Commercial Cleaning Across the East Valley

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Commercial cleaning is the routine and one-time cleaning of the buildings where people work, shop, worship and see their doctor. We are As It Should Be Cleaning LLC, a commercial cleaning company based in Mesa, and our cleaning specialists have served the Valley of the Sun since 1988. Today we work across the East Valley: Mesa, Gilbert, Tempe, Scottsdale, Apache Junction, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley. This page names the commercial cleaning services we offer, says what each one consists of, and then explains how a cleaning arrangement starts and how it runs once it is under way.

The short version: we provide complete building maintenance for commercial, retail and industrial properties. That covers office cleaning and janitorial service on a daily, weekly or monthly plan, carpet care, floor maintenance, medical office and retail store cleaning, and one-time jobs such as post-construction cleaning, special events and the cleanup after a dust storm. As our Google profile puts it, we are proud to support schools, churches, banks and businesses. Every plan is customized to the building and to what its owner or manager specifies.

Our commercial cleaning services at a glance

Service	What it is	How often
Office cleaning	The work areas, shared rooms and restrooms of an office of any size	Daily, weekly or monthly
Janitorial service	Trash removal, restroom cleaning and floor maintenance for a facility	On a set schedule
Daily cleaning	A visit every working day, timed around your hours	Daily
Carpet cleaning	Customized carpet care with the machine in our carpet cleaning van	Periodic, or when the carpet calls for it
Floor maintenance	Care of hard floors beyond the routine mop	Routine and periodic
Medical office cleaning	Cleaning and disinfecting a practice’s rooms within the practice’s own rules	On the schedule the practice sets
Retail store cleaning	The sales floor, entrance, counters, restrooms and back room	Around your store hours
Green cleaning	Any of the above with non-toxic, biodegradable products	Every visit
Post-construction cleaning	Debris removal, dusting and deep cleaning of all surfaces	Once, before the space is occupied
Special event cleaning	Cleaning before, during and after an event	Per event
Dust storm cleanup	Floors and surfaces cleared of dust after a storm	When a storm calls for it

What each service consists of

Office cleaning

Office cleaning is the center of what we do, and we clean offices of all sizes. A visit covers the work areas, the shared rooms and the restrooms: trash and recycling go out, desks, counters and ledges are dusted and wiped with microfiber cloths, carpet is vacuumed with HEPA vacuums, hard floors are mopped, and the restrooms and the break room are cleaned and disinfected. The aim is plain. The office is clean and ready for a productive day of business when the first person walks in. We say it in our own advertising, and it is our experience, not a study: offices cleaned and disinfected properly are offices with fewer sick days and happy employees.

Janitorial service

Janitorial service is the standing arrangement that keeps a facility in order between one working day and the next. Ours covers the full range: trash removal, restroom cleaning and floor maintenance, so the facility is clean and well maintained at all times. The routine itself, task by task and night by night, is set out on our page about janitorial services in Gilbert, AZ.

Daily cleaning

Some buildings cannot wait a week. For those we clean every day, and our team works around your schedule so the space is ready for business each morning. Restaurants, busy offices and anywhere the public walks in are the usual cases. One restaurant owner wrote in a Google review that James cleans the restaurant five days a week. A client with a mortgage office wrote in 2013 that not a day had been missed since we started cleaning his office more than a decade earlier.

Carpet cleaning

Vacuuming keeps a carpet presentable. Dirt that has been walked deep into the pile is another matter, and that is what carpet cleaning is for. We offer customized carpet care and we run a carpet cleaning van for it: the machine rides in the van, and hoses run from it to a carpet wand inside the building.

How often is a matter of traffic. The Carpet and Rug Institute advises vacuuming daily in high-traffic areas, twice a week in medium-traffic areas and weekly in light-traffic areas, and having carpet professionally deep cleaned every 12 to 18 months to remove embedded dirt. An entrance, a corridor and a reception area see far more feet than a back office, so a carpet plan treats them separately. That is what customized means here: the schedule follows the way your carpet is used.

Floor maintenance

Hard floors need more than a nightly mop if they are to keep their look. Floor maintenance is the periodic work on top of the routine: dust mopping and damp mopping on the regular visits, then machine work at intervals that depend on the floor and its traffic. Tile, sheet vinyl, sealed concrete, wood and rubber gym flooring each take different care, so the first thing to establish is what the floor is made of and what its maker says about cleaning it.

