Certain information is needed by all janitorial firms in order to submit a responsible proposal:

1. The first is the size of your office facility. This is expressed in square footage and is used by the custodial services contractor to determine equipment and staffing requirements (Square footage is determined by multiplying the length by the width - ie; a building 100 feet wide and 200 feel long has 20,000 square feet). There are three square footage figures your contractor will wish to know.
• First, the gross size of your facility exclusive of janitor closets, mechanical rooms, or other areas which are not to be cleaned. If your office building has more that one floor, these figures should be given for each floor as well as a total for the building. This indicates the potential and will influence the determination of the bid price.
• The "Common areas" - defined as those facilities used by all the tenants in the building. Such areas include restrooms, corridors, lobbies, fire escape stairs and elevators.
• Leased square footage information - normally readily available from the rent rolls. (Care must be taken that the figures used are "net" and do not include a prorated portion of the common areas - the so called "New York" method).
2. The next item which you will need are the "Areas & Specifications". This tells the contractor what and how often you wish services to be performed. It is the common denominator which allows you to compare apples to apples. Do not let each contractor set his own cleaning standards! The below is a standard industry-wide normal range and frequency which should be adjusted to your particular needs.