Commercial Cleaning Walkthrough Checklist

A two-page walkthrough checklist for commercial cleaning bids. The bid is almost always decided at the walkthrough, not at the proposal stage — what you write down on site is the difference between a confident, profitable bid and an unprofitable one you spend the next year regretting.

What this template covers

• Header. Client and site name, walkthrough date, attendees (yours and the building's), and the name of the decision-maker.
• Site facts. Square footage (verified, not quoted from the lease), number of floors, number of restrooms, number of offices or cubicles, number of kitchens or breakrooms, exterior areas in scope.
• Access and logistics. Entry method, alarm or security system, parking, dock access, after-hours rules, badge or key issuance process, and whether the building has a preferred vendor list you need to be on.
• Surface inventory. Carpet square footage, hard-floor square footage by type (LVT, polished concrete, wood), glass partitions and lineal feet, elevators, stairs, and any specialty surfaces (medical, anti-static, sport).
• Frequency by area. A small table — areas down the left, frequency columns across the top (nightly, weekly, monthly, quarterly). Check the cell where each area lands. This table feeds directly into the proposal pricing.
• Special items. Waste and recycling handling, biohazard protocols, special chemicals, allergen restrictions, Certificate of Insurance requirements, and any building-specific rules.
• Notes and photos. A free-form section for observations and a sketch of the floor plan if useful.
• Bid input summary. A short block at the bottom rolling up the numbers a proposal needs: total sqft, labor hours per visit, frequency per week, and your initial price-per-sqft estimate.

Who it's for

Operators bidding offices, medical buildings, retail spaces, post-construction jobs, and any recurring janitorial contract. Residential operators don't need it — for a residential clean, the client intake form is the right tool.

How to use it well

• Bring two copies. One stays with you; one stays with the building manager. Both leave the meeting with the same understanding of what's in scope.
• Verify the square footage on site. Listed lease square footage routinely includes common areas, mechanical rooms, and other space that isn't actually cleaned. A basic laser measure costs about $30 as of 2026 and earns it back on the first bid.
• Ask every question on the access page, especially after-hours rules. Losing a bid because the building doesn't allow cleaning during your team's working hours is an avoidable failure.
• Photograph what you can't measure. Carpet condition, fixture quality, problem areas. The photos refresh your memory three days later when you're writing the proposal.
• Draft the proposal the same day. Walkthroughs go cold fast. The bid input summary at the bottom of the form should feed straight into the proposal template.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the after-hours rules question — and then quoting a price built on hours the building won't permit.
• Not asking about Certificate of Insurance requirements. Some buildings need named-insured endorsements, additional insureds, or minimum coverage limits beyond your standard policy.
• Estimating square footage from memory after the meeting. You can be wrong enough to lose the margin on every line.
• Not asking who else is bidding. The answer tells you what kind of pricing the building is comparing against.

Related tools and next steps

The proposal template is the natural next document — every section of the walkthrough feeds it. The full picture of how commercial cleaning bids actually price out lives in the how to price cleaning services guide. Background on the types of contracts you're walking into is on the commercial cleaning and janitorial pages.