How do you estimate cleaning labor hours per square foot for a government building bid?

Experienced bidders estimate cleaning labor hours per square foot by breaking down the cleaning tasks by frequency and applying production rates to the square footage or fixture count for each task. The federal courthouse bid will follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), and the county office building bid will follow the county's procurement code and vendor guide. You start by using the floor plan to identify the areas to be cleaned and the types of surfaces and fixtures. Then, you match the task frequency chart to those areas. For example, if the task is vacuuming carpeted offices weekly, you would calculate the total square footage of those offices, then apply a production rate for vacuuming per square foot. New bidders often get the hours wrong by underestimating the time required for detailed tasks, travel time between areas, or by not accounting for supervision and quality control checks. The wage determination for the federal contract will provide the minimum wages and fringe benefits for each labor category, which you will then use to calculate the labor cost per hour.