Hello,
I own GreenLife Cleaning Company and I am looking into doing construction clean up services. I recently received a phone call from a green builder here in Lexington, South Carolina and I need to get a few question answered, so I can get back to them.

1. How do I price or do an estimate for a construction clean up on a house? Do I charge a specific price per sqft or do I charge by hour?

2. I have heard about doing phase work with construction clean ups. What are the phases of a construction clean up?

3. Do I need any specific equipment to do a construction clean up?

4. What all is our responsibility to clean when doing a construction clean up?


Thank you!
Emily Johnson
GreenLife Cleaning Company

1. How do I price or do an estimate for a construction clean up on a house? Do I charge a specific price per sqft or do I charge by hour?

2. I have heard about doing phase work with construction clean ups. What are the phases of a construction clean up?

3. Do I need any specific equipment to do a construction clean up?

4. What all is our responsibility to clean when doing a construction clean up?


Thank you!
Emily Johnson
GreenLife Cleaning Company



1) First off you need to know what type of construction it is and what materials are involved in it. Are you a "green" company looking to recycle what you can ? If not then you need to let your customers know that as the name may be misleading.

New construction is different from a remodel. Also there may be hazardous materials that you will be dealing with. All of that needs to be kept in mind.

2) The different phases are initial construction (stick build) to exterior / interior finishing to final completion of the home (cleaning carpets and woodwork of dust and cleaning all the rooms as well as the windows (what they call turnkey). Keep all of them in mind when quoting.

3) Mostly its going to depend on the size and scope of your cleanup. You may need some heavy equiptment like a bobcat and if your dumping material yourself then your going to need a truck. So really the scope of your job is what drives your equiptment choices.

4) Your obligation to clean the area is limited by your imagination. It depends on how far your willing to go with the process as to where it begins and ends. Either way you need to commit it to writing when you sign contracts with your clients. SO be sure your on the same page and expectations are known well in advance.

I would think that you are only being asked to do the final clean. Waste management is an entirely different business model.

1. I think most final cleans are fixed price. Considering you have no idea what it will cost you should try to negotiate hourly rates with the builder. You may want to research what new construction final cleans cost per square foot but that could be difficult search criteria.

2. Ive never heard of a cleaning company doing phases. They usually only come in at the end of a project and maybe again after punch work or to keep the spec looking good while its on the market.

3. A razor scraper should be the only extra tool you will need which is for the window stickers.

4. A final clean should include every possible surface that shows dust. Construction clean ups can be much more time and resource consuming than existing houses. There is dust everywhere. As a green builder, I would expect mostly non-toxic chemicals to be used but they might be necessary for stubborn glues or stains.