Office Cleaning Frequency & Cost per Sqm Ireland 2026

Last updated: 4 May 2026 · By Shepherd Nyakudya, Founder, Optus Glean

Quick answer

Office cleaning in Ireland is typically priced per square metre per month and varies with frequency, building size, and accessibility. As a structural guide, indicative rates fall between €1.20 and €2.50 per sqm per month for daily 5-day cleaning, with weekly or 3-day frequency at lower bands. Pricing is built bottom-up from ERO-compliant labour (operative floor €13.30/hr in 2026) plus consumables, supervision, and overhead. VAT is typically 23% in Ireland for commercial cleaning.

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How is office cleaning frequency typically specified?

The most common Irish office cleaning patterns are:

Daily, 5 days/week: standard for offices with 30+ employees, customer-facing reception, or premium fit-out.
3x weekly: typical for offices with 10-30 employees or hybrid working patterns.
2x weekly: typical for small offices, hot-desk hubs, or offices with low daily occupancy.
Weekly: small office or shared workspace.
Hot-desk-only / agile workplace: typically combined frequency: daily desk-touchpoint clean plus 2x weekly full clean.

What does each frequency typically include?

Daily 5-day cleaning

Typical scope per visit (60-180 minutes depending on office size):

All work-area floors swept or vacuumed.
Desk tops wiped (where employees have cleared them).
Bins emptied, liners replaced, recycling sorted.
Kitchen / kitchenette cleaned: sink, surfaces, microwave, fridge exterior, kettle base, dishcloth changed, floor mopped.
Toilets: pan, basin, mirror, floor; restock toilet paper, soap, hand-towel.
Reception and entrance: glass clean, floor mop, surface wipe.
Meeting rooms: surface wipe, floor refresh, chair tidy.
High-touch surfaces: door handles, light switches, lift buttons, push-plates.
Kitchen and break-room recycling separated and removed.

Weekly (typically Friday): more detail clean of skirting, low-level surfaces, vents, light fittings.

Monthly: fridge interior clean, microwave deep clean, oven where applicable, window-sill detail.

Quarterly: vent and high-level dust, carpet shampoo or hard-floor strip, soft-furnishing detail.

3x weekly cleaning

Same scope per visit, but on a 3-day rotation (typically Monday / Wednesday / Friday). Off-days have no cleaning attendance, so high-touch surfaces accumulate touch-soils faster than in a daily contract.

2x weekly cleaning

Same scope per visit on a 2-day rotation (typically Monday / Thursday). Suitable for offices with low daily occupancy, hot-desk patterns, or where employees handle their own desk tidiness.

Weekly cleaning

Single longer visit (90-180 minutes for a small office) covering full scope. Suitable for very small offices, single-team workspaces, or shared meeting rooms with limited daily use.

Hot-desk / agile workplace daily-touchpoint

Some clients adopt a hybrid pattern: a 30-45 minute daily visit focused on high-touch surfaces (kitchen, toilets, reception, meeting room reset) plus a 90-180 minute deeper clean twice a week. This reflects the reality that hot-desk environments have unpredictable usage but high concentration of shared touchpoints.

How are per-sqm rates built?

Pricing is bottom-up from ERO-compliant labour. The build:

Operative-hours per month: minutes per visit × visits per month.
Hourly rate: ERO operative floor €13.30/hr (2026), or above where market rate dictates.
Plus PRSI: 11.05%.
Plus holiday pay: 8% (representing 4 weeks paid leave).
Plus sick pay: per Sick Leave Act 2022 (5 statutory sick days in 2026).
Plus supervision: typically 5-10% of operative cost for a contract this size.
Plus consumables: typically €0.50-€1.00 per operative-hour worked.
Plus overhead: insurance, transport, management, IT, uniforms.
Plus margin: industry standard 8-15% net.

Fully loaded, the priced floor sits in the €17.50-€18.50/hr range. Anything below this triggers Regulation 69 abnormally-low investigation under S.I. 284/2016 for public-sector tenders.

Indicative per-sqm rates for office cleaning

Translated to per-sqm, the rate depends on the office's productivity ratio — how many square metres an operative can clean to standard in an hour. Productivity varies from 150-250 sqm/hour (small offices, lots of furniture, lots of toilets per sqm) to 350-500 sqm/hour (large open-plan offices, low furniture density). Once productivity is established, the per-sqm rate is straightforwardly:

Per-sqm rate per month = (operative-hours per month / area in sqm) × fully-loaded hourly rate.

