What a commercial exterior cleaning quote should include

The problem with a single figure

A quote that says "exterior cleaning — $X" cannot be checked, cannot be compared against a competing bid, and cannot be enforced. When the walkway is done and the gum is still there, or three elevations are washed and the fourth was "not included", there is nothing to point at. On commercial property the scope document matters more than the number, because the number is meaningless without it.

One: the surfaces, named and measured

Which elevations, by compass direction or by naming the street they face. How much walkway, in square feet or in linear feet by width. Which entrances. Whether the rear service area and the dumpster enclosure are in or out. "The building" is not a scope; a building has four sides and a roof and people disagree about which of them was meant.

Two: the method, per surface

Soft wash or pressure, and on the flatwork whether a surface cleaner is being used. This is how you know the contractor has identified your substrates, and it is your protection if painted block comes back bare.

Three: the exclusions and the stains called out separately

Rust at the sprinkler heads on the north walk. Gum at the three entrances. The oil at the dock. Efflorescence on the east wall. These need naming and pricing individually, because they take different products and longer, and a price by area will not have them in it. This single item is the most common cause of a dispute at the end of a commercial job.

Four: the schedule, and the access window

Dates, the sequence if it is a multi-building or multi-tenant property, and the hours. For retail that means "before 7am"; for a plant it means the shift. A sequence you can publish to tenants is worth having in writing, because your notice to them depends on it not moving.

Five: water, power and run-off

Whose water, whose power, which spigots, and where the run-off goes. On a property where the answer is a storm drain, that is a question worth having answered before the work rather than during it.

Six: insurance, as a document

A certificate of insurance, with your entity named, in your hand before anybody starts. Not a claim on a website and not a verbal assurance. For any contractor working at height on your property, this is the item to be least flexible about — and a contractor who produces it promptly has told you something useful about how they operate.

Seven: what "done" looks like

A walk-through at the end, with whoever is signing, against the scope document. It takes ten minutes and it is the difference between a punch list resolved on the day and an email thread three weeks later.