Office cleaning covers the clear surfaces: what has not been cleared away is worked past – and where client or patient data are accessible, the client's organisation decides access and contact.
Office cleaning is the recurring cleaning of workstations, circulation areas, sanitary areas and staff welfare areas. It covers the clear surfaces: desks are not cleared, documents are not moved, paperwork is not disposed of. In law firms and practices, cleaning staff encounter professional secrets; the duty of confidentiality extends to persons assisting as well. The interval follows usage, not area.
Office cleaning is the service with the smallest contract value and the greatest potential for annoyance. The reason is structural: there is no neutral witness. Cleaning happens after hours or before work starts and is assessed the next morning by people who know their office and notice every change. Four complaints dominate, and all four are boundary problems – documents shifted, equipment wetted, strangers walking through the rooms alone at night, and the refrigerator in the kitchenette that is never cleaned. Anyone who clarifies these boundaries before award does not spend years dealing with them later.
Before award the property is walked and divided into room groups: office, circulation, sanitary, staff welfare, ancillary. Scope and frequency are defined for each room group and recorded in the schedule of services. In parallel the boundaries of the contract are described – which surface counts as workable, which bins may be emptied, which equipment stays untouched, how access is arranged and who in the building is responsible for clearing surfaces. Whatever remains open here becomes a complaint later.
Tailored to this service – aligned with site and industry.
An office with staff mostly present and customer traffic carries the load in the sanitary area and the entrance zone, an office whose staff mostly work off-site does not. Frequency is defined per room group, not as a blanket figure for the building.
Where client or patient data are accessible, the duty of confidentiality extends to persons assisting as well. What the client should lay down organisationally for this is described here – a verbal “that goes without saying” does not satisfy it.
Whether a surface can be cleaned is decided by the clean-desk point: clear surfaces are treated, objects are not moved. This rule belongs in the contract in writing, otherwise chance decides.
Process
Surfaces, workstations, sanitary areas, kitchenette and ancillary rooms are recorded, occupancy and the desired time window noted.
Clean-desk rule, handling of documents and valuables, the list of bins that may be emptied, and the IT rule: which equipment may be touched and which may not.
Scope and frequency are fixed in writing for each room group – the basis for pricing and for later acceptance.
Keys, transponders or a code system with named allocation and a receipt; for professional secrets, a documented undertaking from the staff deployed; clarification of whether a presence in the building is required.
Conversion, an additional floor, more public traffic or changed working models alter occupancy and therefore the workload.
This service sits within a framework of statutory duties, technical rulebooks and operational practice. The distinction matters because it determines who is responsible for what.
The rulebooks named here describe requirements for how the work is carried out – they are not a certification held by BREREI. VDI and DIN normative texts are chargeable and were not available in full; where a statement touches the normative detail, this is noted in place.
These references describe the requirements the work is performed against. They are not a certification, inspection or approval held by BREREI.
Short answers to help you assess whether this service fits your site.
Yes – that is the precondition for the surface being cleanable at all, because the scope of cleaning refers to clear surfaces. If a workstation is not cleared, it is worked past and the surface stays uncleaned. Contractually this is not a shortfall in performance but the consequence of a preliminary obligation that was not met. Anyone who regulates this in writing beforehand avoids the most common complaint.
They may empty the bin, but not decide which papers belong in it. Once documents are in a bin, the question of whether they should have been destroyed no longer arises. The rule is therefore: anything that must not go in the bin must not be left in it. Data-protection-compliant document destruction is a separate process and belongs in a separate contract, not in the cleaning contract.
In law firms, tax consultancies and practices this is not a side issue. Under the German Criminal Code, the duty of confidentiality of the professional secret-holder extends to persons assisting as well. In practice this means: the client should require a documented undertaking from the staff deployed and keep it with their records. You should specify this expressly in the tender; a verbal “that goes without saying” does not meet the requirement.
First the client decides whether anyone does at all. Many IT policies prohibit third parties from handling equipment; in that case the item is not part of the contract. If it is commissioned, the technical rule is: no liquid on the device, no spray directed at the surface, no pressure cleaning. It is sensible to treat equipment cleaning as a separate, named service item – then, in the event of damage, it is clear what was agreed.
The kitchenette is usually included: work surfaces, sink, taps and the exterior surfaces of coffee machine, microwave and refrigerator. The boundary runs where a kitchenette becomes a food business. A staff canteen with food service is subject to different hygiene requirements from an office kitchen with a kettle, and the two need different schedules of services. What you should specify in the tender: which type of room is involved – otherwise the scope remains open.
That cannot be derived from office size. What matters is how many people actually use the sanitary areas and circulation areas. An office with staff mostly present and customer traffic needs a different frequency in the sanitary area from an office of the same size whose staff mostly work off-site. The professionally correct answer is therefore one interval per room group – usually a high frequency for sanitary and entrance zone, a medium one for office areas and a low one for ancillary rooms.
Technical and legal classification of the topic — for operators preparing a decision.
The next step is a site visit – and a short conversation about who in the building clears what. A floor plan or room schedule, the number of workstations, the desired time window and the IT rule on handling equipment are helpful for that.
Service, property and contact details – that is all we need.
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