Commercial cleaning cost in Metro Vancouver typically runs $0.08 to $0.32 per square foot per month, or roughly $38 to $55 per cleaner-hour, depending on how many nights a week you are serviced and what kind of facility you run. A 5,000 sq ft office cleaned three nights a week generally lands between $900 and $1,600 per month. A medical suite or a food-handling site costs more per square foot than a standard office of the same size.
Those are planning ranges, not quotes. The rest of this guide explains what actually moves your number, so you can read three competing bids and understand why they disagree.
Commercial cleaning prices in Vancouver: typical monthly ranges
| Facility size | 1–2 nights/week | 3 nights/week | 5 nights/week |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000–2,500 sq ft | $350–$700 | $550–$1,000 | $850–$1,500 |
| 2,500–5,000 sq ft | $550–$1,000 | $900–$1,600 | $1,400–$2,600 |
| 5,000–10,000 sq ft | $900–$1,700 | $1,500–$2,800 | $2,400–$4,800 |
| 10,000–25,000 sq ft | $1,700–$3,400 | $2,800–$5,500 | $4,500–$9,500 |
Read these as Metro Vancouver market ranges for standard commercial space in 2026, inclusive of labour, supervision, chemicals and equipment. They exclude consumables, periodic floor and carpet work, and day porter coverage. For office-specific numbers broken down line by line, see our Vancouver office cleaning cost and pricing guide.
Why commercial cleaning costs what it costs
Quick answer: roughly 60 to 70 percent of a commercial cleaning invoice is labour and labour burden. Everything else — chemicals, equipment, supervision, insurance, admin and margin — divides up the remainder. That is why the fastest way to cut a bid is to cut hours, and why the cheapest quote is usually the one with the fewest hours hidden in it.
The floor under every legitimate quote is wages. B.C.’s general minimum wage is $18.25 per hour as of June 1, 2026, and WorkBC reports a $20.00 median hourly wage for light duty cleaners province-wide. Add statutory payroll costs, WorkSafeBC premiums, vacation pay, supervision, travel between sites, chemicals, equipment amortisation, liability insurance and overhead, and the true cost to deliver an hour of cleaning sits well above the wage itself. When a bid implies a billing rate near the wage rate, the math has to break somewhere.
The nine factors that move your price
- Cleanable square footage. Not leased area. Server rooms, storage and unoccupied space price differently from open office.
- Frequency. Going from three nights to five is roughly a 55–70 percent increase, not a doubling, because setup and travel time are already paid for.
- Washroom fixture count. The single biggest driver in most offices. Washrooms are slow, non-negotiable and consumable-heavy.
- Floor mix. Carpet vacuums fast. Hard floors, especially polished concrete and vinyl in entrances, need more time and periodic restoration.
- Facility type. Medical, dental and food-handling sites carry stricter protocols, separate equipment and higher-grade disinfectants.
- Headcount and density. A 4,000 sq ft office with 40 people is a heavier clean than the same space with 12.
- Access and building rules. Loading bay restrictions, elevator booking, security escorts and short cleaning windows all add cost.
- Location. Downtown towers carry parking and access friction; outlying sites carry travel time.
- Consumables. Hand towel, tissue, soap and liners typically add $15–$35 per employee per year, more in public-facing buildings.
How commercial cleaning is priced: four contract structures
| Structure | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed monthly | One flat price for a defined scope and frequency | Most offices, strata and retail — predictable budgeting |
| Hourly | Billed per cleaner-hour, usually with a minimum | Variable scope, day porters, short-term coverage |
| Per visit | Set price per service call | Low-frequency sites, seasonal or event-driven work |
| Per square foot | Rate x area, common in large facilities and RFPs | Warehouses, malls, multi-site portfolios |
Fixed monthly is the dominant structure for commercial office cleaning because it makes the cost a stable line item. Ask for the underlying hours anyway — a flat price with no stated hours is impossible to compare against a competing flat price.
What costs extra
- Carpet extraction: $0.20–$0.45 per sq ft, typically 2–4 times per year
- Hard floor scrub and recoat: $0.35–$0.75 per sq ft
- Strip and seal: $0.75–$1.50 per sq ft, usually annual
- Interior window cleaning: $4–$9 per pane, quarterly or semi-annual
- Day porter: billed hourly, commonly 2–8 hours per day
- One-time deep clean or move-out: $0.15–$0.45 per sq ft
- Post-construction cleanup: quoted separately, always
Periodic floor care and carpet cleaning can be folded into the monthly figure so your budget stays flat across the year. That is usually the better arrangement, because deferred floor maintenance is far more expensive to reverse than to prevent.
