We Got Answers
General:
In Construction Cleaning, the cleaning company is required to hold the same insurances as other vendors on the construction site. Most commonly to contract for the final clean scope you need:
$1 million in General Liability
$ 1 million Workers Compensation
However, you can bid projects without having this insurance in place (roughly $2,500 annual). Once you are awarded the final clean contract, you have your insurance agent put the policy in place. Don’t forget worker’s compensation is usually a 1 time annual payment. Your insurance certificate should have limits equal to ours. CCP needs these limits to be qualified With General Contractors– not to contract, but just to receive invitations to bids. Bonding is irrelevant in post construction cleaning. The GC will rarely ask for a cleaning company to purchase a bond (Bidding or Performance). This is not janitorial services, and you are not working for a property management company (Jones Lang LaSalle)
Final cleaning or general cleanup during construction is our service.
During construction cleaning, if we provide laborers with no equipment, the cleaning company charges GC time & material. Final cleanup is a full service and is normally charged per contract amount.
Our post construction interior building cleaning consists of the following:
- Removal of “Construction” trash and debris left on floors, walls and all items horizontal and vertical
- Dusting walls, baseboards, fixtures, and furnishings-cabinets counters, shelving
- Vacuum clean/dust display cases inside and outside
- Shine all stainless steel
- Restrooms
- Window cleaning
- Carpet care
- Ceramic Tile/Slate Cleaning
- VCT Tile Clean & Seal
No, a site visit is not necessary, but highly recommended by the project manager. It is better for everybody if you make a site visit before we finalize and submit a proposal to the general contractor. The site visit allows you to see the conditions of the project, and alter your price as needed; maybe the building is already neat, and your proposal price can be lower. The site visit allows you to meet the superintendent face to face, which increases the chance of being awarded.
While low price is usually determinates the contract award, people also work with companies they like and personally know.
Personal Protective Equipment
The most common protective items required is: Hard hat, Reflective vest, Steel toe shoes
https://www.osha.gov/Publications/construction_ppe.html
OSHA has created the standardized protection requirements that most general contractors follow.
A dumpster is usually delivered to a construction site at the beginning of a project. The construction company rents the dumpster for all trades to use as needed. A cleaning company does not need to rent or own a dumpster. A cleaning company will not use the dumpster, unless they are completing the rough clean, which involves throwing away larger debris like pieces of drywall.
No, a cleaning company does not have a license to perform cleaning services on a construction site. A license is needed for other trades on a construction site, example: electrician or heating and cooling company. On prevailing wage projects, cleaning companies are classified as General Labor. There is no state certification license required for janitorial or cleaning services. A cleaning company must be insured, hold workers compensation, and have a license to do business. In California, there is a D63 license required for all cleaning companies.
For us to accurately price the final cleanup, we will need the site name (for example, the store name) and the city where the site is located. This information can stand in place of a project name.
4 laborers working 8 hours per day is the normal manpower needed to complete a job. This number of laborers can vary based on the construction schedule, we have seen 1 laborer required for 2 hours per day for 1 week and 25 laborers needed for 10 hrs. per day for 1 week long.
To visit a construction site, you want to look like the rest of the crews on the job site. Wear steel toed boots, reflective vest, and a hard hat. Bring a notepad for writing notes. A square footage measurer is a bonus, but not required. You can find the superintendent on site and look at the architectural blueprints they are constructing the building from.
You can walk a bare building site with superintendent and get a visual and ideas on phasing schedules or amount of days expected for cleaning company to be on site. You can also view the architectural drawings, which shows how how the building will look (clean) when complete, but on paper! We can stay in contact with the superintendent and wait until the job site is closer to completion (paint going on walls, flooring installed, cabinets installed). Take note, even if you went to the site, someone else may go to the site and submit a competitive proposal amount and the project manager can buy the cleanup.
Our winning rate depends on the amount of bids we submit. We are awarded 40% of proposals submitted if we make a site visit with the superintendent before we submit the proposal. Many projects require a bid before the general contractor is awarded. The GC has a 20% win rate when they are bidding against other construction companies.
