NDIS and disability services
Supported accommodation, day programs, respite and provider offices. Cleaning documented so it can be produced as evidence at a Practice Standards audit rather than described from memory.
From $68/hr + GST
Commercial cleaning · Melbourne
Commercial cleaning in Melbourne
We clean offices, medical suites, early learning centres, disability accommodation, warehouses and common property across Melbourne's northern suburbs, from a base in Broadmeadows. One written scope, one fixed monthly price, and our rates published on this page rather than held back until you ask.
$58
Per hour + GST, standard
$750
Minimum monthly contract
30 days
Notice, either way
Free
Site inspection
- Based in Broadmeadows
- Written scope of works
- Monthly quality inspection
- $20m public liability
- Employed cleaners, not subcontractors
- We publish our rates
Rates
What commercial cleaning costs in Melbourne
Melbourne's north is a crowded market and most of it answers a pricing question with a cost guide containing no costs. Here is our full Victorian rate card. It is the fastest way for you to work out whether we are worth a conversation.
| Service window | Rate per hour, ex GST |
|---|---|
| Standard, Mon to Fri, 6am to 6pm | $58.00 |
| Early or late, before 6am or after 6pm Mon to Fri | $64.00 |
| Overnight, finishing between midnight and 8am | $72.00 |
| Saturday | $78.00 |
| Sunday | $95.00 |
| Public holiday | $120.00 |
| One off, periodic or deep clean | $68.00 |
| Medical and clinical protocol | $72.00 |
| Childcare and education protocol | $68.00 |
| NDIS and disability services protocol | $68.00 |
| Make good, handover and fit-out clean | $74.00 |
| Emergency call out, under 24 hours notice | $85.00 |
Minimum recurring contract in Victoria is $750 plus GST per month. That is higher than our Perth minimum of $650, and the reason is specific rather than commercial: Victorian labour carries a 3.155 per cent WorkSafe premium for cleaning and a 1.80 per cent portable long service benefits levy that Western Australia does not have, and those are fixed overheads a very small contract cannot absorb. Consumables, where you want us to supply them, are charged at cost plus 20 per cent. Invoiced monthly in arrears on 14 day terms.
Why the after hours rate is different
Most commercial cleaning in Melbourne happens after 6pm, and the Cleaning Services Award pays a loading for shifts finishing then. In Victoria our loaded cost for an employed full timer working after 6pm is $44.30 an hour against a charge of $64, which is a margin we can hold but not one with much room in it.
A contractor quoting a single flat rate for daytime and evening work is either absorbing that loading or has not found it yet. The second is more common, and it is the reason a cheap first year is often followed by a price rise or a quietly reduced scope. We show the loading on the quote instead.
What you actually sign
An hourly rate is useful for comparison and almost useless for budgeting. What you sign is a monthly figure, built from measured hours at the rate for the window you need.
- Melbourne office benchmarks run $2.00 to $6.00 per square metre per month
- Warehouse and industrial runs $1.50 to $3.00 per square metre per month
- Small, high frequency clinical sites sit well above both, correctly
- We tell you which band your building falls in and why
Sectors
What we clean in Melbourne's north
Each of these is a different job with a different scope, a different chemical selection and a different set of people holding you accountable. Each has its own rate and its own page.
Childcare and early learning
Long day care, kindergartens and outside school hours care. Victorian Working With Children Checks, a scope written against Quality Areas 2 and 3, and low tox chemical selection.
From $68/hr + GST
Medical and allied health
General practice, dental, physiotherapy and specialist rooms. A documented two step clean and disinfect using Whiteley Viraclean, AUST L 69000, with contact time observed.
From $72/hr + GST
Warehouse and industrial
Crib rooms, amenities, change rooms and site offices, plus floor scrubbing, high dusting and racking. Site induction completed before the first shift.
From $58/hr + GST
Office and professional
Professional suites, serviced offices and corporate tenancies, cleaned after hours. Workstations, touch points, kitchens, washrooms and glass.
From $58/hr + GST
Owners corporation
Foyers, lifts, stairwells, corridors, bin bays and car parks. One point of contact for the manager and a written monthly report that can be forwarded to an owner unedited.
Quoted per site
We also clean retail, showrooms, gyms and hospitality front of house before opening or after close, and we clean homes across the same catchment. Residential work is priced from a published table under house cleaning in Melbourne, and exit cleans are set out under end of lease cleaning in Melbourne. Our other city is covered at commercial cleaning in Perth, which runs its own rate card because Western Australian on-costs are different.
