Most condo cleaning quotes are priced against a building. They should be priced against a document. A condominium corporation does not own a building in the ordinary sense — it owns and is responsible for the common elements, and what falls inside that term is set by the corporation’s own declaration. Two towers on the same street can draw the line in different places, particularly around balconies and parking. A contractor who quotes without reading the declaration is guessing at the scope, and the board finds out in month three.
Three categories, and only one of them is our contract
Units
Owned by the unit owner. Never our scope. If an owner wants their suite cleaned, that is a private arrangement they make themselves.
Common elements
Everything that is not a unit — lobby, corridors, elevators, stairwells, chute room, amenities, garage, management office, entrances. This is the contract.
Exclusive-use common elements
Balconies, patios, parking spaces, lockers — common elements only one unit may use. Whether the corporation or the owner cleans them is set by your declaration, and it genuinely differs building to building.
So: bring us the declaration. We scope to what it actually says rather than to what the last contractor assumed, and anything we take on appears in the written specification. It is a ten-minute conversation that prevents the most common condo cleaning dispute there is — who was supposed to be doing the balconies.
What a full common-elements specification covers
| Area | Typical frequency | Notes |
|---|
| Lobby, vestibule & entrance glass | Daily | Matting, floors, glass; twice daily in salt season |
| Elevator cabs, tracks & door frames | Daily | Tracks are the detail everyone skips |
| Corridors | Rotating floor schedule, every floor weekly | High-traffic floors more often |
| Stairwells & fire exits | Weekly | Landings, handrails, risers |
| Garbage room, chute intake & tri-sorter | Daily, deep clean scheduled | Named line, not folded into "garbage room" |
| Amenity rooms — party, gym, theatre, guest suite | Daily when in use, reset after bookings | Gym equipment surfaces on a tighter routine |
| Pool deck, surrounds & change rooms | Daily in use | Deck only — water is the operator's |
| Mail room & parcel area | Daily | Recycling of packaging is a real volume problem |
| Management office & staff washroom | Daily, logged | Bill 190 washroom record kept |
| Underground garage | Annual or twice-yearly pressure wash | Stair and lift lobbies year round |
| Floor maintenance & carpet | Quarterly to annual | Scheduled around amenity bookings |
| Units | — | Out of scope, always. |
| Balconies, patios, lockers, parking spaces | — | Per your declaration. Quoted only if it says so |
The chute room is where a condo contract is won or lost
Ask any property manager which space generates the most resident complaints and it will not be the lobby. Residue in a chute is an odour source, a pest attractant and a fire-load question, and it is almost always under-specified — folded into a "garbage room" line and cleaned as though it were a floor. We quote the room, the chute intake and the scheduled chute deep-clean and deodorising cycle as separate items, so a board can see what it is buying and compare it properly against another bid.
Where our work stops, and whose job it becomes
- Inside units. Owner’s property, owner’s arrangement.
- Exclusive-use common elements — balconies, patios, parking, lockers — unless your declaration puts them with the corporation and the specification says so in writing.
- Pool and whirlpool water. Chemistry, testing, dosing and the operating records are the operator’s duty under Ontario’s public pool and public spa regulations, inspected by your local public health unit.
- Snow, ice, plowing and salting. A separate winter trade with its own equipment and call-out obligations. We do the inside of that problem — matting, winter floor routine, tracked-in slush — not the outside of it.
- Power sweeping the garage or lot. No sweeper truck. Pressure washing, yes; ride-on sweeping, no.
- Elevators, HVAC and mechanical plant. We clean around them; we do not service them.
- Telling the board what the Act requires. We clean and we document. Your governing documents are yours.
Buying it: the board, the manager and the budget year
The corporation contracts; in practice the property manager runs the tender and the board approves it. Because cleaning is an operating expense rather than a reserve-fund item, a change usually wants to line up with the budget year instead of landing mid-cycle — worth knowing before a board is asked to approve something in March.
We will quote to a written specification so a board can compare bids on the same basis, complete a proper tender document rather than returning a brochure, and present at a board meeting if that is how your corporation decides. If you would rather write the specification first, our free cleaning RFP and scope-of-work template gives you a document every bidder has to answer the same way — which is the fastest way to find out that two quotes twenty per cent apart were never for the same work.
Common elements cleaning — frequently asked questions
What counts as the common elements?