How to compare three bids fairly
Quick answer: normalise every bid to cleaner-hours per week and confirm the same task list and frequency. Two quotes that differ by 40 percent almost always differ in hours, washroom frequency, or whether periodic floor work is included — not in efficiency.
- Request hours per visit and visits per week in writing from every bidder
- Confirm washroom servicing frequency matches across bids
- Check whether periodic floor and carpet work is included or extra
- Ask who pays for consumables
- Ask for a WorkSafeBC clearance letter and a certificate of insurance
- Confirm the term length and cancellation clause
- Ask about annual escalation — a CPI-linked or fixed 2–4 percent adjustment is normal and honest
Our guide to what businesses should expect from commercial cleaning services covers the non-price side of that comparison.
Why the lowest bid usually costs more
A bid that undercuts the market by 30 percent has three ways to survive: fewer hours on site, underpaid staff, or skipped periodic work. All three produce the same 90-day pattern — a strong first month, a noticeable drift by week six, crew turnover by month three, and a re-tender by month five. The switching cost of that cycle, in facility manager time alone, generally exceeds the savings. Cleaning is one of the few line items where paying the market rate is the conservative choice.
A worked example: pricing a 6,000 sq ft Vancouver office
Numbers are easier to argue with than ranges, so here is how an estimator builds a monthly figure for a typical Yaletown or Burnaby office floor: 6,000 sq ft, 45 staff, four washrooms with nine fixtures total, 70 percent carpet and 30 percent vinyl, serviced four nights a week.
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Washroom time | 9 fixtures at roughly 6 minutes each, plus floors and restocking | ~1.1 hours per visit |
| Floor and general areas | 6,000 sq ft at roughly 3,500 sq ft per hour for nightly tasks | ~1.0 hour per visit |
| Kitchen, waste, high-touch, entrance | Fixed block for a floor this size | ~0.5 hours per visit |
| Total per visit | Sum of the above, rounded to a realistic shift | ~2.6 hours |
| Monthly hours | 2.6 hours x 4 nights x 4.33 weeks | ~45 hours |
| Monthly cost | 45 hours at a $42 blended billing rate | ~$1,890 |
That figure sits inside the 5,000–10,000 sq ft band in the table above, which is the point — the range and the arithmetic should agree. Now use it as a diagnostic. If a competing bid comes in at $1,150 per month for the same scope, it is buying roughly 27 hours instead of 45. Nobody cleans this floor properly in 1.6 hours a night, so the difference will be paid for in skipped weekly tasks, deferred floor care, or a cleaner who is being asked to run.
Ask every bidder for two numbers: hours per visit and visits per week. Multiply, divide into the monthly price, and you have their effective rate. Any quote you cannot reduce to those two numbers is not a quote you can compare.
Frequently asked questions
How much does commercial cleaning cost per square foot in Vancouver?
Most Metro Vancouver commercial cleaning contracts fall between $0.08 and $0.32 per square foot per month. The low end reflects once-weekly service in simple open space; the high end reflects five-night-a-week service in washroom-heavy or specialty facilities.
What is the average hourly rate for commercial cleaners in Vancouver?
Billing rates commonly run $38 to $55 per cleaner-hour for standard commercial work, and $45 to $70 for medical, food-handling and specialty environments. That rate covers wages, payroll burden, WorkSafeBC premiums, supplies, equipment, supervision and insurance.
Is commercial cleaning cheaper with a longer contract?
Sometimes, modestly. A 12-month commitment can earn a small discount over month-to-month because it lets the contractor staff the site properly. Be cautious about multi-year terms with no cancellation clause — the discount rarely justifies the loss of leverage.
Should I expect an annual price increase?
Yes. Wage floors and insurance costs rise annually, so a 2 to 4 percent yearly adjustment is standard and should be written into the agreement rather than appearing as a surprise. A provider who never raises prices is either absorbing it now or reducing hours quietly.
Get a real number for your building
Ranges are useful for budgeting and useless for signing. Vancouver Office Cleaners quotes from an on-site walkthrough with hours, frequency and scope written down, so you can compare it against anything else on your desk. We serve Vancouver and the surrounding Metro region, bonded and insured.