Method
How a Melbourne site gets priced
We do not quote a building from a floor plan, a photograph, or a square metre figure read out over the phone. Each of those produces a number that has to be renegotiated later, which is the worst possible way to start a contract.
The seven steps are the same for a 90 square metre suite in Coburg and a 6,000 square metre distribution centre in Somerton. Only the numbers move. If the figure does not work at a sensible margin we re-scope it, drop the frequency, or tell you plainly that we are not the right contractor for the building.
Measure and count on site
Floor area by surface type, pans, urinals, basins, showers, kitchens and crib rooms, meeting rooms, workstations, glass entries, lifts and stairwells. Forty minutes, no obligation, no charge.
Convert it to hours
Using production rates rather than instinct: 150 to 220 square metres an hour on congested office carpet, six to eight minutes per toilet pan and basin set, 45 to 60 workstations an hour. Conservative at first, then re-timed on your site after the first month.
Apply the minimum engagement
The award sets a minimum paid engagement per attendance. It is paid whether or not the work fills it, so it is quoted rather than quietly absorbed and then clawed back.
Apply the right rate
The rate follows the window you actually need. If the building can only be cleaned after 6pm we quote $64, not $58. Clinical sites are quoted at $72 because the protocol takes longer, not because the sector pays more.
Cost the periodics annually
Carpet extraction, hard floor scrubbing and high dusting are costed for the year and divided by twelve, so your monthly figure never jumps in the month the work falls due.
Sanity check against the benchmark
Against the per square metre band for your building type. If the result sits outside it we go back and find out why before you ever see the number.
Issue three options
Usually the same scope at three frequencies, so you can see what dropping from five nights to three genuinely does to the price rather than guessing at it.
Evidence
Claims you can check in a browser
Reliable, insured and police checked are entry tickets. Every credible contractor in Melbourne's north already says all three, and several of them have been saying it since before we existed.
So we do not lead with adjectives. We lead with numbers you can verify without us: the ARTG listing number of the disinfectant, the section of the Act our chemical register answers to, the certificate of currency with its policy number, the published rate. If a claim on this site cannot be checked, it should not be here.
Written scope of works
Every area, task and frequency in a document formatted to attach straight to an audit, accreditation or quality improvement file. It also settles disagreements before they turn into disputes.
Chemical and SDS register
A current safety data sheet for every chemical on your site, and decanted containers labelled. In Victoria this answers the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017 rather than the harmonised scheme, which is a distinction some interstate contractors have not noticed.
Named disinfectant
Whiteley Viraclean, a TGA listed hospital grade disinfectant, AUST L 69000. You can search that number on the ARTG yourself. Most quotes say "hospital grade" and name nothing.
Monthly quality inspection
A scored written inspection sent to you whether you chase it or not. Anything below standard is rectified within 48 hours at our cost, and it is written into the agreement rather than offered as a favour.
Certificates of currency
Twenty million dollars of public liability with a care, custody and control extension, which covers the property we are actually working on. Workers compensation is held separately in each state, because WorkSafe Victoria and WorkCover WA are separate schemes.
Personnel records
National police checks on every cleaner, Victorian Working With Children Checks for anyone attending an education or childcare site, and NDIS worker screening where a site requires it. The Victorian check is not transferable from another state, so our Melbourne people hold the Victorian one.
Industrial north
Vacancy at 7.7 per cent changes the work
Melbourne's northern industrial precinct is the loosest in the city. That is usually reported as bad news. For a cleaning contractor it inverts the whole approach.
High vacancy plus heavy take-up means constant tenant movement, and every one of those movements creates cleaning that did not exist before: a make good at the end of a lease, a handover clean before keys are returned, a fit-out clean before a new tenant opens. None of that work has an incumbent contractor to displace. It is new work, created weekly, across Campbellfield, Somerton, Thomastown, Epping and the Tullamarine belt.
Make good, handover and fit-out cleans are quoted at $74 an hour plus GST or as a fixed job price, and they usually need to happen fast. The detail is under warehouse cleaning in Melbourne.
Changing contractor without a gap
The other reason organisations stay with a cleaner they are unhappy with is the fear of a messy handover. We run it rather than leaving it to you.