As a structural guide for comparison shopping:

Daily 5-day cleaning: industry rates typically fall between €1.20 and €2.50 per sqm per month, ex-VAT, depending on building size, furniture density, and toilet ratio.
3x weekly: typically €0.80 to €1.50 per sqm per month.
2x weekly: typically €0.60 to €1.20 per sqm per month.
Weekly: typically €0.40 to €0.80 per sqm per month.

These are industry rate ranges, not Optus Glean's published rates. Specific quotes depend on your building, frequency, and county labour rates. For a fixed-price quote based on your actual layout, request a free site survey.

What sector adjustments affect office cleaning rates?

Agile / hot-desk environments: typically +10-20% premium for the additional touchpoint frequency required.
Customer-facing reception or showroom: typically +10-15% premium for the higher visual-quality standard.
Food court / canteen-included buildings: typically +20-30% premium for the additional HACCP-zone frequency.
Lab-adjacent or pharma-adjacent offices: typically +30-50% premium for the IPC requirement.
Heavy daily footfall (300+ employees per floor): typically +10-20% for the additional toilet and kitchen frequency.
Multi-tenant or co-working space: typically +10% for the management-overhead.

How does VAT apply to office cleaning?

Commercial cleaning services in Ireland are typically subject to 23% VAT at the standard rate. Some specific scenarios:

Cleaning of a registered nursing home that is exempt from VAT may be VAT-exempt under the Revenue VAT rules; this is fact-specific.
Cleaning supplied to a public body that is not a VAT-registered entity is still typically charged at 23% by the contractor (the public body cannot reclaim).
Cleaning of residential buildings (e.g. apartment block common-area cleaning where residents collectively pay) may be subject to 13.5% reduced rate where the supply is to the residents directly; commercial supply to a property management company is typically 23%.

For specific VAT advice consult your accountant and refer to Revenue VAT guidance.

What does the 2026 ERO mean for office cleaning prices?

The Contract Cleaning Joint Labour Committee Employment Regulation Order (operative since 29 September 2023) sets statutory minimum wage rates for every contract cleaner. From 1 January 2026:

Operative: €13.30/hr.
Supervisor: €15.06/hr.
Sunday premium: double time.
Unsocial hours (22:00-07:00): time-and-one-third.
Death-in-service benefit: €5,000 lump sum (typically funded via group life policy at ~€1.50/employee/week).
Sick pay: per Sick Leave Act 2022 plus ERO top-up where applicable.

This is a legal minimum, not a guideline. A contractor pricing below the fully-loaded ERO floor (~€17.50-€18.50/hr) is either underpaying staff (unlawful and enforceable by the WRC) or planning to fail the SLA. Procurement officers should require explicit ERO-compliance attestation in tender responses.

What pricing models are typical for office cleaning contracts?

Fixed monthly: by far the most common. Predictable for the buyer, manageable for the contractor.
Per-square-metre per month: useful for benchmarking across multiple sites or for buyers with a real-estate-cost framework.
Per-visit fixed: less common in office cleaning; more common in end-of-tenancy or one-off scope.
Hourly rate: typical for ad-hoc / call-out work alongside a base contract.
Performance-linked: a small portion of the monthly fee linked to KPI achievement (e.g. 5-10% retained against audit pass rate). Useful for high-stakes contracts but creates additional administrative overhead.

How do I compare bids on cost-per-sqm?

If three contractors bid €1.40, €1.65, and €2.10 per sqm per month for the same scope, what does that tell you?

€1.40 / sqm: at the bottom of the typical band. Verify ERO compliance carefully — the maths only works if the contractor either has unusually high productivity, very low overhead, or is underpaying staff.
€1.65 / sqm: mid-range. The most common winning band for office cleaning.
€2.10 / sqm: at the top of the typical band. May reflect higher service standard (more frequent visits, more supervisor time, premium chemistry) or higher overhead. Worth challenging on quality differentiation.

Ask each bidder to provide their hourly rate, productivity assumption (sqm cleaned per operative-hour), and consumable cost per visit. The comparison becomes much more meaningful.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does office cleaning cost per square metre per month in Ireland?

