Commercial cleaning and janitorial contracts across mid-Vancouver Island

What gets cleaned

Buildings that run on a schedule, cleaned to a written scope rather than a verbal understanding.

• Offices and professional suites
• Medical, dental and clinics
• Strata and apartment common areas
• Dealerships and showrooms
• Fitness studios and gyms
• Churches and community halls
• Childcare and private schools
• Post-construction cleans

• Office cleaning

  Nightly, three-times-weekly or weekly service for offices, professional suites, showrooms and studios. Washrooms, kitchens, traffic lanes and consumable restocking to a set minimum, on a written frequency.

• Medical and dental cleaning

  Clinics, dental offices, private practice, childcare and private schools. Fixture-by-fixture washroom work, touchpoint routines, and low-scent products chosen for shared air spaces.

• Strata common areas

  Lobbies, corridors, elevators, stairwells, amenity rooms and parkades, plus churches and community halls. Scoped and quoted so a council can put it in a budget rather than a phone call.

• Floor and carpet care

  Carpet extraction, interim encapsulation between extractions, hard floor scrubbing, and VCT strip and wax. Post-construction cleans staged rough, final and touch-up.

How pricing is set

Cleaning is priced from labour, and labour comes from measurement. Cleanable area is measured by floor type, each task is given a frequency, and the hours follow from there.

Cleanable area by floor type — carpet, hard floor and VCT clean at different rates

Frequency — nightly, three times a week, weekly, monthly

Scope of work — what is done every visit, and what is periodic

Washroom fixture count — priced per fixture, not per room

Occupancy and traffic — a busy entrance is not an office corridor

Access window — after hours, weekends, or during business hours

Industry production rates published by ISSA put restroom cleaning at 3 minutes per fixture and carpet vacuuming near 10,000 square feet an hour. ISSA describes these as benchmark figures for bidding and estimating, not time-motion studies.

The 3-Step Quoting Process

1. Walkthrough — About twenty minutes on site. Areas measured by floor type, washroom fixtures counted, access and alarm arrangements noted, and the parts of the building that actually get used discussed.
2. Written scope and quote — A task list by area and frequency, with a measurable standard against each one. The quote is priced from that scope, so the two documents match.
3. Start date and handover — Keys, fobs and codes handed over to a written procedure, the first visits attended, and the scope checked against the building before it settles into routine.

Where the crews work

One operator covering the corridor from Duncan to Courtenay, across three regional districts. Multi-site accounts are handled on one schedule.

• Nanaimo

  The widest building mix in the corridor — downtown suites, the Bowen Road dealership row, medical and dental offices, and light industrial at Duke Point and Boxwood.

• Cowichan Valley

  Duncan, North Cowichan, Chemainus and Ladysmith. A commercial base that straddles two municipal boundaries, which is why the inter-community licence matters here.

• Parksville and Qualicum Beach

  Roughly 1,310 mm of rain a year, four fifths of it between October and April. Entrance matting and traffic lanes are scheduled differently through the wet season.

• Comox Valley

  Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland. Comox Airport records measurable precipitation on 171.6 days a year — close to one day in two carrying something into the building.

See the full coverage area

Questions buyers ask first

What happens during a walkthrough?

Areas are measured by floor type, washroom fixtures are counted, and access, alarm and lockup arrangements are noted. It takes about twenty minutes and produces the numbers the quote is built from. Nothing is priced before the building has been seen.

How is after-hours access handled?

Keys, fobs and alarm codes are logged to a written procedure that names who holds what, and what happens when a code changes or a crew member leaves. Most buildings in this market are cleaned after close or before open.

What insurance and WorkSafeBC coverage should a cleaning contractor carry?

Commercial general liability, and a WorkSafeBC account in good standing. WorkSafeBC issues a free clearance letter confirming the account is current, and it is worth asking for one addressed to your business and covering the whole contract period — under the Workers Compensation Act a customer can be liable for a contractor's unpaid premiums.

How are cleaning staff screened?

Criminal record checks, plus a written record of who has access to which building. Childcare settings carry a stricter rule: BC's Child Care Licensing Regulation requires a record check for anyone over twelve who is ordinarily present while children are in the building.

Is a cleaning contract subject to PST in British Columbia?

No. Janitorial services are listed as exempt in the Province's Small Business Guide to PST. The provincial services covered by PST from 1 October 2026 include strata management, but cleaning is not among them, so the two lines on an invoice are treated differently.

What is involved in switching from an existing cleaner?

Notice period, a short overlap, a consumable count at handover so nothing is paid for twice, and key and code return. One janitorial-industry source states that most agreements carry a thirty-day termination clause for either party, which is worth confirming in the current contract before a date is set.

Guides and coverage

• All cleaning servicesThe four service lines, and which buildings each one covers.
• What it costsHow commercial cleaning is priced, and what moves the number.
• Insurance and complianceWorkSafeBC coverage, record checks, and what to ask a contractor for.