How often should strata common areas be cleaned?

There is no universal answer, because a 20-unit townhouse complex and a 200-unit tower with an amenity floor are not the same building. But there is a sensible way to work it out: schedule by traffic, not by budget, and then check the three areas that always get cut first.

A starting point by building type

• Townhouse and low-rise complexes (under ~40 units): weekly common-area service is usually enough — shared walkways, entries, any shared corridors, bin area, plus a mail and parcel space if there is one.
• Mid-size strata (~40–100 units): two to three visits a week. Lobbies and elevators see enough traffic that weekly service visibly fails by day five.
• Towers and high-traffic buildings (100+ units, amenity floors, retail at grade): daily service on lobbies, elevators and washrooms, with a deeper weekly rotation through corridors and amenity spaces.
• Commercial and mixed-use: usually after hours, scheduled around trading hours rather than fitted into them.

The three spaces councils under-schedule

Across the buildings we service, the same three areas get cut when a budget is tightened, and all three are visible to exactly the people whose opinion matters:

• Elevator door tracks. Grit accumulates, residents see it every single trip, and it eventually causes door faults that cost far more than cleaning them would have.
• Garbage and recycling rooms. Nothing makes a building feel neglected faster, and nothing is noticed more immediately by a prospective buyer being shown around.
• Parkade stairwells and landings. Often the first thing a resident touches on the way in and the last space anyone schedules.

Write the task list, not just the frequency

"Weekly cleaning" is not a scope. It is the reason councils and cleaners end up disagreeing about whether the job was done. A workable agreement names the areas and the tasks within them — floors, glass, door hardware, handrails, baseboards, light fixtures, elevator interiors and tracks, washroom sanitising and restocking, bin area floors.

It should also say who supplies the products and equipment. That single line prevents a surprising number of arguments.

Move-in and move-out cleans are separate

Unit turnovers and post-move common-area touch-ups are not part of a regular common-area schedule, and should not be absorbed quietly into one. Buildings with high turnover should budget for them explicitly — they are predictable, so they can be planned rather than treated as exceptions.

A note on the people doing the work

Consistency matters more than almost anything else in cleaning. A building serviced by the same crew each week gets a standard that holds, because they know where the problems are and notice what has changed. A rotating cast resets that knowledge every visit. When comparing providers, ask whether the cleaners are their own employees, and what happens to your schedule when one of them is away.

Frequently asked