Task groups, frequencies and what sits inside or outside a contract

Floors

Floor maintenance covers hard floors and soft floors. Hard floor tasks typically include dust removal, damp mopping, and periodic treatment (stripping, sealing, buffing) depending on the finish type. Soft floor tasks include vacuuming and periodic extraction or dry treatment. The tasks in scope for any specific floor area are determined by the finish recorded in the finishes register.

Frequency bands are illustrative. Every building is measured before anything is agreed.

Sanitary areas

Sanitary area cleaning covers WC suites, wash basins, urinals, cubicles and associated floor areas. It includes sanitary ware cleaning and disinfection, mirror cleaning, floor mopping, bin emptying, and consumables replenishment (where consumables supply is the contractor's responsibility under the specification). It does not include plumbing maintenance or repairs.

Kitchens and tea stations

Kitchen and tea station cleaning covers surface wiping (worktops, splashbacks, appliance exteriors), sink and tap cleaning, floor maintenance, bin emptying, and microwave and refrigerator exterior cleaning. Internal refrigerator and oven cleaning is typically a periodic task agreed separately, not part of the daily task list. The task list depends on the type of kitchen: a commercial kitchen in a food business has a different scope from a staff tea station in an office. Food premises have regulatory requirements that sit on top of the cleaning specification; see Sectors for how that works.

Touchpoints

Touchpoint cleaning covers all high-contact surfaces that are not floors, walls or worktops: door handles, push plates, light switches, lift buttons, reception counters, screen surfaces (where agreed), and handrails. The task list is drawn from the walk-through and is specific to the building — a building with no lifts has no lift buttons; a building with a visitor-facing reception has a different touchpoint standard than one without. Touchpoint cleaning typically uses colour-coded equipment to separate sanitary-area equipment from non-sanitary-area equipment.

Glass and internal partitions

Glass and partition cleaning covers internal glazed partitions, internal windows, mirror surfaces, and frameless glass. External window cleaning is out of scope. The task is smear removal and general cleaning of the glass surface; it does not include frame or sill painting, frame repairs, or replacement of any element. The method depends on the coating type — some partition films and applied graphics require particular methods that are specified in the finishes register.

Waste handling

Waste handling covers collection of waste from bins within the building, transfer to the building's designated waste point, and bin liner replacement where liners are in scope. It does not cover off-site waste disposal, which requires a licensed waste contractor. Where the building has a recycling and segregation requirement, the specification states which streams are handled by the cleaning operative and which are the occupant's responsibility. Confidential waste destruction is outside scope.

Periodic works

Periodic works are tasks that sit outside the routine roster and are carried out on a calendar that is agreed and signed at commencement. They include carpet extraction, hard floor stripping and resealing, high-level dusting, deep-clean programmes for kitchens, and internal window cleans where these are scheduled as periodic rather than routine. Periodic works typically require advance notice to the occupant, and dates are agreed at the start of each contract year.

Periodic works are not add-ons to the contract. They are agreed at the same time as the routine scope, priced into the contract, and planned on a calendar. A contract that does not address periodic works at the outset will face them as an unpriced, unplanned interruption later — which typically means they do not happen, or happen at premium rates without prior agreement.

In scope and outside scope

The following treatment is illustrative of how a scope boundary is structured in a typical office contract. The specific content of any contract depends on the building and the agreed task groups.

Variation procedure

A variation is a change to the agreed scope — adding a task, removing an area, changing a frequency, or expanding the building footprint. It is not the same as a one-off request, which is a task carried out once at the buyer's request, outside scope, on an agreed basis, without altering the specification.

The variation procedure works as follows. Either party may request a variation in writing, naming the area or task group affected and the proposed change. The contractor prices the variation against the agreed method for pricing (the same rate structure as the original contract). Both parties agree the price and the implementation date in writing. The specification is updated to reflect the variation, and the updated document is signed and dated by both parties. The original specification version is retained as a record.

Any task that is carried out on more than three occasions without a variation instruction becomes, in practice, part of the scope — whether or not it was priced. The variation procedure is the mechanism that prevents that from happening. It is not administrative overhead; it is the only protection against unpriced scope growth on either side of the contract.

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