How to Choose a Strata Cleaning Company
Most strata managers do not go looking for a new cleaner because they are curious. They go looking because the committee has raised it twice, the bin room smells, or the contract was signed by someone who left two years ago and nobody can find the scope of work.
Then three quotes arrive and they all look roughly the same. Similar wording, similar inclusions, and a price that varies by more than it should for what appears to be identical work.
The difference between those quotes is almost never in the price. It is in what has been left out of the scope, and in what happens in month seven when the standard slips.
We are a cleaning company, so we have an obvious interest in how you answer these questions. That is exactly why we have answered every one of them for ourselves below. Take the same list to the other quotes on your desk.
1. Does the quote start with a site visit, or a price list?
A cleaning company that quotes a strata building from an address and a floor count is guessing. Lift lobbies, bin rooms, car parks and stairwells vary enormously between buildings that look similar from the street.
The walkthrough should cover the number of floors and common areas, entrance and foyer traffic, lift and lift-lobby use, stairwells and corridors, bin rooms and waste areas, car parks, shared facilities, floor types and access arrangements.
Our answer: we do not quote a strata property without walking it first. The scope of work comes out of that visit, not from a package.
2. Is the scope written down, area by area?
The easiest way to compare two cleaning companies is to compare what each has actually agreed to clean. A typical routine scope for a strata property covers foyer and entrance cleaning, vacuuming and mopping, lifts and lift lobbies, corridors and stairwells, handrails and high-touch surfaces, internal glass and entry doors, bin rooms, common-area waste removal and spot cleaning.
The length of that list matters far less than whether it matches your building, and whether the exclusions are stated as plainly as the inclusions. A quote that comes in lower is often not cheaper, it is just smaller, and the difference shows up as a variation invoice later.
Our answer: what we clean, how often, and what sits outside the routine is written into a scope of work before anything starts. If it is not in there, we have not quoted for it, and we will say so rather than leave it ambiguous.
3. What happens in the areas that take a beating?
Not every part of a building wears at the same rate. The main entrance takes weather and foot traffic all day, lifts collect marks constantly, and a corridor serving twelve apartments is a different proposition to one serving three.
A routine that treats every area identically will over-service the quiet parts of your building and under-service the parts residents complain about.
Our answer: the scope weights attention toward the areas that need it, based on what we see during the site visit rather than an assumption about buildings of that size.
4. Who is actually turning up, and what have they been checked for?
The person quoting is rarely the person cleaning. In a residential building where the team works around residents, visitors, deliveries and other contractors, that question deserves a straight answer.
Ask about induction and training, WHS procedures, public liability cover, chemical handling and how the team is supervised.
Our answer: our team is police checked and inducted, with ongoing skill verification. We carry $20 million public liability insurance, work to WHS-compliant Safe Work Method Statements, and our processes are aligned with ISSA CIMS and BICSc principles. On chemicals, we buy biodegradable or compostable products wherever possible and dispose of products and containers safely, and our external window cleaning uses a water-fed pole system with purified water only, so there are no chemicals running down the face of a residential building.
5. How is quality checked after the first month?
Any cleaner can produce a good first clean. Holding the same standard through month seven, when the novelty has worn off and nobody is watching, is the real test.
The question to ask is how the company checks its own work, and whether a problem gets found by them or reported by you.
Our answer: our quality framework is GC Assure. It works in four layers aligned with ISSA CIMS and BICSc principles, covering daily readiness before a shift starts, shift closure when the work is finished, and objective audits across the site. That gives us measurable visibility over every site, every cleaner and every shift, so a drop in standard gets picked up by us rather than raised at a committee meeting.
6. How will you know when they are coming?
Access is the practical headache in strata work. Keys, fobs and codes, restricted areas, where equipment can be stored, who the site contact is, and which contractors are already booked in.
Most of this is agreed once at the start and then never communicated again, which is how a cleaner ends up locked out of a bin room on a Friday.