CCP:
The cleaning partner can submit own proposal to project manager. The project manager will approve proposals and issue change orders. The cleaning partner can submit change orders on their own form or email us and CCP can submit for the cleaning partner, copying cleaning partner on all outbound emails.
CCP will submit the proposal to the project manager for our cleaning partner and will copy the cleaning partner on all outbound emails.
CCP will estimate the cleaning value based on the type of construction project and square footage of the floor plans: $0.25 per square foot or $125 per room if the building is an apartment or hotel. If we have square footage, we prefer square footage to price over price per room to estimate.
We share our estimated contract value in all project detail notifications. You may need to adjust your bid price after making a site visit and seeing the conditions first hand. The cleaning partner can change its estimated price without approval from CCP.
CCP confirms with our superintendent on site when it is time for a visit. We then confirm from site contact or project manager that paint or flooring is installed and ready for a walkthrough.
The General Contractor awards the final cleaning contract. Once your bid is accepted and the project is awarded act, you’ll need to submit the standard documents like insurance, certified payroll, and invoicing directly to the general contractor.
CCP will only send 1 cleaning partner to the job site to confirm scope and pricing. We will only submit 1 proposal for each job. It is possible that a cleaning partner makes a site visit, then determines that the scope is too difficult and then declines the job. We will then send our 2nd best cleaning partner to the job site and submit a proposal.
CCP makes frequent calls and emails in order to secure a project. We do not ask to price final cleaning when the job is in bidding phase (before the general contractor is awarded).We submit a bid for a project as early as possible.
In most cases, the CCP will request the General Contractor to change the contract name to the cleaning partner. The cleaning partner will need to provide corporate documentation and compliance documents. Corporate identification includes the cleaning partner’s W-9 (this document shows the entity’s FEIN). For compliance, the cleaning partner must provide their certificate of insurance. See above. The company name on the contract must match the insurance submitted.
The superintendent who works for the construction company will determine what time you can make a site visit. The super may have meetings or may be busy at certain times of the day that you should not visit. When making a site visit, you should walk around the building with someone who knows the cleaning scope requirements. You have to call the super on site before you visit and make an appointment.
Construction Clean Partners only connects a cleaning company with a commercial building general contractor. We do not email or ask property maintenance companies for contracting opportunity, therefore we do not have regular cleaning job contract opportunities. Our lead generation system works on a general contractor database, which produces only 1 time contract post construction cleaning opportunities.
CCP will email you everything you need; the project name, site contact information (superintendent and project manager), the plans (if we have them), an estimated contract price, date the project needs to be completed, when the site visit is needed, an approval statement to bid the project, the job distance, as well as a description of what the project is.
We will also deliver you a sample scope that may need to be edited after you make a walkthrough.
Never does CCP visit a project site that our cleaning company will clean. We rely on the cleaning company to meet with the super on site to confirm conditions and scope. Our cleaning partner always determines the price they want to charge via a phone conversation, the plans, or a physical site visit.
Once CCP sends the 2-email flow, the super will see your name in an email. You should call the super once this email is sent. When you talk to the super, reference the project manager name “Jim is looking for a final clean price and we want to schedule a site visit to confirm the scope and final clean price, what time can we come to the site this week?”
CCP has access to the construction company basic contact information, their plan room for adding new opportunities, and their pre qual application. We have other bidding job opportunities, or recently completed jobs in the company profile . We also have all the employee contacts plus their email address for communication.
For all jobs we estimate an amount based on 25 cents per square foot. If the job is an apartment complex and we do not now the square footage, we will use the number of units x $125 per unit to arrive at a final clean price. If the job is industrial (example. warehouse, storage facility, waste water plant) then we multiply the square footage x 13 cents. This amount is shown to your before you make a site visit. After you visit and confirm the amount you want to charge, CCP will support your company by creating and submitting a proposal to the project manager in your company name.
Our business is data and the expertise of our partners, which allows us to win contracts. You can see each state awarded jobs here https://final-clean.com/where-we-work/
You can submit your own proposal to the project manager. Alternatively, you can email it us and we can submit the bid on your behalf (while we copy you on the proposal submittal email). You can use your own proposal or a CCP proposal template.
Either way, your cleaning company contracts with and invoices the General Contractor directly, and CCP earns a commission from your cleaning company.
CCP will follow up with the project manager every 7 days after the proposal is submitted, On the fourth follow-up, we will start to email the superintendent to as for approval or a decline in our proposal submitted in our cleaning company partner company name. Each cleaning partner has 100% open lines of communication with any contact that works for the company. You can follow up with the project manager and superintendent by phone or email. We can both follow up, but it becomes confusing if the pm tells CCP “I need 3 more weeks” then cleaning partner asks the next day, ”are we awarded?” Solution: cleaning company can notify CCP by email “do not follow up on proposal” and we will not send any follow up emails. If you need to know if the proposal was accepted in order to secure the date and laborers. Call the project manager and negotiate a start date.
CCP needs copy of your insurance that you will use to contract with any general contractor. CCP does not need to be the certificate holder, “for bidding purposes”, or “for information only”, or “any other company name is acceptable as the cert holder when you are submitting a copy of your insurance. We also need a copy of your W9 (download blank w9 here to fill in). These two documents let us confirm you are a real entity. The company name should be the same from each document. We do not need any other documents when you register with us.
CCP will only work with 1 company per job, we will only connect 1 company with the superintendent and submit only 1 proposal per job. Once we send you the contacts and project details, we will not share the information with any other company. It is possible other cleaning companies may be interested in the job, but they will have no connection with Construction Clean Partners. The general contractor will search to get up to 3 prices per job usually. On the job match page, after 1 cleaning company chooses commissions, that job is removed from the page and no one else can see the job name to select the job commissions.
For a cleaning company to make a site visit with a project in which a project manager has asked CCP to help submit a final clean price, the cleaning company must choose commissions first at https://final-clean.com/finalcleancommissions/ or the cleaning company must be at CCP premium member https://final-clean.com/network/. We will let the super on site know you will call to schedule a site visit and the cleaning company will get all the project details to allow a site visit.
It is free to enter your company information in our system so we can email you about final clean job opportunities within 70 miles from your office location. This is the basic CCP membership. You do not have to ever pay any money to get the job email notifications where we ask you to be our 1 cleaning partner on this job and select commissions from the job match page. If you do not open 5 emails in a row, we will mark your cleaning company not active and we will stop emailing you. What is the Job match page?
Basic membership is free. Premium membership costs $349 every 3 month period. If we win a job with any partners, CCP gets 10% commissions.
Traveling over 1 hour to get to a job site is the furthest we expect a cleaning partner to travel. When we get a request to submit a final clean price, we use a map tool and search for a cleaning partner within 70 miles from the job site. We want all our cleaning partners to visit the job site with the super on site to confirm the scope and price.
We are completing construction cleaning contracts in USA and Canada. All of our awarded jobs are located here, you can sort the state column and see awarded jobs by state or province. For all jobs, we want to make a site visit to confirm scope and pricing. We have a network of vetted cleaning companies who can complete final clean contracts with general contractors. Our local CCP Network Member will always contract with the general contractor and provide the required insurance.
The final cleaning contact is between the general contractor and the cleaning company. The GC will prepare a contract / purchase order for cleaning company and cleaner will have the contract before they start work. Compliance instructions will likely be in the contract terms. The cleaning company will need to submit compliance to the general contractor before starting work. The cleaning company will start scheduling with the superintendent once cleaner has a contract.
Whether CCP submits the proposal or the cleaning company submits to the project manager, the approval is notified via email. Written approval is always needed before starting a job. When CCP submits the proposal, the cleaning company is copied on the submittals so ideally the approval reply includes the cleaning partner. If the cleaning partner submits the proposal, it’s likely the cleaning company receives the contract directly and CCP is not notified.
Membership:
There is no login for CCP premium members. There is no system to login, all communication is managed by email and phone. You are emailed your pipeline and introduced to superintendents and project managers by email.
If we shared the pipeline with you, we list superintendent and project manager. If we know both, you can communicate with both people. We use the “send partner details date” to estimate the date in which we think you should visit the superintendent at the job site based on when the project manager wants to buy the final cleaning contract.
Sample first email to send after being awarded a final clean contract:
We’re confirming we’ve been awarded the job.
We’ll start scheduling as soon as possible. Also, we are now working on getting our compliance submitted to you.
Our scheduler for all labor and on the job specifics should be contacted by using this number:
Name
Phone
It appears we lost the bid on this project. No further information was given apart from notifying us we weren’t awarded. Feel free to touch base with the project contacts to get a reason on why we lost.
CCP gets paid through the cleaning partner’s commission or directly through the general contractor for local projects.
The superintendent on site will get an email “expressing you will call to confirm a site visit time” cleaning company is copied on this email. 2. Full job details (only to you). The idea of the first email is to give an introduction to the superintendent and cleaning company main contact, also a warning that cleaning company is going to be coming by the site to confirm a final clean scope and price. The project detail to the cleaner will include: the project manager and superintendent name, phone and email address, project address, architectural drawings in a google share folder, statements from the pm or super confirming a final clean price is required, construction company name and their address.
It is 100% ok for the cleaning company to submit proposal directly to the project manager, but for communication reasons, CCP should know when the proposal is submitted.
Why? CCP will email the construction company every 8 days after we send the original 2 email flow sharing the project details with cleaning company and letting the superintendent know that our cleaning company will call to schedule a site visit. If the cleaning company already made the site visit and submitted a bid, and CCP does not know. We are sending emails like: “Can we still make a site visit?” , “where is the best place to park for our final clean visit” , “Can you still use a final clean proposal”, and each of these emails can have an old incorrect price in the subject line.
Then the pm or super gets confused and says” i thought you guys already came to the site and actually we have a proposal”
CCP and or cleaning company look unorganized, if we are unorganized off the job site, on the job site it’s likely that we will be unorganized also.
If CCP is not copied on the proposal when you submit, send us a copy, the amount, or the day you submitted at your earliest convenience.
CCP will draw commissions the week you are awarded the contract or if we are not informed the day you are awarded and we find out in the future, we will draw commissions the day we are informed the contract has been awarded to our partner. There is no invoice sent, CCP will draw the 5% from the card your used to pay the $1 when you selected your commissions option.
Payment:
CCP is paid 10% once the cleaning company is paid. We receive 10% of contract amount received. We prefer to be notified by our cleaning partner that you have been paid. If needed, CCP will follow up with the project manager or accounts payable rep from the General Contractor to confirm that you have been paid. We will forward the email to you that you have been paid and we will withdraw the 10% of the total contract amount that week. It’s possible the total contract amount can change from start to end of a project. There can be positive or negative change orders that affect the total contract amount.
If you are a CCP Premium Member, you can make your commission amounts up and pay us once you are paid. We always recommend you pay CCP 10%, but once you visit the site and realize you can win the project if you pay CCP 4%, we will agree to accept the lower commissions.
There are no commissions paid if you’re a CCP Basic Member or Premium Member if there were issues on the job that causes you to lose money: if you are kicked off the job for any reason, or if you quit the job. CCP will void all invoices or not withdraw any money from your card if you can prove that there was an issue that caused you to lose money. Usually these issues are brought up to CCP in an email while they are operating.
If you do not win the project, cleaning partner does not owe any commissions. CCP can only withdraw commissions from our cleaning partner if you are awarded the contract from the General Contractor for the job that you selected commissions on. So, if you pay the $1 and choose 5%, then you make a site visit, but the proposal is declined, then you do not owe CCP 5% commissions of your proposal amount.
Commissions paid is based on the contract amount for 10% commissions. Commissions are based on total invoice amount including all change orders, negative or positive. Commission is never based on profit earned by cleaning company.
Your profit always comes first, and we would never expect to make more than you do on a project.
Our guarantee is simple: Your profit will be at least double our commission, or you owe us nothing. (Your profit will usually be much more than this).
You’ll submit the total contract amount invoice directly to the general contractor, that contractor will pay your invoice after all contract compliance requirements are approved.
Average time to get paid is within 30 days of bill date. General contractors have different billing cycles; some once, some twice per month.
If a project is in progress and contractors billing cycle ends, cleaning company can bill contractor for percentage of completion for invoice to be applied to current billing cycle. Then wait 30 days to receive payment. You negotiate payment terms directly with the contractor.
We submit refund requests to your bank immediately. You see the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank.
Refunds can only be sent back to the original payment method used in a charge. It’s not possible to send a refund to a different destination (e.g., another card or bank account).
Refunds to expired or canceled cards are handled by the customer’s bank and, in most cases, credited to the customer’s replacement card. If no replacement exists, the bank usually delivers the refund to the customer using an alternate method (e.g., check or bank account deposit).
Some general contractors must hold retainage if contract value is over $5,000. It varies based on the project owner and how fast they are paying the general contractor. Well, the GC can pay any subcontractor at any time, it depends on how much cash flow or how much they want to lend money to individual contractors on their projects. If you are waiting 4 months for retainage to be paid, believe you are still being paid. The GC already paid you 90% of the funds. The GC is waiting for all approvals, so the owner can fully take ownership of the building.
Our Dates:
Date is given from company invitation to bid request or company internal plan room. Bid due date is when all subcontractors are requested to submit an estimate to the general contractor for quoting purposes. This date can be used as a timeline of when the job was starting. We figure on a new construction project; the GC does not break ground until 3 months after the bid due date. The gc does not if they are awarded until 2 weeks after the bid due date. The gc estimating team collects prices from all the trades in their vendor system local to the project bidding, then they use the most responsible price for each trade quote submitted and will compile 1 number to submit to the owner for acceptance of the gc bidding price. If you get an email from us and see bid due date blank, it’s because we received the job information after the bid due date and the gc has already been awarded.
The estimated date our cleaning partner should receive the project details to start scheduling a site visit appointment. This date is determined by when the project manager wants to see a final clean proposal or when the building will be complete. Partner needs 1 week notice so partner can visit the site and get price back to CCP or submit proposal to project manager. If this date is passed and the cleaner doesn’t have the details, it’s because we are missing the site contact you will walk with, or the street number. Ideally send partner details date and partner sent project details are the same exact date. If we have site contact name and cell, along with street number, on the send partner details date we send the 2-email flow. 1 email to super on site copying the final clean scheduler and the 2nd email (project details) will go to the final clean scheduler only.
In our internal system, this date is required when a job hits the negotiation stage so we know when to email related contacts. If the end partner details date is 4 months in the future, its too soon to talk to related contacts, wait until 4 months because we have been told to reach back out at this time. If we do not know when the proposal is required or when the building will be complete, make the end partner details date now because its time to ask contacts when the cleaning will start, once we find out when the cleaning price is required, then adjust end partner details date to reflect the when statement. Adjust the end partner details date during the lifecycle of a negotiations stage job based on changing schedule. end partner details date can be Now, 1 week. 1 month. 3 months. 6 months. 9 months and given date.
The exact day that CCP sends full project detail package to cleaning partner. This date 2 emails are sent, 1 to the site contact and the cleaning partner is copied, another email is only sent to cleaning partner so they have all the project details to know the General Contractor, decision makers, and what is this project CCP is asking cleaning partner to make a site visit and price. after this date, the cleaning partner needs to confirm a price they want to charge. CCP is waiting for us to submit a proposal. Cleaner should have made a site visit and confirmed scope.
The psd date will be removed if cleaning partner declines opportunity and we have to relate new opportunity. If we give cleaning partner job details too early and cleaner cannot walk the site for months in future, remove psd date (take the job back). We know cleaning partner has job information if psd is not blank.
The date proposal is emailed to project manager, and cleaning partner is copied or has sent the proposal. Cleaning partner has confirmed a price by email CCP before this date, CCP has sent cleaning partner job details to make site visit and has not heard a price confirmation, so CCP submits a proposal for cleaning partner with CCP estimate.
Will send follow up emails after this date and use this “proposal submitted” date in these follow-up emails. At times our cleaning partner may submit the proposal without CCP knowing, then CCP finds out proposal was submitted, but we still do not know the exact date, we will mark proposal submit date as the day we find out the proposal has been submitted.
Date will not change after first proposal submit date. CCP may submit more than one proposal on an opportunity with only 1 cleaning company.
Expected date the gc will award the final clean contract, or the actual date the job is awarded. When creating new opp. close date is required.
How we treat close date in different stages
Bidding gc and no bid due date, close date is 1 week from creation
Project in progress, close date is 1 week from creation
Pipdcmkr, close date can be now, 1 week, 1 month, 3 month or 6 months in future depending on the next follow up date. Do not change the close date while in pipdcmkr stage, if primary contact gives neutral or positive response, move opportunity to negotiations and if negative, we move down to project in progress or change stage to closed complete or closed.
When changing stages from pipdcmkr to negotiations, do not change close date, adjust spd date
After date proposal submitted we use close date to know when to start follow up emails. If we submit proposal on January 1 and the primary contact says that he will make a decision until 6 months. Move close date 6 months in future, so we do know not follow up too early. If close date is current or in past, the follow up emails will start to send to related contacts. Close date is reintroduced first time in negotiation since either the creation date or a close date before negotiations
Closed lost, closed not GC, closed complete- do not change close date
Others:
GC’s can have a hard time finding a qualified cleaning company with insurance. CCP has already done due diligence on the company we will refer you to. Our cleaning partner will only contract with you, just as if CCP did not help with a recommendation. The cleaning company will walk the site before pricing, so the superintendent will meet the cleaning company face to face before contracting. You have another company to rely on; if the cleaning company stops answering calls or emails for scheduling, issues on site, Davis bacon prevailing wage, or any post labor issues. CCP can support our cleaning company and the general contractor. The total contract price is competitive with or without CCP, in 5 years we have won over 680 projects with this same business model. See awarded jobs here
It’s possible for us to estimate the final cleaning off of the architectural plans. However, a site visit would allow us to confirm the scope and conditions and give a much more competitive price based on the required scope.
Below, you’ll find our address for the vendor application:
Construction Clean Partners
690 S. US Highway 89, Suite 200
Jackson, Wyoming 83001
(307) 298-9335
Invitation to bid contact name: Emma Lynn
Invitation to bid email: info@constructioncleanpartners.com
Working region- USA nationwide and Canada province wide
CSI 01740- final clean
With the above information, we should start receiving invitation to bid notifications
We have cleaning partners who can complete union work (either signatory or able to sign project labor agreement) in Wisconsin, Seattle, Ontario, St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, and California. In our experience, the top 3 states with most union work are: 1. Illinois, 2. California, 3. Massachusetts.
In Chicago, the labor rate is $69 per hour.
We’d like to visit the job site when other trades are nearly finishing their scopes (job finishes are installed)
If we walk the site when the job is just starting, the cleaning company has not idea of how the flooring looks, or how dirty the cabinets/ glass is when cleaning starts.
700+ cleaning companies are in the CCP network, we continue to complete due diligence on our partners and remove unqualified cleaning companies from the network every month. 30 cleaning companies enter per month and 10 will be marked not active. We do not connect not active cleaning partners to a general contractor.
There is no opportunity for the construction company to look into our network of cleaning companies and choose the cleaning company they want to do business with. CCP recommends the best cleaning company for each job based on location, union or minority requirements, and scheduling. The construction company is never forced or under contract to approve a proposal from a CCP partner. 90% of the proposals we submit, the construction company meets the cleaning company before a proposal is submitted during the scope and price confirmation site visit walk through.
If a site visit can be made today, we can visit and submit a proposal within 48 hours from the request. It is possible that our cleaning partner can even call the super on site to fully understand the scope and we submit a proposal without making a site visit, which will reduce the amount of time.
Project managers, estimators, and project administrators share job locations and site contact name and phone for free to CCP. There is no cost for CCP to get a final clean proposal submitted. We connect the construction company with our cleaning partner and the construction company will always contract with the cleaning company directly. Click here to site visits, bids, and final cleans the easy way
We added the project to our system from a plan room or we were sent an invite to bid notification. We have to ask the status of the final cleaning scope, is the proposal still required? Have you purchased the cleaning already? Can we make a site visit to confirm pricing? If we are not told, “a final clean price is not needed” we will continue to ask about the status. We took the time to add the project to our system, we must be told “NO” before we can close the project and not ask about the status again.