Industry rates typically fall between €1.20 and €2.50 per sqm per month, ex-VAT, for daily 5-day cleaning, depending on building size, furniture density, and toilet ratio. 3x weekly typically €0.80 to €1.50; 2x weekly €0.60 to €1.20; weekly €0.40 to €0.80. Specific quotes depend on your building and county labour rates.

What does daily office cleaning include?

Floors swept or vacuumed; desk tops wiped where cleared; bins emptied with liner change; kitchen surfaces, microwave, kettle, sink, floor; toilets cleaned and restocked; reception glass and floor; meeting rooms reset; high-touch surfaces (door handles, light switches, lift buttons). Weekly skirting and vent detail; monthly fridge interior, oven; quarterly carpet shampoo or floor strip.

How is office cleaning priced from ERO rates upward?

Operative-hours per month × ERO-compliant fully-loaded hourly rate. The 2026 ERO operative floor is €13.30/hr; fully loaded with PRSI 11.05%, holiday pay 8%, sick pay, supervision, consumables, overhead, and margin, the priced floor is approximately €17.50-€18.50/hr. Below this triggers Regulation 69 abnormally-low investigation.

What productivity ratio is used to convert hours to per-sqm rates?

Productivity varies from 150-250 sqm per operative-hour for small offices with high furniture density and high toilet ratio, to 350-500 sqm per operative-hour for large open-plan offices with low furniture density. The per-sqm rate per month equals (operative-hours per month / area in sqm) × fully-loaded hourly rate.

Does VAT apply to office cleaning in Ireland?

Commercial cleaning services in Ireland are typically subject to 23% VAT at the standard rate. Some specific scenarios (e.g. cleaning supplied to a VAT-exempt registered nursing home, or cleaning of residential common areas paid by residents) may attract different treatment. Consult your accountant or Revenue VAT guidance for specific cases.

Should I pick daily or 3x weekly cleaning?

Daily 5-day is standard for offices with 30+ daily employees, customer-facing reception, or premium fit-out. 3x weekly is typical for offices with 10-30 employees or hybrid working. Choose based on actual daily occupancy and employee expectations — an office that visibly accumulates touch-soils between visits will see complaints regardless of the contract specification.

How does hot-desk / agile workplace cleaning differ?

Hot-desk environments concentrate touch-soils on shared keyboards, monitors, chair arms, and meeting-room surfaces in unpredictable patterns. Many clients adopt a daily 30-45 minute touchpoint visit (kitchen, toilets, reception, meeting room reset) plus a 90-180 minute deeper clean 2x weekly. This typically prices 10-20% above standard daily for the same gross floor area.

How does sector affect office cleaning rates?

Agile / hot-desk premium 10-20%; customer-facing reception or showroom premium 10-15%; food-court or canteen-included building premium 20-30%; lab-adjacent or pharma-adjacent IPC requirement premium 30-50%; heavy daily footfall (300+ per floor) premium 10-20%; multi-tenant or co-working management overhead premium 10%.

How long should an office cleaning contract run?

Typically 24-36 months with annual price review tied to ERO and CPI movement. Shorter contracts mean the contractor cannot recover transition costs; longer contracts mean the buyer loses negotiating leverage. Most contracts include a defined break clause at month 12 if the SLA is not met.

What is included in a typical Friday weekly clean?

Beyond daily scope: skirting and low-level surface detail; vent and light-fitting wipe; window-sill clean; under-desk sweep where employees have moved chairs back; appliance exteriors (fridge, dishwasher, photocopier, printer) deep wipe; soft-furnishing vacuum where applicable; reception detail.

Should I require ERO compliance attestation in my office cleaning RFP?

Yes. An explicit ERO-compliance clause requiring confirmation of payment at or above the Contract Cleaning Joint Labour Committee rates (operative €13.30/hr, supervisor €15.06/hr in 2026) protects both the buyer's reputation and the contract's sustainability. Allowing payroll evidence to be requested at any time during the contract is also recommended.

Does Optus Glean publish per-sqm rates?

We publish industry rate ranges in our pricing guides as a benchmarking tool. For a specific quote based on your building's actual layout, frequency, and access protocol, request a free site survey. We deliver a fixed-price quote within 48 hours of survey completion.