Our answer: five days before recurring work is due, you and our team both receive a notice covering the date, the work routine, the safety precautions on each side, access requirements and any site-specific guidelines. For periodical work it is the same, so you can confirm the job is clear to go ahead and pass on access details before anyone arrives.
7. What about the outside of the building?
Strata cleaning conversations tend to stop at the front door, and then the committee raises the state of the windows, the driveway or the gutters six months later as though it is a separate problem.
Work that sits outside the routine visit includes carpet steam cleaning in corridors and common rooms, hard floor scrubbing and polishing, external window cleaning, pressure washing to driveways, walkways and building exteriors, and gutter cleaning.
Our answer: we treat that as periodical work scheduled alongside the contract, not as a separate supplier relationship you have to manage. It gets discussed at the site visit so the committee knows what is coming and roughly when, rather than finding out through a quote request.
8. What happens when the building changes?
Buildings change. Common areas get added, a lobby gets refurbished, short-stay letting increases the traffic through the lifts, and the scope written eighteen months ago quietly stops matching the property.
Our answer: tell us what has changed and we will review the scope of work against it. A cleaning program that cannot change is a cleaning program that will be wrong within two years.
Comparing quotes without comparing only price
Once you have those answers, put the quotes side by side on the things that actually differ:
What is cleaned: are all three covering the same common areas, or does one exclude the car park?
How often: does the frequency match how the building is actually used?
What is excluded: is periodical work identified, or will it arrive as a variation?
Who manages it: is there supervision and a documented quality process, or a promise to keep an eye on it?
How issues are handled: is there a named contact and a process, or a mobile number?
What happens when things change: can the scope be reviewed without renegotiating the contract?
A quote that is 15% cheaper and 30% smaller is not a saving. It is the same job, paid for twice.
Strata and body corporate cleaning across Brisbane and the Gold Coast
We look after strata and body corporate properties across Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and it is one of the parts of the business we have been doing longest.
One of our body corporate clients put it better than we would: “GC Cleaning is our preferred cleaning partner for all developments and Body Corporate contracts. Their work is exemplary and so reliable that we never even have to inspect it afterwards.”
That is the outcome worth aiming for. Not a cleaner who responds quickly to complaints, but a building that stops generating them.
Arrange a site visit
If you are reviewing your current cleaning service, or putting a strata contract out to quote, we will walk the building with you, look at the common areas and access arrangements, and prepare a clear scope of work based on what the property actually needs.
Bring the questions above. We would rather answer them properly than compete on a number.
Get in touch with GC Cleaning to arrange a site visit for your strata or body corporate property.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in a strata cleaning company?
A site visit before the quote, a written scope of work with the exclusions stated as clearly as the inclusions, documented staff screening and insurance, a quality process that runs after the first month, and a way to review the scope when the building changes.
What areas are included in strata cleaning?
Typically entrances and foyers, lifts and lift lobbies, corridors, stairwells, handrails and high-touch surfaces, bin rooms, shared facilities, car parks and common-area waste. The exact scope should be agreed against your building rather than assumed.
Should a cleaner visit the property before quoting?
Yes. Size, layout, traffic, surfaces and access all vary between buildings that look comparable on paper, and a quote prepared without seeing them is an estimate dressed up as a price.
How often should a strata building be cleaned?
There is no single frequency that suits every building. It depends on resident numbers, the amount of common area, lift and entrance traffic, and how the property is used.
What is the difference between routine and periodical cleaning?
Routine cleaning maintains the common areas on an ongoing schedule. Periodical work covers the deeper tasks that do not need doing every visit, such as carpet steam cleaning, pressure washing, external window cleaning and gutter cleaning, scheduled when the property needs them.
How do I compare strata cleaning quotes fairly?
Compare the scope, the frequency, the exclusions, the quality process and the communication arrangements first. Once those are genuinely equivalent, the price comparison becomes meaningful.