Commercial cleaning checklist: area by area, for Irish workplaces

01

The duty behind a commercial cleaning checklist

No Irish law requires a document called a commercial cleaning checklist. The law requires keeping a workplace clean and safe, and the checklist is how a cleaning team, in-house or contracted, shows that the cleaning is planned, done and looked at.

The general duty is in the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, section 8. An employer must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety, health and welfare at work of their employees, and the list of particular duties in section 8(2) includes maintaining the place of work "in a condition that is safe and without risk to health" and "providing and maintaining facilities and arrangements for the welfare of his or her employees at work".

The specific duties are in Chapter 1 of Part 2 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007 (S.I. No. 299 of 2007), the chapter on the workplace. Four of its regulations are the backbone of any cleaning checklist:

• Regulation 18(a) and (b): every place of work must be "kept in a clean state", with "accumulations of dirt, refuse, trade refuse and waste" removed "by a suitable method as frequently as necessary to maintain an appropriate level of safety and health", and the floor of every workroom cleaned in the same way.
• Regulation 20: sanitary and washing facilities, lavatories and washbasins must be provided, maintained and kept "in a clean state".
• Regulation 9(1)(a): floors must have no dangerous bumps, holes or slopes and be, so far as is reasonably practicable, "not slippery".
• Regulation 12(h): emergency routes and exits, and the traffic routes and doors giving access to them, must be "free from obstruction so that they can be used at any time without hindrance". A cleaning trolley or a pile of bin bags parked in a stairwell breaks this one.

Other duties govern how the cleaning is done. Section 19 of the Act requires a written risk assessment and section 20 a safety statement, which for a cleaning contractor means wet floors, chemicals, manual handling, lone working and late or early hours. The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Chemical Agents) Regulations 2001 (S.I. No. 619 of 2001, since amended) require every employer to determine whether hazardous chemical agents are present and to assess the risk, taking account of the supplier's safety data sheet.

Keep three documents apart. The cleaning specification is the contract: what is cleaned, to what standard and how often. The cleaning schedule sets the daily, weekly and periodic frequencies. The checklist, the subject of this guide, is the working list for a shift or an area: the tasks in order, with space to record that each was done and what was found. A good one is short, specific to the premises and written in the order the work is done.

02

What a commercial cleaning checklist covers

Commercial premises in Ireland range from offices over a shop to a multi-tenant block in a business park, but the same areas recur. Divide the checklist by area, not as one long list for the building, so that each part can be completed and checked on its own:

• Entrance and reception: the first thing visitors see, and where most of the dirt and rain come in.
• Open-plan offices and desks: bins, touch points, clear desk surfaces and floors.
• Meeting rooms: tables, chairs, screens and whiteboards, reset for the next day.
• Kitchens and tea points: sinks, worktops, appliances, fridges and waste.
• Toilets and washrooms: toilets, urinals, basins, dispensers, floors and supplies. They have a guide of their own: the toilet cleaning checklist.
• Corridors, stairs and lifts: handrails, door push plates, lift buttons and floors on the busiest routes.
• Touch points across the building: door handles, light switches, push plates, shared phones, printers and card readers.
• Waste and recycling: internal bins, the general waste, dry mixed recycling and food waste streams, and the bin store.
• Anything specialist: a shop floor, a staff gym, a treatment room in a GP surgery, a crèche room or a commercial kitchen, each with its own list.

Leave out any service the contract does not cover. A checklist that lists window cleaning when a specialist does it every quarter invites a tick against work the team never does.

In an apartment development, the owners' management company, usually through its managing agent, engages the contractor for the common areas, and the checklist should cover those areas only.

03

The checklist, area by area

The tasks below are a starting point for a typical office or mixed commercial building. Adjust them to the building and take the frequencies from the schedule. For a fuller office version, see the office cleaning checklist.

Entrance and reception

• Vacuum entrance matting and shake out removable mats; in wet weather, check and change them during the day.
• Clean hard floors by dry method first, then damp mop or scrubber-dryer, and keep people off the wet section until it is dry.
• Clean the glass of entrance doors and screens at hand height.
• Wipe the reception desk, visitor seating, the signing-in screen and door push plates.
• Empty bins and check the area is clear of trip hazards.

