new resident's lease starts whether or not it is ready. Common areas are recurring work on a route — corridors, lobbies, elevators, laundry, fitness and package rooms — and they are what a prospect walks through on the way to the model unit, which makes them a leasing expense rather than a cleaning one.

Turns fail for a scheduling reason more often than a quality one. The paint is not done, the carpet contractor has not been, maintenance is still in there, and the clean gets compressed into an afternoon. The fix is not working faster, it is being on the schedule as a step rather than being called when the unit is finally free. Communities that give us the notice-to-vacate list get their units back on time; communities that call on the morning mostly do not.

The other thing that decides a turn is what "clean" means in writing. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, inside every cabinet and drawer, blinds, tracks, the inside of the windows, the top of the fridge, the range hood filter. A make-ready list with those items on it is the difference between a unit that passes and a unit the property manager re-cleans themselves.

Private houses too. Recurring house cleaning — weekly, every other week or monthly — runs off the same crews and the same standard. It is a smaller part of what we do and it is real work, not an afterthought.

What we clean

The unit turn, to a make-ready list

Kitchen: inside and outside every cabinet and drawer, oven inside and out, range hood and filter, fridge inside and out including the top and the coils where reachable, sink and fixtures, counters and splashback
Bathrooms: tub and shower surround descaled, grout scrubbed, toilet inside and out including the base and behind, vanity inside and out, mirror, fixtures and exhaust vent
Throughout: all floors swept, mopped or vacuumed; carpet vacuumed; baseboards, door frames, switches, outlets and handles wiped
Windows: interior glass cleaned, tracks cleared, sills wiped, blinds cleaned or reported if damaged
Finishing: light fixtures and globes cleaned of insects, vents wiped, closets and shelving, patio or balcony swept
Final walk: a check against the make-ready list, so what the property manager finds matches what we say we did

Common areas, on a recurring route

Corridors, stairwells and landings: floors, rails, doors and touch points
Lobby and leasing office: glass, floors, seating, counters and the coffee station if it is on the scope
Elevators: floors, rails, buttons and interior surfaces — cabs show every mark
Amenity space: fitness room equipment wiped and floors cleaned, clubroom reset, business center, package room, mail room
Laundry rooms: machines wiped, lint managed, floors cleaned, which is also a fire-safety item
Trash rooms and chute areas, and the walk to the dumpster enclosure

Scheduled and seasonal

Corridor and amenity carpet deep cleaned on a cycle
Hard-floor lobbies scrubbed and refinished
Interior and exterior window cleaning, including lobby glass and upper floors from the ground
Power washing of entries, breezeways, dumpster enclosures, sidewalks and parking structures
Post-construction and renovation cleans on repositioned or refurbished buildings

How service works here

Held back for review: this part of Build4 named a customer or a person, or carried a figure, so it was held back. It is listed in the doorway ledger.

Getting started

Walkthrough of a vacant unit and the common areas, plus a look at a unit you consider properly turned so we are aiming at your standard and not ours.
A written make-ready list and a common-area scope, priced separately — per unit for turns, monthly for common areas.
A first turn walked with your property manager, and the list adjusted if it needs it.
Ongoing. Turns to the lease calendar, recurring route with supervisor inspections, and one account manager for the portfolio.