"Janitorial services" can sound straightforward until two proposals define them differently. What janitorial services include depends on the provider and contract, so knowing the boundaries helps protect both your budget and your building. For St. Paul businesses, it’s better to get that clarity before signing than after problems show up.
That matters because St. Paul buildings vary widely: downtown office towers, Grand Avenue and Selby storefronts, medical and professional offices near the hospitals, warehouses along the river and through the Midway. Each needs its own scope, and a proposal built for one building won’t automatically fit another.
Janitorial vs. Commercial Cleaning: They're Not the Same
People use these terms interchangeably, but in the industry they usually mean two different things. Confusing them is how businesses end up with gaps in scope they didn't know existed.
The difference between janitorial and commercial cleaning comes down to frequency and depth. Janitorial generally means routine, recurring upkeep, often nightly: trash, restrooms, floors, common areas, and the daily work that keeps a building running.
Commercial cleaning more often refers to deeper, periodic, or specialized projects. Carpet extraction, floor stripping and waxing, window washing, post-construction cleanup.
Most businesses need both. The recurring janitorial scope is the backbone, and the periodic work happens on its own schedule alongside it. Problems start when a business assumes the second category is folded into the first, then discovers in month four that nobody has extracted the carpet because nobody agreed to.
The Daily and Weekly Core
This is the recurring work most people picture, and it's the heart of any janitorial contract:
Trash and recycling collection with liner replacement
Restroom cleaning, disinfecting, and restocking
Breakroom and kitchen cleaning
Vacuuming carpets and dust or wet mopping hard floors
Dusting surfaces, sills, and fixtures
Wiping and disinfecting high-touch points like door handles, light switches, and shared desks
Spot-cleaning glass and entry doors
Keeping entryways and mats clear
Not everything on that list happens at the same interval. Restrooms and trash are typically handled every service visit. Dusting might be weekly. High dusting on vents and ledges might be monthly.
So how often should an office be cleaned? It depends on traffic and building type more than square footage. A busy medical office or a restaurant needs daily service. A quiet professional suite with a dozen people might do fine with three visits a week. A warehouse might need nightly floor work but weekly attention everywhere else.
A good contract spells out what happens how often, by area. If a proposal just says "general cleaning," that's not a scope.
The Periodic and Specialty Work
The deeper work doesn't happen nightly, and skipping it is how buildings quietly wear out. This category typically includes:
Carpet extraction and upholstery cleaning
Hard-floor strip and wax, scrub and recoat, and burnishing
Interior and exterior window washing
High dusting of vents, lights, and ledges
Pressure washing of entries and walkways
Post-construction and renovation cleanup
Disinfection response during an illness outbreak
Here's the practical part. These are usually quoted separately from the recurring scope, which surprises people who assumed a comprehensive-sounding contract covered everything.
That isn't a trick. This work needs different equipment, more hours, and its own scheduling, so pricing it separately is more accurate than burying it in a monthly rate. But knowing it up front is the difference between planning for it and getting an unexpected invoice.
What's Usually Not Included
Just as important as knowing what's covered is knowing what isn't. The gaps are where disputes happen.
Clinical and medical-specific tasks stay with clinical staff. In a medical or dental office, clinical surfaces, instrument reprocessing, and regulated medical waste are the practice's responsibility under its own protocols, not a cleaning vendor's.
Exterior grounds, landscaping, and snow removal are almost always separate vendors. In Minnesota, that last one deserves real attention. Snow and ice management is a significant service, and it's worth confirming who handles your lot and walks before winter rather than during the first storm of the season.
One-time deep cleans and specialty projects aren't included unless they're written in. Supplies are the other common question, since paper products and soap are sometimes included and sometimes billed separately.
The general rule: what is included in a cleaning contract is exactly what the scope of work says, and nothing else.
What Determines the Cost
There's no flat rate for janitorial work. The price gets built from factors specific to your building, which is why how much does office cleaning cost has no honest one-line answer.
The main drivers:
Square footage and layout, since open space cleans faster than a maze of small offices
Frequency of service, from nightly down to a few times a week
Building type and use, because a medical office or restaurant takes more time than a quiet office suite
Scope, meaning recurring only or recurring plus periodic deep work
Traffic volume, which is often more predictive than size
Location and access hours, particularly in buildings with restricted after-hours entry
Anyone quoting you a price over the phone without seeing the building is guessing, and that guess usually gets corrected later in your direction. A walkthrough quote is the only way to get a number that holds.
How to Read a Cleaning Proposal
A clear scope of work is the difference between getting what you paid for and arguing about it later.
When you're comparing proposals, look for a written scope that lists tasks and frequencies by area rather than in general terms. Check whether supplies are included or billed. Ask how periodic and specialty work gets handled and priced, so you know what falls outside the monthly number.
Confirm insurance coverage and whether crews are background-checked, which matters in any building with sensitive information or after-hours access. And ask how issues get communicated and resolved, because every vendor has an off night and what matters is what happens next.
If two proposals look far apart on price, the answer is almost always in the scope rather than the rate.
ServiceMaster Premiere Cleaning Services provides janitorial and commercial cleaning for businesses across St. Paul and the Twin Cities. If you'd like a walkthrough and a clear written scope to compare against what you have now, we're glad to put one together.