Offices and desks

• Empty waste and recycling bins into the right stream and replace liners.
• Wipe each clear desk; do not move papers or equipment unless the specification says so.
• Wipe shared keyboards, phones and printer controls where agreed.
• Vacuum carpets and walkways, with the busiest routes done daily, and spot-clean spills.
• Dust window sills, ledges, shelves and partition tops within reach, without climbing on furniture.

Meeting rooms

• Clear cups and litter, and wipe tables and chairs.
• Clean whiteboards if left clean-ready, and wipe control panels.
• Vacuum or mop and reset the furniture to the standard layout.

Kitchens and tea points

• Clean and disinfect worktops, sinks and taps.
• Wipe appliance fronts, handles and controls: fridge, microwave, kettle, water boiler and dishwasher.
• Empty food waste, general waste and recycling.
• Mop the floor and restock hand soap and paper towels.
• Where food is prepared for sale or service, follow the cleaning schedule in the business's food safety management system; in a commercial kitchen it takes precedence over this list.

Toilets and washrooms

• Clean and disinfect toilets, urinals, seats and flush handles.
• Clean basins, taps, mirrors and cubicles; restock paper, soap and towels; empty bins and check sanitary bins.
• Mop the floor working towards the door, and report any leak, blockage or broken fitting.

Corridors, stairs and lifts

• Vacuum or mop floors and stair treads, one side of a stair at a time where people are still using it.
• Wipe handrails, door handles, push plates and lift buttons.
• Check escape routes and exits are clear of cleaning equipment, waste and stored items.

Weekly, monthly and periodic

• Weekly cleaning: dust high ledges and skirting boards, clean doors and frames, inside microwaves and fridges, and internal glass.
• Monthly: dust vents and grilles, clean light switches and sockets thoroughly, and wash internal bins.
• Periodic, often quarterly or annually: deep clean carpets, strip and reseal hard floors, deep clean toilets and kitchens, clean behind and under fixed equipment, and arrange external windows with a specialist.

04

How to use the checklist on shift

A checklist only helps if it matches how the work is really done. A few habits make the difference.

1. Write it in route order. The list should follow the path the operative walks, so it is read as the work progresses rather than looked at afterwards.
2. Clean top to bottom and clean to dirty. High surfaces before low ones, dry methods before wet, and toilets last or with separate equipment, so dirt and germs are not carried from one area to the next.
3. Put the colour code on the list. Many cleaning teams use separate colours of cloth, mop and bucket for toilets, general areas and food areas, so that nothing used on a toilet reaches a kitchen worktop. The colour for each area belongs on the checklist.
4. Name the product, and point to the safety data sheet. The HSA's Safety in Contract Cleaning (2013) says safety data sheets should be easily accessible to cleaners, dilution instructions followed closely, and some products never mixed: bleach with ammonia or toilet cleaner can give off a harmful gas.
5. Plan the wet cleaning around people. The HSA's advice on rescheduling floor wet cleaning is to reschedule it to a low-traffic time where possible, allow the most drying time before the floor is used again, and arrange the cleaning schedule in consultation with the building's operators and users.
6. Record exceptions, not only ticks. A task that could not be done, because a room was locked or a meeting ran late, should say so. So should a fault found: a leaking tap, a broken light, a stain that will not lift.
7. Make the list fit the hours. A list longer than the time on site gets completed on paper, not in the building. Time each area once and set the list, or the hours, to match.

Keep one checklist per area or per route, not one for the whole building. When something is missed, a list per area shows where; a single sheet for the building shows only that the shift ended.

05

How to check the checklist is being followed

A completed checklist shows that the work was recorded. Whether it was done, and done well, needs someone else to look. That is true whether the cleaning is in-house or bought from a contractor, and in Irish law the client and the contractor each have their part.

• The contractor as employer owes its cleaners the section 8 duties, including instruction, training and supervision. The HSA's contract cleaning guidance says a risk assessment should be completed for each place of work before the cleaner starts there, and the workplace should share its own with the cleaning staff.
• The person in control of the premises: section 15 of the 2005 Act applies to anyone with control, to any extent, of a non-domestic place of work used by people who are not their employees, or with a duty under a contract or tenancy to maintain or repair it. They must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that it is safe and without risk to health.
• Employers who share a place of work: section 21 requires them to co-operate, co-ordinate and inform each other of risks. In a multi-tenant building that usually means the tenants and the cleaning contractor, and the landlord or managing agent too where its own staff work in the building.

