How Many Cleans Does Your Schedule Actually Need?

The four cleans, defined

• Rough or interim clean: debris and dust removal so trades can keep working, usually after drywall and before ceilings and flooring.
• Final clean: the detail clean to move-in condition, top to bottom, after trades are substantially done.
• Touch-up or pre-occupancy clean: a light pass right before the owner's walk or move-in to remove dust from late punch work.
• Punch return: a trip back to correct items from the owner's walk.

Count your mobilizations

Each time a crew has to come back to the site, that's a mobilization with its own setup, travel and supervision. Count them from your schedule, not from the spec:

• One per building or phase turned over separately
• One per floor or wing if the owner takes them at different times
• One for any area handed over early, such as a data hall, kitchen or classroom wing
• One touch-up before the owner's walk if trades will still be working after the final
• Punch returns, usually one

For example, a three-phase lab addition we bid needed three separate final-clean mobilizations, each sized to its phase. Pricing it as one clean would have meant two change orders later.

Ask for per-mobilization pricing

Ask bidders to price each mobilization separately and to give a rate for an added one. When the schedule slips or the owner adds an early move-in, you already know the cost.

Match the number of cleans to how the site is run

Sites where trades clean up after themselves and finished surfaces are protected may need only one rough clean. Sites with heavy dust, no floor protection, or trades eating and storing material in finished rooms need more cleaning, and each clean takes longer. Daily housekeeping is cheaper than a heavier final clean.

How NEAT bids it: we price each phase and mobilization as its own line, plus the joint punch walk and one return trip. Added trips use a posted rate.