Three quotes, three very different numbers, and no way to tell which one is honest.
If you have ever put an office or warehouse clean out to quote, you will recognise the pattern. One contractor comes in low, one comes in high, one lands somewhere in between, and none of the three documents explain how they got there. Comparing them feels like guesswork, so most buyers default to the middle number or the cheapest one and hope.
There is a better way to read a cleaning quote, and it starts with understanding what is actually inside the price.
The Four Pricing Models
Almost every cleaning quote in South Africa is built on one of four models. Knowing which one you are looking at tells you immediately what it is and is not sensitive to.
| Model | How it works | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| Per cleaner-hour | A rate per hour of labour, multiplied by hours on site | Sites where the workload varies, or where you want to control hours directly |
| Per square metre | A rate applied to cleanable floor area at a stated frequency | Large, uniform spaces — warehousing, open-plan floors, retail |
| Fixed monthly against scope | One monthly figure covering a defined scope and frequency matrix | Most offices and commercial sites; easiest to budget and to hold to account |
| Per job | A once-off price for a defined piece of work | Deep cleans, post-renovation, move-outs, periodic carpet or floor work |
The trap is comparing across models. A per-square-metre rate and a fixed monthly figure are not comparable until you know the frequency and the scope sitting behind each one. Ask every contractor to quote on the same basis, or you are comparing nothing.
What Actually Sits Inside the Rate
A commercial cleaning price is mostly labour, and labour is not just the wage. For every cleaner on your site, a compliant contractor is carrying:
- The wage itself, at or above the applicable legal minimum for the sector
- Statutory on-costs — unemployment insurance and workplace compensation contributions
- Paid leave, sick leave and public holidays, which have to be funded across the year
- Any provident, benefit or council levies that apply to the contractor
- Relief cover, so the site is not empty when someone is off
- Personal protective equipment and uniform
- Training and induction time
On top of the labour stack sits supervision, transport to and between sites, chemicals and consumables, machinery and its depreciation and servicing, insurance, administration and compliance, and a margin. In most commercial contracts, labour and its on-costs are by far the largest share — which is precisely why an unusually low quote should worry you rather than please you.
Why there is no rate card on this page
We do not publish rand figures for cleaning work online. Two reasons. First, the wage floor and statutory on-costs that drive the largest part of any cleaning price are reviewed periodically, so any number published here would be wrong within a year and would still be sitting on the internet. Second, prices are site-specific — the same floor area can carry twice the workload depending on surface types, traffic, access hours and consumable load. Any contractor quoting you a firm figure without seeing the site is guessing, and you will pay for the guess later in variations.
The Four Things That Move a Price Most
Frequency
Five days a week is not five times the cost of once a week, because setup, travel and supervision do not scale linearly — but it is the single largest lever. Before shopping on price, check whether the frequency you have specified is the frequency you actually need. Some areas need daily attention and some do not, and a scope that treats a storeroom like a boardroom is expensive for no reason.
Hours and access windows
Cleaning that has to happen after hours, before opening, or around a shift pattern costs more than cleaning that can happen during a normal working day. If your building permits daytime cleaning, you have a cost lever available. If it does not, say so up front so the quote reflects reality.
Surfaces and machinery
Sealed vinyl, natural stone, epoxy warehouse floors, carpet and unsealed concrete all carry different maintenance requirements and different equipment. A site with a mix of surfaces needs more machinery and more skill, and the price should reflect that rather than pretending all floors are the same.
Consumables
Whether toilet paper, hand towel, soap and bin liners are in or out of the price can move the monthly figure noticeably, and it is the most common reason two quotes look different when they are actually the same. Check this first when comparing.
Local Factors That Change the Number in Gqeberha
Coastal and industrial exposure is not a marketing line here, it is a cost input. Properties in the metro deal with salt-laden air, high humidity and airborne industrial dust, which means glazing, external metalwork and horizontal surfaces need attention on a shorter cycle than a specification written for an inland city would assume.
A national contractor pricing your site off a standard template will often come in cheaper — because the template has under-specified the frequency. The site will then underperform, and you will conclude that professional cleaning does not work. The specification was simply wrong for where the building stands.
How to Compare Quotes Like for Like
- Issue the same written scope to every contractor, rather than letting each write their own
- Specify the frequency matrix yourself, so nobody quietly drops a periodic task
- Ask each contractor to state staffing hours on site per week
- State clearly whether consumables are in or out
- Ask for the escalation basis and the date it applies
- Ask what is excluded — the answer is more revealing than the price
The Arithmetic of an Underpriced Quote
If you know roughly how many cleaner-hours a site needs, you can sanity-check any quote in about two minutes. Take the monthly figure, strip out a reasonable allowance for consumables, equipment and overhead, and see what is left per hour of labour. If the remainder cannot cover a lawful wage plus statutory on-costs plus leave provision, then the contract cannot be delivered as quoted.
Something has to give, and it is always one of three things: hours on site are cut below what the scope needs, compliance is skipped, or the staff are underpaid. All three eventually become your problem — as a standard that slips, as an injured worker with no compensation cover, or as a supply chain audit finding.
The honest version of a cheap quote
There are legitimate reasons one contractor prices lower than another: an existing team nearby, machinery already amortised, a leaner management structure, or a genuine willingness to work at a thinner margin to win a site. Those reasons can be explained in a sentence. Ask. A contractor with a real explanation will give you one immediately.
The Bottom Line
A cleaning price is not a mystery, it is an assembly: hours, wage and statutory on-costs, supervision, consumables, machinery, overhead, margin. Once you can see those components, comparing quotes stops being guesswork.
Feathers Cleaning and Hygiene assesses the site before quoting, prices against a written scope, and will explain what each element of the figure covers. If a number does not make sense to you, it is not a good number.
Want a quote you can actually interrogate?
We price against a written scope and show you the assumptions behind the number.
Request a Site Assessment Or call 079 096 3267