The first thing most builders want on a post-construction clean is a number. The honest answer is that the number depends on the building, and any company that quotes you a flat rate sight-unseen is either padding it to cover the unknowns or about to hit you with a change order halfway through.
Here’s what actually moves the price on a post-construction clean, so you know what you’re paying for and can tell a real quote from a guess.
Square Footage Is the Starting Point, Not the Whole Story
Size sets the baseline. More floor means more surface to detail, more rooms to work through, more time on site.
But square footage alone is a poor predictor, because two homes of the same size can take very different amounts of labor. A 4,000-square-foot house with open living space and simple finishes cleans faster than a 4,000-square-foot house cut into small rooms with heavy trim, coffered ceilings, and detailed millwork. The finish level matters as much as the footprint.
Glass Is the Biggest Swing
If one thing changes a post-construction quote more than any other, it’s glass.
South Florida homes lean into big window packages, sliders, and glass doors, and every pane comes out of construction carrying paint specks, adhesive from stickers and film, and stucco splatter. None of that wipes off. It’s blade-and-solvent work, done pane by pane, and it’s slow.
A house with a wall of sliders and floor-to-ceiling windows can carry hours of glass work that a house with standard windows simply doesn’t have. When a quote seems high or low compared to another, glass is usually the reason.
How Heavy the Construction Dust Got
Not every job leaves the same mess. A project with heavy drywall work and a lot of sanding coats everything in fine powder that settles into every surface, cabinet, and vent. Humidity here keeps that dust suspended longer and makes it cling instead of fall, so it ends up on vertical surfaces, not just horizontal ones.
A cleaner build with less drywall work and better dust control during construction takes less to bring to move-in condition. The trades that came before us affect how long we’re there.
Flooring Type
Floors aren’t one job. Tile, hardwood, luxury vinyl, polished concrete, and natural stone each need a different process, and some are far more labor-intensive than others.
Natural stone and hardwood want care that tile doesn’t. Grout lines hold construction grit that has to be worked out. Polished concrete shows every haze. The wrong process on the wrong floor doesn’t just take longer — it can damage a finish permanently, which is its own reason the flooring type belongs in the quote.
Whether There’s Still a Punch List Running
Timing affects cost. If the trades are fully out and the house is static, we clean it once and it stays clean. If punch-list work is still generating dust and touch-ups while we’re trying to finish, the work gets done twice, and that shows up in either the price or the schedule.
This is why we clean after the trades are out rather than alongside them. A clean done at the right point in the closeout costs less than one fought around ongoing work.
Bathrooms and Kitchens Carry More Detail
Wet areas and kitchens hold the most detail work per square foot. Fixtures, hardware, tile, glass shower enclosures, cabinet interiors, and appliance cleanup all concentrate here. A house with six bathrooms and a large kitchen has more of the slow, detailed work than a floor plan with two baths, regardless of total size.
Why We Quote by Walkthrough
Every factor above is something you can only see by looking at the actual building. Square-foot pricing doesn’t know how much glass you have, how heavy the dust got, what the floors are, or whether a punch list is still running.
So we walk the project before we quote it. It takes a little longer up front, but it means the number matches the job — and you’re not renegotiating during closeout, when you have the least room in the schedule for a surprise.
Serving Builders Across Palm Beach and Broward
WS Cleaning Services has been cleaning commercial and residential properties across South Florida for five years, using our own crews rather than subcontractors. We work with builders throughout Palm Beach and Broward County, including Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Wellington, and the surrounding areas.
Call or Text 561-629-9273 to schedule a walkthrough on a project heading into closeout.
WS Cleaning Services
6586 Hypoluxo Road, Suite 166, Lake Worth, FL 33467