A wet floor is also a safety matter. The federal rule on walking and working surfaces says the floor of each workroom is to be kept clean and, to the extent feasible, dry (OSHA 1910.22). That is why floor work is done when the building is empty or the area can be closed off, and why the wet floor signs come out.

Medical office cleaning

We understand how much depends on a clean and safe medical office, and our trained team has the equipment the work needs. What sets a medical office apart from any other office is not the mop. It is the set of rules the practice itself works under, and a cleaning arrangement has to fit inside them. These are the points to settle with any cleaning company before it starts.

• The practice’s written schedule. OSHA’s bloodborne pathogens standard requires an employer whose staff may be exposed to blood to keep the worksite clean and sanitary and to set a written schedule for cleaning and a method of decontamination (29 CFR 1910.1030). The cleaning scope should line up with that schedule room by room.
• Who cleans what. The same standard says equipment and working surfaces are to be decontaminated after contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials. Put in writing which clinical cleanup stays with the practice’s own staff and which rooms and surfaces belong to the cleaning company.
• Sharps and red-bag waste. Arizona’s rules define biohazardous medical waste to include medical sharps and discarded materials that are saturated or dripping with human blood (A.A.C. R18-13-1401). Decide who handles those containers, and mark the bins a cleaner is never to empty.
• High-touch surfaces. The CDC’s recommendations for health care facilities call for cleaning and disinfecting high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs and light switches more often than surfaces that are rarely touched, and for EPA-registered disinfectants to be used as their makers instruct (CDC).
• The center’s own policies. This one applies to outpatient treatment centers that hold a state health care license, not to every medical office. For those centers, Arizona’s rule is that the premises are cleaned and disinfected according to the center’s policies and procedures to prevent, minimize and control illness and infection (A.A.C. R9-10-1030). State law leaves the private offices and clinics of health care providers who hold a professional license outside that licensing, with exceptions such as freestanding urgent care centers (A.R.S. 36-402), so ask the practice which it is. If it is such a center, its policies should be handed to the cleaning company at the start.
• Patient records. The Department of Health and Human Services says janitorial services that clean a practice’s offices are generally not business associates under HIPAA, because any contact with patient information is incidental (HHS). Charts and paperwork should still be put away before the cleaners arrive.

Retail store cleaning

We believe a clean and organized store is good for sales and for what customers think of the place. Retail store cleaning covers the sales floor, the entrance, the counters, the restrooms and the back room. It is timed around your store hours, so the store is spotless, well kept and welcoming when the doors open.

Green cleaning

Green cleaning is a choice of products and tools, not a separate visit. We use non-toxic, biodegradable cleaning products that are safe for your employees and for the environment, together with HEPA vacuums and microfiber cloths, which let us clean more effectively while using fewer resources.

Two checks are open to any client of any cleaning company. The EPA’s Safer Choice label means the agency has reviewed every ingredient in a product against its criteria for human health and the environment (EPA). And under OSHA’s hazard communication standard, an employer has to keep the safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical readily accessible to its employees during each work shift (29 CFR 1910.1200), so a cleaning company should be able to tell you which products it will use in your building and show you their sheets. As for the vacuums: the EPA describes a HEPA filter as one that can theoretically remove at least 99.97 percent of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and other airborne particles 0.3 microns in size (EPA).

Post-construction cleaning

New construction and renovation leave a space that is finished but not clean. Our post-construction cleaning covers debris removal, dusting and a thorough deep cleaning of all surfaces, so a newly built or renovated space is ready for occupancy. Fine dust is the stubborn part. It tends to settle on ledges, light fixtures, window frames and the tops of doors, so the work starts high, as in the photograph of James on the ladder, and ends with the floor.

Special event cleaning

Hosting an event? We take care of the cleaning so you can look after your guests. The work comes in three parts: the venue is cleaned before the doors open, kept in order while the event is on, and cleaned again after the last guest leaves. The same goes for a building that holds events on top of its normal week. The pastor of a Mesa church wrote in a Google review that when the church needs extra service, such as for funerals or during Holy Week, a single phone call or email gets the job done.

Schools, churches and banks

Offices are our specialty, and they are not the only buildings on our rounds: schools, churches and banks are on them too. Each kind of building keeps its own clock, and the cleaning follows it. A school empties in the afternoon, so its classrooms, corridors and restrooms are cleaned once the day is over. A church has to be right for Sunday morning, with funerals, weddings and holy days on top. A bank’s lobby is what its customers see first, and the rooms behind the counter are entered only as the bank directs. Tell us how your building runs, and the plan is fitted to it.

