[Scott Taylor]

Hi, I hope this is in the right section.

I am based in the North West and we clean offices and do end of tenancy cleans on a one off basis. My standard rate is £16.50 per hour. (No VAT) I do discount to around £14 an hour. I pay my cleaners £8.50 approx. What would you charge? I have a client wanting to pay me £12.50 per hour for the occasional big job (20 hours plus for builders cleans) I am reluctant to accept that as I feel that rate is too low. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Cheers.

[B Bailey]

We charge per job min £250.
But when working out prices it's minimum £20 per hour depending on what they want.

[Smudger]

Double what he said

Darran

[Neil Jones]

Commercial work over £350 for any job is easily obtainable.
Where are you based?

[Scott Taylor]

Hi, Thanks for all the advice. I am too cheap then! I am based in Bolton

[Neil Jones]

I'm not far from you. How many staff do you have? It would be good to know someone who I can pass site cleans on to if we can't do them.

[Small but perfectley formed]

Not many builders clean pay £20 per hour 

[B Bailey]

We price for the job, the companies we work for don't ask for quotes anymore, we just do the job and invoice.
Because we go all over the country it saves me time and money.

[dmckellar]

If you become an approved sub-contractor you will be asked to tender.

I am a subby for persimmon, Charles church & barratt homes at the moment.

The money in the new builds at the moment is low in Scotland. I try and work it to approx £20 per hour. Some you'll breeze and some will be an absolute nightmare.
Such as life on a building site.

£12.50 is too little though

[Office Cleaning Company]

Wow! £20 p/hr and £16.50 p/hr as a standard rate and £14 p/hr for discount 

Sorry this is slightly off topic, but the prices in London are getting below £9 p/hr for commercial - we lost one the other day whom we were charging £9.25 to someone going in at £8 p/hr - this was for a large college in NW London. Completely unsustainable.

The hourly rate is probably 40% - 50% lower than when I started 20 years back...

[Scotbrite]

I agree. We lost one a while back to, i think it was OCS. they went in with a price that was only $20 a month above what it cost to pay minimum wage to the cleaners, never mind NI, holiday cover, equipment etc. Just plain daft, except that they got a contract for approx 100 10,000 sq. ft. retail sites & they will no doubt go back in a few months time & raise the prices. BUT they got the contract. As well as anything else a lot of companies don't appreciate the service they get, its just an accountant looking at the bottom line & the small guys like us suffer.

[Denise l]

Absolutely spot on with your comment.

[Villy Scott]

We charge £15 per hour per cleaner, VAT included.
http://www.wecanclean.co.uk/cleaners/services/after-builders-cleaning-london/

[Ian Rochester]

Ok, interesting to hear the variation in prices.

We've just been asked to quote for the following builders clean, first cleans only.  48 properties low cost entry level "rent to buy" properties consisting of:

20 x Two bed houses - Lounge, kitchen, downstairs w/c, stairs, 2 bedrooms and half tiled bathroom (8 windows in total inc 1 patio door) 7m x 7m footprint
8 x Three bed houses, similar in spec to above but extra bedroom
2 x Two bed bungalows - Lounge kitchen, bathroom, two bedrooms, hall
12 x One bed flats Lounge, kitchen, small hall, bathroom 4 windows

The kitchens are pretty basic, probably 8-10 units in each and the bathroom has shower over bath and are fully tiled around bath but half tiled everywhere else.
We're going in prior to carpets
All windows have protective covers on them (glass and frames)
Minimum no of cleans on a visit will be 4 properties.

I don't normally work on hours but have an excel spreadsheet where we put all the information in and it spurts out a price to me

As for sparkle cleans I normally work on 2/3rds of first clean price.

It would be interesting to hear everyone's pricing for this.

 

[BDCS]

Its no wonder you are getting knocked back on price when we fill the country full of immigrants who are happy to work at or below the minimum wage. I recently had a letting agent say £12 was too high and she would get the poles in far cheaper - I had to laugh when their building came up for auction and they were outbid on tv by a dirty scruffy smelly foreign gentleman.
Don't forget the government encourages immigrants because its good for the economy 

[Darranvps]

We very rarely do builders cleans however we have done some this past four years and WE NEVER offer them an hourly rate - WE JUST PRICE EXTREMELY HIGH FOR THE JOB! If we get it - great if we don't no problem.

Hourly rates are for employees - you are running a business and sorry to say this you cant run a business on low hourly rates - it is suicide in the long run.

In 30 years (almost apart from 6 years abroad) I have NEVER once given/offered/ been pushed into giving an hourly rate - because the builders will tell your competition so they can get lower prices.......

You should be way over £35 per hour in your calculations if you want to GROW your business and PROFIT from it.

A really good friend of mine used to clean over £1.5 million a year in builders cleans - now he doesn't touch them with a barge pole.

Competitors are too cheap and large building companies will always try to rip you off somewhere in your invoices.

[Mike Mahoney]

Rhinoman is spot on,

60% of my work is now builders cleans but in the major refurb sector, will never consider working for house builders, I implemented an SLA two years ago with the countries two major pub tenancy companies working alongside three of the construction companies that cover the whole country for them, have never been asked for a price before we start and have never been queried on invoice, we offer two types of clean, we can make it look like the builders were not there, (basic builders clean) or a turn key operation where we will sparkle it up to the eyeballs to the point where they could just open & trade, we do a great deal of night work on these properties and have an 18 hour window from practical sign off by the designer and client, then work with and around the construction company while snagging is completed for final sign off, that way never any call backs, builders cleans can be a nightmare, build a good relationship with the construction company and work together they are a doddle.

Average builders clean for me, 300K refurb, 36 hours on site, add on's such as floor sealing, power wash to car park, clean out gutters, 2K, then I will speak to the new or existing tenant and leave them a floor maintenance guide with a bit of free stuff, advise them on the kitchen duct work legislation and do them a free Fire Risk Asessment to highlight any immediate concerns, we then have this customer direct for all kitchen work in the future.

Its about delivering a product that pleases the designer, property manager from whichever brewery and then nailing the tenant, patience, perseverance and making them see the value of your work.

[Neil Jones]

Never knew you were in Rochdale Mike.
I'm only round the corner from you, drop us and email with what you do and we may be able to help each other when needed.

[Mike Mahoney]

Never knew you were in Shaw Neil,

we might as well have a meet up, I only live at the bottom of broad lane, the poor end though lol

[Blast Away]

Never knew you were in Rochdale Mike.
I'm only round the corner from you, drop us and email with what you do and we may be able to help each other when needed.