What commercial cleaning costs in the Lower Mainland (2026 guide)

If you manage a facility in Metro Vancouver or the Fraser Valley, you have probably received three cleaning quotes that look nothing alike. One is priced per square foot, one per hour, and one is a single monthly number with a vague scope attached. This guide explains how those numbers are built, what the market typically charges in 2026, and how to compare bids on something other than the bottom line.

How cleaning quotes are built

Three pricing models cover almost every commercial cleaning contract in BC.

• Per square foot, per visit: the contractor measures cleanable area and multiplies it by a rate that reflects the building type and scope. Common for offices, retail and warehouses above a few thousand square feet
• Per hour: the contractor estimates labour hours per visit and bills a loaded hourly rate. Common for restaurants, small clinics, one-off projects and anything where the scope changes night to night
• Flat monthly price: the contractor does the square footage and hourly maths internally and gives you one fixed number for an agreed scope and frequency. Most recurring janitorial contracts end up here, whichever model was used to build them

Whichever model appears on the page, the number underneath is labour. A quote is an estimate of how many person-hours your building needs per visit, multiplied by the real cost of employing those people, plus supplies, equipment, supervision, insurance and margin. Keep that in mind and every other section of this guide gets easier.

Typical market ranges in the Lower Mainland (2026)

The figures below are typical market ranges for recurring commercial cleaning across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, drawn from published Canadian pricing guides for 2026. They are not CedarPact's prices. Your quote will depend on your scope, frequency, access and building condition, and GST is added on top.

• Standard offices: roughly $0.10 to $0.25 per square foot per visit, with Vancouver sites tending toward the top of that range
• Medical and dental clinics: roughly $0.15 to $0.35 per square foot per visit, reflecting disinfection standards, more washrooms per square foot and higher chemical costs
• Retail: roughly $0.07 to $0.15 per square foot per visit for sales floors, with fitting rooms, washrooms and entrances driving the time
• Warehouses and industrial: roughly $0.04 to $0.10 per square foot per visit for open floor area, with the offices, lunchrooms and washrooms inside the building priced separately at office rates
• Restaurants: usually priced hourly or as a flat nightly rate rather than per square foot, because kitchen scope varies so much. Contracted cleaning labour in the region typically bills between $30 and $60 per hour
• Small offices under about 1,000 square feet: often a flat monthly rate between $200 and $500 for two or three visits a week, and most contractors apply a minimum visit charge in the $100 to $150 range

Specialty work is quoted separately. Strip and wax of resilient floors typically runs $0.30 to $0.60 per square foot, hot-water carpet extraction $0.08 to $0.25 per square foot, and post-construction cleaning $0.30 to $0.70 per square foot depending on the state of the site.

What pushes the price up or down

Two offices of the same size can be quoted very differently. These are the variables that matter most.

• Frequency: more visits a week means less soil per visit and a lower per-visit rate, even though the monthly total is higher
• Density and use: a call centre with 120 people in 8,000 square feet needs far more washroom and kitchen time than a law office with 20 people in the same space
• Washrooms and kitchens: these rooms consume most of the labour in an office visit. Count the fixtures, not just the floor area
• Floor types: carpet is quick to vacuum but costs more to maintain over the year; polished concrete and vinyl composite tile need periodic machine work
• Access and hours: overnight, weekend or secured-access cleaning commonly adds 10 to 20 percent because of shift premiums and travel
• Supplies: whether the contractor stocks your paper, soap and liners, and whether that is itemized or bundled
• Products: green-certified or hospital-grade chemistry can add a modest surcharge
• Condition at handover: a building that has been under-cleaned for a year usually needs an initial deep clean before a recurring price holds

Frequency maths: nightly versus three times a week

The cheapest way to lower a monthly bill is to cut visits, and the most common mistake is cutting them too far. The arithmetic is simple. A 10,000 square foot office quoted at $0.12 per square foot per visit costs about $1,200 per visit. Five nights a week is roughly 21.5 visits a month, or about $25,800. Three nights a week is roughly 13 visits, or about $15,600. That looks like a 40 percent saving, but the per-visit rate will move upward on the three-night schedule because each visit carries two days of soil instead of one, and the washrooms will be visibly worse on the off days.

A better approach is to split the scope by frequency. Washrooms, kitchens, entrances and waste go every service night. Desks, offices and boardrooms go two or three nights. Detail work such as high dusting, vents, baseboards and interior glass goes monthly or quarterly. Most offices in the region land on three to five nights a week with a tiered scope, and that is usually where the price per visit and the standard of cleanliness meet.

The hidden costs of the cheapest bid

BC's general minimum wage rose to $18.25 per hour on June 1, 2026. Add vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, CPP, EI and WorkSafeBC premiums, and the true cost of one legitimately employed cleaner is well above the posted wage before a single bottle of chemical or an hour of supervision is counted. When a bid implies a loaded hourly rate near that figure, something is being left out. Typically it is one of these.

• Hours: the crew is given less time than the scope needs, so tasks quietly disappear from the rotation
• Coverage: nobody fills in when the regular cleaner is sick, and your washrooms wait until Monday
• Insurance and registration: no current certificate of insurance and no WorkSafeBC clearance letter, which can leave you liable for unpaid premiums
• Supervision: nobody inspects the work, so quality drifts until you complain
• Supplies: paper and soap are billed separately at a markup, or simply run out
• Equipment: worn vacuums without filtration, and mops that move soil from the washroom to the lunchroom

The cheapest bid rarely stays the cheapest once you add the cost of your own time managing it, the re-cleans, and the tenant or patient complaints.

What a fair quote includes

A quote you can hold a contractor to has the following in writing before the first visit.

• A room-by-room scope with task frequencies (nightly, weekly, monthly, quarterly)
• The number of visits per week, the service window and how statutory holidays are handled
• A single monthly price, with any supplies program and specialty work itemized separately
• Proof of commercial general liability insurance, bonding and WorkSafeBC registration, with the certificate naming your company
• A named account manager and the process for reporting a missed item
• The term, the notice period and what happens if the standard is not met

Questions to ask before you sign

• How many labour hours per visit is this price based on, and what happens if the building needs more
• Who cleans my site, how are they trained, and will it be the same people each week
• What is included in the monthly price, and what is billed as an extra
• How are missed items reported and fixed, and is there a guarantee
• Can I see a sample inspection report and the checklist your crew uses
• What is the notice period and how are scope changes handled

Next step

If you want a number for your own building, the fastest route is a short site walkthrough. CedarPact prices every site on a written scope and a fixed monthly price, with a dedicated account manager who answers the phone. Request a quote and we will walk your facility with you.