After builders clean + sparkle clean quote HELP!

[Medo Miller]

Good evening everyone, it's a pleasure to be here. I came across this forum accidentally while doing a research for a potential job prospect for a builders clean + sparkle clean.

The director of a building company has asked me to provide him with two separate quotes for after builders clean + sparkle clean for 3 properties in a new development.
They are all high end properties and the cheapest costing £730K.

I've been in the industry for a while but have never done quotes for new build, 2 of the properties are the same and the 3rd one is slightly bigger.
They are based in the West Midlands area around Solihull/Birmingham..

Could anyone be so kind to give me an idea of how much to charge in total for all 3 properties and if you can break it down based on the cleaning type.

Below are the specifications of the properties if that will help.

Thanks a lot for your time and any advice or suggestions will be highly appreciated.

Property 1

Ground floor
Lounge
4.08m x 3.82m 13’ 4” x 12’ 5”
Kitchen / Family & Dining Area
9.12m x 4.29m 29’ 9” x 14’ 0”
Utility
2.91m x 1.61m 9’ 5” x 5’ 3”
Garage
5.86m x 2.94m 19’ 2” x 9’ 6”
WC
1.83m x 0.95m 6’ 0” x 3’ 1”
Study
3.0m x 2.63m 9’ 8” x 8’ 6”
First floor
Master Bedroom
4.29m x 4.32m 14’ 0” x 14’ 2”
En–suite (Master)
1.89m x 2.64m 6’ 2” x 8’ 6”
Bedroom 2
4.70m x 4.0m 15’ 4” x 13’ 1”
Bedroom 3
3.99m x 2.82m 13’ 0” x 9’ 2”
Bedroom 4
3.82m x 2.82m 12’ 5” x 9’ 2”
Bathroom
2.79m x 1.98m 9’ 1” x 6’ 5”
Property 3

Lounge
4.40m x 4.20m 14’ 4” x 13’ 8”
Kitchen / Family & Dining Area
6.87m x 4.51m 22’ 5” x 14’ 8”
Bedroom 2
3.99m x 2.80m 13’ 0” x 9’ 1”
En-suite Bedroom 2
1.93m x 1.83m 6’ 3” x 6’ 0”
Utility
1.95m x 1.81m 6’ 4” x 5’ 9”
Garage
6.09m x 2.94m 19’ 9” x 9’ 6”
WC
0.9m x 1.93m 2’ 9” x 6’ 3”
First floor
Master Bedroom
6.83m x 3.22m 22’ 4” x 10’ 6”
En–suite
2.27m x 2.25m 7’ 4” x 7’ 3”
Bedroom 3
3.43m x 3.94m 11’ 3” x 12’ 9”
Bedroom 4
3.16m x 3.97m 10’ 4” x 13’ 0”
Bathroom
2.38m x 2.14m 7’ 8” x 7’ 0”
Store 1
0.9m x 1.67m 2’ 9” x 5’ 4”
Store 2
0.9m x 1.65m 2’ 9” x 5’ 4”
Store 3
0.9m x 2.27m 2’ 9” x 7’ 4”

 

[Daniel Osmore]

Hi Medo,

My business has undertaken hundreds of after builders cleans over the years, so I can give you an idea of how I would price it. However, please bear in mind that we all have different costs and your local market in the Midlands will likely be different to my market near London. Therefore a profitable and appropriate price for my business, may be higher or lower than a profitable and appropriate price for your business.

Firstly, you need to work our how much it would likely cost your business to deliver the requested services. With builders cleans this can be tricky, because you don't know what condition they will be left in. Therefore, always tend to overestimate a bit to cover yourself. From experience, for properties of that size (around 1500 sq ft, excluding the garage), two fast paced and experienced cleaners should be able to complete in a working day or 16 man hours (round up to about 20 to cover yourself). Don't charge your client by the hour, but you should understand how long it is likely to take. Also make sure that the property is actually ready for cleaning, I've had many situations where a cleaning team has turned up to a job and there are still numerous trades trying to complete the build. You can't undertake a quality after builders clean unless it is substantially complete, otherwise the other tradesmen will just make more mess and extend your cleaning time.

Let's say that your labour costs £20 per hour for upto 20 hours, that gives you £425 + £25 for cleaning products and materials. Your basic costs are £425. I would want a gross profit of 40%, so I would have to charge about £700+vat for each house. Hopefully that would be enough to leave a net margin of 15-20% after other expenses. For a sparkle, I would charge about 40% of this price, about £300+vat for each house, but make sure the sparkle really is a sparkle and not a complete re-clean (sometimes a lot of work takes place between the main clean and the sparkle clean and the place more or less requires a full re-clean). Set out your terms and conditions in a service agreement just in case things are not as agreed. This agreement might give you a bit of leeway to charge more (but usually the builder won't want to pay more, even if they are in the wrong, so always build a contingency margin into your prices).

Also, I really must stress that fast and experienced cleaners might be able to complete in 16 hours if the property has been left in a fair/good condition. Inexperienced cleaners might take double this time and perhaps not get the standard right. After builders cleans are generally not easy, you can make some good money, however it is perfectly possible to lose money if you get your numbers wrong or if you are working for a difficult builder.

I hope this helps, but please feel free to reach out to me if you need more help. I'm always happy to help fellow cleaning business owners.

 

[Gary Rendall]

Be careful we turned up to do sparkle clean and the chippy had been in and cut loads of skirting boards inside the property with all the internal doors open which means you are just starting again. Just make sure you highlight this else they will want sparkle clean done for whatever your quote is. We do some regular builders and we don't quote anymore so if we turn up and have to start again they just have to pay for it. We done one house so many times that in the end we cleaned it and handed keys to the boss to stop workmen using it for there tearoom

 

[Medo Miller]

Thanks a lot Daniel, I can't thank you enough for taking your precious time to help me with an in depth explanation of what I was in need of exactly.

My quote was very close to what you suggested and I'm glad and happy with it. Hopefully they get back to me with some positive news.

You my mentor from a distance

 

[John Ejioye]

This is also really helpful for me. I am at the stage where sparkling clean leads come in droves. Thank you, Daniel.