- We inspect while you are still under your existing arrangement
- The scope is written and agreed before anything is signed
- Certificates issued and the site induction completed before the first shift
- Keys, alarm codes and access registered on the day the old contract ends
- The first clean is supervised, and the schedule is adjusted rather than your price
- A scored inspection at day 30, then monthly, in writing
- Thirty days notice either way after a three month establishment period
Service areas
Where we work in Melbourne
We are based in Broadmeadows. That puts Campbellfield inside ten minutes, Coburg, Preston, Thomastown, Craigieburn, Epping and Tullamarine inside twenty five, and the airport precinct closer than most of the contractors who advertise there. When something needs attention we are not driving across the city to reach you.
Suburb pages
Broadmeadows base
Broadmeadows
Campbellfield
Coburg
Craigieburn
Epping
Preston
Thomastown
Tullamarine
No travel charge within 25 kilometres of Broadmeadows, which also covers Coolaroo, Dallas, Jacana, Westmeadows, Gladstone Park, Attwood, Glenroy, Fawkner, Pascoe Vale, Reservoir, Somerton, Roxburgh Park, Greenvale, Lalor, Mill Park, Bundoora, Mickleham, Wollert and Melbourne Airport. We take work in the CBD and the inner suburbs on request and we will tell you before you book if a visit fee applies, rather than afterwards.
Renters and property managers moving between those suburbs are covered by what Victorian law actually requires when you move out, which is the reference page behind everything we say about exit cleaning.
Questions
Melbourne commercial cleaning questions
How much does commercial cleaning cost in Melbourne?
Our standard rate is $58 an hour plus GST between 6am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. After 6pm it is $64, overnight is $72, Saturday $78 and Sunday $95. Clinical sites are $72, childcare and NDIS sites $68, and make good or fit-out work $74. The minimum recurring contract is $750 plus GST a month. Once we have measured your site the quote becomes a fixed monthly figure rather than an hourly estimate.
Why is your Melbourne minimum higher than your Perth minimum?
Because Victorian on-costs are higher. The Cleaning Services Award is federal, so the wage is identical in both states, but Victoria carries a 3.155 per cent WorkSafe premium for cleaning against Western Australia's 2.53 per cent, and a 1.80 per cent portable long service benefits levy that Western Australia does not have at all. Those are fixed costs. A $650 contract in Victoria does not carry them, so the Victorian minimum is $750 plus GST.
Do you lock clients into a long contract?
No. After a three month establishment period either side can end the agreement on 30 days notice. It is written into every proposal rather than something you have to negotiate. Several established contractors in Melbourne's north advertise the same thing, so we do not present it as unusual. It is simply the term we are comfortable being held to.
Does Marlow hold a Victorian labour hire licence?
No, and we will not tell you otherwise. Cleaning is a prescribed industry under the Labour Hire Licensing Act 2018 (Vic), and whether a cleaning contractor performing its own contracted work with its own employees needs a licence is a genuinely contested question we are resolving with the Labour Hire Authority directly. We would rather answer that plainly than let you assume. Ask us where it stands and we will tell you the current position.
Which suburbs do you actually cover?
Everything within about 25 kilometres of Broadmeadows: the inner north through Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Glenroy, Fawkner, Preston and Reservoir, the outer north through Craigieburn, Roxburgh Park, Epping, Lalor, Mill Park and Wollert, and the industrial belt at Campbellfield, Somerton, Thomastown, Tullamarine and Melbourne Airport. There is no travel charge inside that radius.
Are your cleaners employees or subcontractors?
Employees. We pay the Cleaning Services Award, superannuation at 12 per cent, WorkSafe Victoria premiums and the portable long service levy. Subcontracting cleaning to individual ABN holders is common and it pushes risk onto the worker and, through the chain, onto you as the host business. We do not do it, and the reason it matters commercially is that the same person can keep turning up to your site for years.
What happens if a clean is not up to standard?
Tell us within 24 hours and we return and fix it at no charge. That obligation is in the agreement, not in a marketing line. If the same fault appears twice at the same site we change the cleaner rather than the explanation, and the monthly scored inspection exists so that we find those faults before you have to.
How quickly can you start?
Two to three weeks from the inspection for a commercial site is typical, because we want the scope agreed, the cleaner assigned by name and the site induction completed before the first clean rather than after it. If you have been left without a contractor we will tell you honestly whether we can move faster, and sometimes we can.
Next step
Book a free site inspection
Forty minutes on site, no obligation, and a written proposal with three options inside two business days. It is the only honest way to price a building.