Post-Construction Clean

Three phases — rough, final and touch-up. Dust out of every surface, ledge and vent, labels and adhesive off new glass and fixtures, floors and restrooms ready for the owner's walkthrough.

What it is

A construction site produces a kind of dirt ordinary cleaning was never designed for: drywall dust settled into every ledge, duct and light fixture; concrete and grout haze on new tile; adhesive and label residue on every piece of glass and every fixture; paint overspray, silicone smears, sawdust worked into carpet backing. A contractor's punch list is not finished until it is gone, and an owner cannot move in with it there. Post-construction cleaning is the trade that gets a building from "substantially complete" to "ready", and it is scheduled work in phases, not a one-night mop.

We do it for general contractors on new builds and tenant fit-outs, and for owners taking a renovated space back.

That last point is the one that costs money when it goes wrong. A new floor's first finish, a new window's first clean and a new stainless fixture's first wipe are each a chance to ruin something expensive. The crew doing it has to know which product is safe on what, and ours do.

Once the building opens, the same crew can roll straight into nightly janitorial already knowing every room, every door and every floor type in it.

What's included

Final clean — the main event

• All surfaces top to bottom: ceiling grid, light fixtures, air vents and return grilles, ductwork exteriors, tops of doors and cabinets, ledges, sills, partitions
• Walls dusted and spot-cleaned of drywall and paint marks; switch plates and outlet covers wiped
• Every window inside and out: labels and stickers off, silicone and mortar splash removed, frames and tracks cleaned — new glass is its own skill, see window cleaning
• Restrooms: fixtures de-labeled and polished, grout haze removed, partitions and mirrors cleaned, dispensers wiped inside and out
• Kitchens and break rooms: cabinets inside and out, appliances de-labeled and cleaned inside, counters, splashbacks
• Floors: hard floors scrubbed of haze and residue and, where specified, given their first finish; carpet vacuumed with filtered machines and spot-cleaned; tile and grout cleaned
• Stairwells, elevator cabs and tracks, mechanical and electrical room floors swept
• Construction debris removed to the contractor's dumpster; protective film pulled where the schedule says so

Rough clean, before the finishes go in

• After drywall and before final finishes: bulk debris out, floors swept and scraped, surfaces dusted so the finishing trades are not working in a cloud
• The heaviest residue taken off windows and doors, so the final clean is a clean rather than a scrape

Touch-up, before the walkthrough

• After the punch-list trades have been back: their footprints, dust and packaging removed; glass re-done where a fixture was swapped
• Timed for the day before the owner walkthrough or the move-in, so what the owner sees is what we left

The three phases, and why the dust comes back

The single most common frustration on a new building is a final clean that looked perfect on Friday and has a film of dust on every surface by Monday. It is not a bad clean. It is that the building's own air system had never been run: the space above the ceiling was still full of drywall dust, and the moment the heating and cooling started, it delivered every bit of it onto the desks. That is why the sequence below exists, and why the touch-up phase is not optional.

Three things that decide whether the final clean holds

• Run the air system before we come, not after. Two days with new filters, then filters changed again after the clean. Ask the mechanical contractor; it is the cheapest thing on this page.
• Sequence the trades. A final clean before the flooring installer's last visit is a wasted final clean. We ask for the schedule and place ourselves after the last dusty trade, not after the last trade.
• Protect the floors afterwards. A finished floor with no mats at the doors will carry a week of punch-list boot traffic into the owner's walkthrough. We can leave mats; the touch-up handles the rest.

What to expect

• Site walk. With the superintendent: square footage, floor and glass types, ceiling heights, the schedule, dumpster and water access, and what protective film stays on.
• Written scope and proposal. Phase by phase, area by area, with crew size and days against the schedule and a price per phase. Change orders for scope the schedule adds, in writing, not argued at the end.
• The phases. Crews sized to the dates. A supervisor on site. Damage found is reported the same day with a photo, before anyone can assume it was us.
• Handoff. A walkthrough with you before yours with the owner. If the building is staying with us for nightly service, the crew lead has already learned it.