Hiring a cleaner means giving somebody access to your home or premises and trusting them with surfaces that can be damaged. That is worth ten minutes of checking, whether it is a one-off carpet clean or an ongoing office contract.
The checks are not complicated. They are mostly about whether the company can explain what it will do, prove it is insured, and put the scope in writing before starting.
The short version
- Ask for public liability insurance and check it covers the work
- A written scope prevents almost every later disagreement
- Ask what method will be used and why, particularly on floors
- Be careful with quotes given without any information about the job
- For contracts, ask about staff continuity and cover arrangements
Insurance and paperwork
Public liability insurance is the baseline. It covers damage caused while working on your property, and any established company will provide the certificate without hesitation.
For commercial work, expect more: a risk assessment and method statement for the tasks involved, safety data sheets for the products being used, and confirmation of how waste water and chemicals are handled.
- Public liability certificate, current and appropriate to the work
- Employers liability where staff are employed
- RAMS for commercial sites, particularly where the public is present
- COSHH information for the products used on site
Can they explain the method?
A competent cleaner can tell you what method they will use and why it suits your surface. On carpet that means whether they are extracting or using a low moisture system, and how long drying will take. On stone it means whether they intend to clean, hone, polish or seal, and the difference between them.
A vague answer to a direct question about method is the clearest single warning sign. It usually means one machine and one process is being applied to every job regardless of what is in front of them.
The quote itself
A quote should say what is included, what is excluded, and whether the price is fixed. Where a site visit is genuinely needed, a good company will say so rather than invent a number.
Be wary of prices markedly below everyone else. On cleaning work the cost is overwhelmingly labour, so an unusually low price means less time on site, and less time means corners cut somewhere you will notice later.
- What exactly is included, room by room or area by area
- What is specifically excluded and would cost extra
- Whether the price is fixed or hourly, and what happens if it overruns
- Payment terms, and whether a deposit is required
Reviews, references and evidence
Reviews are useful when they are specific. A review that describes the actual job, the property type and what was done tells you far more than a one-line rating.
For commercial contracts, ask for a reference on a comparable site. Cleaning a small office well does not mean a company can run a multi-site contract with out-of-hours access and key holding.
Questions worth asking every time
A short list covers most of what matters, and how the questions are answered tells you as much as the answers themselves.
- Are you insured, and can I see the certificate?
- What method will you use on this surface, and why?
- How long will it take, and how long before I can use the room?
- What is not included in this price?
- Who will actually be doing the work, and will it be the same people each time?
- What happens if something is damaged or missed?
Warning signs
Pressure to decide immediately, cash-only demands, no written quote and no fixed address are the classic problems. So is a company that will not tell you what product they intend to use on an expensive floor.
The subtler warning sign is a promise that everything can be removed. Some stains are dye, some carpet is worn rather than dirty, and some stone is etched rather than dull. Anyone who guarantees a perfect result without seeing the surface is either guessing or overselling.