A reader writes: “We have an account that has been under major renovation for over three months. Due to sanding, painting and other work, the place is full of dust every morning. Now the customer has threatened to hire someone else to dust and deduct the fee from our monthly bill. Help!”

Back to the contract and what it stipulates. First of all, they are correct in that you are supposed to keep the flat surfaces, shelves, blinds, window ledges, etc. free of dust; however it is not clear as to long term construction dust. I suggest that this would be a time for you to carefully review the specifications since construction cleanup is usually a different charge from ordinary office cleaning. It appears that the construction contractor should be held liable for the dust they are generating and you should be able to charge your customer with a pass through cost that they in turn would deduct from what they owe the people actually generating the dust.

This conversation needs to be handled carefully and delicately since to the customer, dust is dust regardless of the origin. I oftentimes recommend an addendum or clarification on definitions and try to state clearly that any and all construction clean up (that requires more than one DLH –direct labor hour) per event is to be charged at an additional $XX.xx per hour plus any additional service such as carpet cleaning or floor restoration. Of course, you want to make sure that the customer understands this up front and that it does not come as a surprise. They, in turn, can use this as leverage with the construction contractor who may opt to clean up after their work.

Cleaning up after someone has drilled a hole or made a small mess is different from three months of ongoing dust and construction work.

Your comments and questions are important. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean…..

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678-314-2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.


posted on 12/9/2016