Everything in the property that is not a unit. In a typical GTA condominium that means the lobby and vestibule, corridors, elevator cabs and door tracks, stairwells and fire exits, the garbage room, chute and tri-sorter, amenity rooms — party room, gym, theatre, guest suite — the pool and change-room area, the underground garage, mail room, management office and the exterior entrances. It is the cleaning contract for most condo corporations, and the scope word your declaration uses.
Do you go inside units?
No. A unit belongs to its owner, and the corporation’s cleaning contract has nothing to do with it. If an owner wants their own suite cleaned, that is a private arrangement they make themselves. The one thing we will do is clean the common-element side of a mess that originated in a unit — a corridor after a flood, a lift lobby after a move — on the corporation’s instruction, and it gets recorded separately so the board can chargeback if the declaration allows.
Who cleans balconies, patios and parking spaces?
That depends on your declaration, and this is the question most cleaning quotes get wrong. Balconies, patios, parking spaces and lockers are usually exclusive-use common elements — common elements that only one unit may use. Whether the corporation or the owner is responsible for cleaning and maintaining them is set by the corporation’s own declaration, by-laws and rules, and it genuinely differs between buildings. Bring us the declaration. We will scope to what it actually says rather than to what the last contractor assumed, and anything we take on will appear in the specification in writing.
How often should common elements be cleaned?
In a mid-rise or tower: lobby and elevators daily, corridors on a rotating floor schedule so every floor is done each week with high-traffic floors more often, stairwells weekly, garbage and chute room daily with a scheduled deep clean, amenities daily when in use, and the garage on a periodic wash rather than a daily pass. A small low-rise might run three days a week with everything on a tighter rotation. The right answer comes from a walkthrough and your traffic, not from a template.
What about the garbage chute and tri-sorter?
It is the single most-complained-about space in a condo and the one most often under-specified. The room and the chute intake need a daily routine, and the chute itself needs a scheduled deep clean and deodorising cycle — not because it looks bad but because residue in a chute is an odour source, a pest attractant and a fire-load question. We quote it as a named line rather than folding it into "garbage room" and hoping.
Do you clean the underground garage?
We
pressure wash it — typically an annual or twice-yearly wash after salt season, plus stair and elevator lobby cleaning year round. What we do not do is ride-on power sweeping; we have no sweeper truck, and a company that offers both in the same breath is usually subcontracting one without saying so. See
commercial pressure washing for how the wash is scoped and scheduled around resident parking.
Do you handle the pool?
The deck, surrounds, furniture and change rooms — yes. The water — no. Chemistry, testing, dosing and the operating records for a pool or whirlpool are the operator’s duty under Ontario’s public pool and public spa regulations, and your local public health unit inspects against them. That is a trained operator’s job. A cleaning contractor offering to fold it into a janitorial contract is not one to hand a pool to.
Do you do snow and ice clearing?
No. Snow removal, plowing, salting and ice management are a separate winter trade with their own equipment, call-out obligations and liability, and we do not offer them — here or anywhere else on this site. What we do is the inside of that problem: a proper three-stage entrance matting system, a tightened winter floor routine, and prompt attention to tracked-in slush and salt, which is where most winter slips in a building actually happen. Our guide to
winter slip and fall prevention covers the documented side of it.
Who signs the contract — the board or the property manager?
The corporation contracts, and in practice the property manager runs the tender and the board approves it. That shapes the timing more than people expect: cleaning is an
operating expense, so a change usually wants to line up with the budget year rather than land mid-cycle. We are happy to quote to a written specification for comparison against incumbents, complete a proper tender document, and present to a board meeting if that is how your corporation decides. Our free
cleaning RFP and scope-of-work template is there if you would rather write the specification first and put everyone on the same page.
Is common elements cleaning the same as property management cleaning?
They overlap and they are not the same.
Common elements cleaning is a condominium corporation buying the cleaning of the shared property its declaration defines — no units, ever.
Property management cleaning is the wider job a manager may need across a portfolio, which can include rental buildings, tenant turnover between occupancies and vacant-unit cleans. If you manage a condo corporation, this page is your scope. If you manage rental stock too, you probably want both.
How is it priced?
After a walkthrough, from the specification. What moves the number: storeys and total corridor length, suite count and therefore traffic, how many elevators, stairwell count, amenity list and how heavily used, whether there is a pool, garbage-chute arrangement, garage size, days per week and hours, whether any daytime concierge-adjacent porter coverage is wanted, and the floor types with their maintenance cycle. A per-suite figure quoted without a walkthrough is a guess dressed as a rate.
Related pages
Where to read the rules yourself
Your governing documents beat anything a contractor tells you, so start with them.
