Office Cleaning London: Prices, Checklist & How Often You Actually Need It (2026)

A dirty office costs more than you think — not just in staff productivity, but in the impression it makes on clients, candidates, and the people who work there every day.

Office cleaning in London is not one-size-fits-all. A 10-person co-working space has different needs from a 200-desk corporate floor. This guide cuts through the noise: what professional office cleaning actually costs in London right now, how often your office needs it depending on size and use, and a checklist you can hand to any cleaner — in-house or contracted.

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How Often Should Offices Be Cleaned?

The short answer: more often than most businesses currently do it.

The longer answer depends on three things — how many people use the space daily, what kind of work happens there, and how the office is laid out.

As a baseline:

Office Size	Minimum Frequency	Recommended
1–10 people	2–3 times per week	Daily
10–30 people	Daily	Daily + deep clean weekly
30–100 people	Daily	Daily + deep clean fortnightly
100+ people	Daily (multiple shifts)	Daily + sector-specific deep cleans

High-touch areas — kitchens, toilets, reception desks, lift buttons, door handles — need attention every single day regardless of office size. That's not a preference, it's a basic hygiene standard. The Health and Safety Executive expects employers to maintain clean and healthy working environments. A shared kitchen cleaned twice a week in a 40-person office is not that.

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Office Cleaning Prices in London (2026)

Here's what you should expect to pay for professional office cleaning services in London. These are real-market figures, not aspirational quotes.

Regular Office Cleaning (Contracted)

Office Size	Daily Rate	Weekly Rate (5 days)	Monthly Cost
Small (up to 10 desks)	£80 – £140	£400 – £700	£1,600 – £2,800
Medium (10–30 desks)	£140 – £260	£700 – £1,300	£2,800 – £5,200
Large (30–100 desks)	£260 – £500	£1,300 – £2,500	£5,200 – £10,000
Enterprise (100+ desks)	POA	POA	POA

One-Off and Specialist Cleaning

Service	Estimated Cost
One-off office clean (small)	£200 – £400
One-off office clean (medium)	£350 – £650
Carpet steam cleaning	£50 – £100 per room
Window cleaning (internal)	£80 – £200
Kitchen deep clean	£100 – £200
End of lease office clean	£400 – £1,200+
Post-construction clean	£300 – £800+

Most reputable London office cleaning companies work on rolling monthly contracts with 30 days' notice. Avoid any company that locks you into a 12-month contract without a performance exit clause — that's a red flag.

Hourly rates typically run £16–£25 per cleaner depending on location, shift time, and whether the company is accredited. Anything under £14/hour in London raises immediate questions about pay compliance and insurance.

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The Office Cleaning Checklist

Split this into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. A professional cleaning company should be doing all of this on the schedule you agree. If you're managing cleaning in-house, this is your baseline.

Daily Tasks

Reception and common areas

• Vacuuming or sweeping all floors
• Mopping hard floors
• Wiping down reception desk and all high-touch surfaces
• Emptying all bins and replacing liners
• Cleaning glass doors and entrance panels
• Sanitising lift buttons, door handles, light switches

Kitchen / breakout area

• Wiping all worktops and splashback
• Cleaning sink and taps
• Wiping down microwave (inside and out)
• Cleaning kettle exterior and drip tray
• Loading and running dishwasher or washing up crockery
• