How to bid on government janitorial contracts

Cleaning is the most common way into public work

Every public building has to be cleaned, and most of that work is bought from outside companies: city halls, libraries, police stations, schools, county offices, parks restrooms, transit facilities, federal buildings. The contracts are frequent, they repeat every few years, and many are small enough for a company with a handful of employees. That also makes them competitive. The firms that win them are rarely the cheapest by accident; they priced the building in the document, not the building they imagined.

Where the work is

Start local. Cities, counties and school districts let far more janitorial contracts than the state or federal government, and they are the ones a small company can staff. Open notices by state are on our janitorial page; the official posting is linked from each one. Federal cleaning contracts are posted on SAM.gov under NAICS code 561720, Janitorial Services, and need a SAM registration before award - how to register, and with whom.

Notices use several names for the same work: janitorial, custodial, housekeeping, cleaning services, building maintenance. Search all of them.

Go to the walk-through

Most cleaning bids include a pre-bid meeting or site visit. Some are mandatory, and a mandatory visit you missed ends your bid. Go even when it is optional. Bring the scope and check it against the building:

• Cleanable square footage by floor type: carpet, hard floor, restroom, and any area that needs special treatment.
• Restroom and fixture counts. Restrooms take the most labor per square foot.
• When the building can be cleaned, and whether staff must be escorted or badged.
• Where supplies and equipment are stored, and whether there is water and a slop sink on every floor.
• Who supplies paper products, soap and liners. This single line moves a price more than almost anything else.
• The condition the current contractor is leaving it in.

Write questions down and send them in writing by the question deadline. Answers come back as an addendum to every bidder, and only a written answer changes the documents. Tracking addenda.

Price the frequencies, not the building

A janitorial scope is a schedule of tasks and how often each is done: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. Two bids for the same building can differ by half because one priced nightly service and the document asked for three nights a week, or the reverse. Build the price from the schedule:

1. Labor hours for each task at its stated frequency, added up over a year.
2. The wage you must pay, plus payroll taxes, workers' compensation and any required benefits.
3. Supervision and inspections. Many contracts require a named supervisor and documented checks.
4. Supplies, equipment and consumables that the scope puts on you.
5. Periodic work: floor stripping and waxing, carpet extraction, high dusting, window washing. These are in the scope once a year and forgotten in the price.
6. Insurance, bonding if required, overhead and profit.

Then put the number on the agency's price form in the units it asks for - per month, per square foot, per cleaning. If the contract has option years, the form usually asks for a price for each. You are setting those prices now, so think about what wages will be in year three.

The wage rules can set your labor cost for you

On federal service contracts over $2,500, the Service Contract Act requires contractors to pay service employees at least the wage rates and fringe benefits the Department of Labor has found prevailing in that locality. The wage determination is attached to the solicitation and becomes part of the contract. It is a floor on your largest cost, and it applies to every bidder, so price from it instead of from what you pay today.

State and local contracts may carry their own wage requirements: a prevailing wage schedule, a living wage ordinance, or a rule about offering jobs to the outgoing contractor's staff. If one applies, it is in the bid documents. Look for it before you price labor.

What the bid package usually asks for

• General liability, auto and workers' compensation insurance at stated limits. Some buyers ask for a janitorial bond or crime coverage as well.
• References for buildings of similar size and type, often with a minimum number of years in business. Take the stated minimum literally.
• Background checks for staff, especially for schools, courts and police facilities, and sometimes fingerprinting at your cost.
• A staffing plan, a supervisor's name, and a quality control plan saying how you inspect and how complaints are handled.
• A list of products and safety data sheets, sometimes with green cleaning requirements.

Whether your company meets a given requirement is for the buyer to decide from what you submit. Nothing on this site says that you do.

If you are new

Public buyers want proof you have done this before, which is hard when you have not. Three things help. Start with the smallest contracts - a single library or park restroom route - where the experience requirement is light. Use commercial accounts as references; they count. And look for purchases set aside for small businesses, which limit who you compete against; set-asides are explained here.

After the opening

Sealed bids are opened in public and the prices are a public record. If you lose, get the tabulation. It tells you what that buyer's work goes for and who your competitors are, and it is the best free pricing information you will ever get. Most of these contracts come up again in a few years. Put the expiry date in your calendar and be ready for the next one.