The practical checks are the same in any building:

• The supervisor's walk-round. A short inspection of a sample of areas at varied times, including early morning when the night's work is fresh. The cleaning supervisor duties guide covers the role.
• A quality audit. A scored inspection of cleanliness against the specification, often monthly, sometimes with the client.
• Complaints. Each one is worth checking against the checklist for that area and time.
• Completion against the schedule. How many scheduled tasks were completed, and why the rest were not. Every task done every night, never an exception, usually means nobody is reading it.

Review the checklist when the building's use changes: a new tenant, different hours, a canteen that opens or closes. Section 19(3) of the Act requires the risk assessment to be reviewed after a significant change, and the checklist should follow it.

06

Where the checklist record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

The paper checklist is filled in by the person whose work it records, often at the end of the shift, and lives in a folder in the cleaners' store. A client asking whether the third-floor kitchen was cleaned last night has to take someone's word for it, and a contractor with twenty sites hears about a missed area when the complaint arrives.

SiteClara puts a printed QR poster at each area on the checklist, with an optional NFC tag behind it. A member of the team scans the code or taps the tag on their own phone, with no app to install, and sees the scheduled checks due at that location. They mark each one done, or explain what stopped them, and can add a photo. The time and the person are recorded as it happens. A fault found on the round, such as a leaking tap or a broken dispenser, can be reported there and goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it.

The supervisor sees what is due, done and missed, records why a check was missed, and sees open jobs by building and floor. At the end of the day they review the checks and photos, add a note and approve the report, which goes to nominated management or client contacts the next morning, showing what was completed, what is still open and how the scheduled checks went.

07

Questions people ask

What is included in commercial cleaning?

Commercial cleaning is the cleaning of workplaces rather than homes. The HSA's Safety in Contract Cleaning names schools, offices, factories, hospitals, health care facilities and retail outlets among the workplaces that employ cleaners, in-house or through a contractor. What must be cleaned comes from Regulations 18 and 20 of the General Application Regulations 2007: the place of work kept in a clean state, dirt, refuse and waste removed, the floor of every workroom cleaned, and sanitary and washing facilities kept clean. In practice that means bins, floors, toilets, kitchens and touch points, with anything more, such as windows or deep cleans, set out in the specification.

What are the 7 stages of cleaning?

Counts vary between training courses. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland's Safe Food Handling guidance for butchers gives six stages of effective cleaning: pre-clean to get rid of loose material and scraps, clean with detergent, rinse, clean with disinfectant following the manufacturer's instructions, rinse, and allow surfaces and equipment to air dry. It adds that detergent and disinfectant often come combined as a sanitiser, so the manufacturer's instructions apply. The same order suits a kitchen or tea point on a commercial cleaning checklist.

08

Further reading, and a list to take away

The law is sections 8, 15, 19, 20 and 21 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and Regulations 9, 12, 18 and 20 of the General Application Regulations 2007, all on the Irish Statute Book. Quotations are from the texts as enacted and made. The HSA's Guide to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (General Application) Regulations 2007, Chapter 1 of Part 2: Workplace (December 2007) explains each workplace regulation, and warns that an inappropriate cleaning method can destroy a floor's anti-slip properties.

Before you issue a commercial cleaning checklist to the team, check that it:

• is divided by area and written in the order the work is done;
• matches the specification, with nothing on it the contract does not cover;
• takes its frequencies from the cleaning schedule, not a separate list;
• names the colour code, the product and the dilution for each area, with the safety data sheets to hand;
• plans wet cleaning for quiet times, with barriers until the floor is dry and signs removed after;
• keeps escape routes and exits clear of trolleys, waste and stored items;
• has room to record tasks not done, and why, and faults found;
• fits the hours on site when done properly;
• is checked by someone other than the person who completed it;
• is reviewed when the building's use changes, alongside the risk assessment.