Dust storm cleanup

The National Weather Service defines the monsoon in the Southwest as the period from June 15 through September 30, and says dust storms are more common during the early part of it (NWS Tucson). When a storm leaves its dust across a floor, the floor has to be cleared before the building can be used. We have done that as an emergency job, and the client was still able to open for business that day. More about dust and Mesa buildings is on our page about commercial cleaning services in Mesa, AZ.

How a commercial cleaning arrangement starts

1. You call or send the form. Tell us what kind of building it is, where it is and what you need. An office that wants a nightly clean and a contractor who needs one renovated suite cleaned are different conversations, and it helps to know which one we are having.
2. We come out. We visit the building, walk it with you, answer your questions and give you a free estimate.
3. You say how you want it cleaned. We clean to your specifications. The walk-through is where they are said aloud: which rooms, which surfaces, what is never to be touched, what has gone wrong with cleaning before.
4. The plan is fitted to the building. Daily, weekly or monthly, at the hours that suit the way you work, with periodic work such as carpet and floor care set at its own interval.
5. Access is arranged and the first visit happens. Keys, codes and a storage spot are settled before the first night, not during it.

What to have ready before the walk-through

• The rough size of the space and the number of restrooms.
• The floor types: carpet, tile, vinyl, wood, concrete or rubber, and roughly how much of each.
• Your opening hours, and the hours when cleaning would suit you.
• How many people work in the building and whether the public comes in.
• Anything special: a server room, a lab, exam rooms, a kitchen, a workshop, a room nobody may enter.
• What bothers you now. A smell, a floor that never looks clean, bins that get missed, dust on the vents.
• Whether there is a closet where cleaning equipment and supplies can stay in the building.

What a walk-through looks at

A walk-through is the estimate done on foot. Room by room, it answers the questions a floor plan cannot: how much of the floor is open and how much sits under furniture, how the entrances are used and how much dirt they let in, how many fixtures each restroom has, where the trash goes once it leaves the building, where the water and the power are, and which surfaces are delicate. It is also the moment to point at things. A stain, a scuffed corridor, a sticky break room floor: each is easier to show than to describe.

What a written scope should cover

Whoever cleans your building, ask for the scope in writing. A written scope is the list both sides work from, and it settles most disagreements before they start. It should say:

• Areas. Every room or zone by name, including the ones left out.
• Tasks. What is done in each area, in plain words: empty, wipe, dust, vacuum, mop, disinfect, restock.
• Frequency. Which tasks happen on every visit and which weekly, monthly or a few times a year.
• Days and hours. The days of service and the window in which the cleaners arrive.
• Supplies. Who buys the paper towels, toilet paper, soap and bin liners, and who keeps them stocked.
• Products and equipment. What is used in the building and where it is stored.
• Extras. How additional work is requested and priced: a carpet cleaning, or a cleanup after an event or a storm.
• Contact. Who to call, and how a problem is reported and fixed.

After-hours access and keys: questions to settle

A great deal of commercial cleaning is done when the building is empty, which means someone other than your staff unlocks the door. None of the questions below has a single right answer. Each needs an answer before the first visit.

• Who holds a key or a code, and how many are issued?
• Is the alarm armed when the cleaners arrive, and who is called if it goes off?
• Which door is used, and is it locked again while the cleaners are inside?
• Which rooms, cabinets or desks are off limits?
• What happens when someone is still working? One client wrote in a Google review that he has been in his office after hours many times when we show up, so it does happen.
• Which lights, doors and thermostats are to be left as they were found?
• What is done on a holiday, or when the building is closed?
• Who is told, and how, if the cleaners find something wrong: a door left open, a leak, a broken window?

How it runs once it has started

A cleaning arrangement that works is mostly quiet. The building is clean in the morning and nobody has to think about it. What keeps it that way is an easy way to ask for something. One client described his in a Google review: when he needs extra attention in the workshop area of his business, or wants nobody in there until a critical job is complete, he writes a simple note and leaves it on the receptionist’s desk. A note, a call or an email is enough.

Needs change. A plan that started as weekly may need to become daily, a renovation finishes, a storm leaves its dust. Because the same company handles the routine and the one-time jobs, each of these is a phone call and not a search for a new contractor. We have great references in all areas of building maintenance, and you are welcome to ask for them.

Questions people ask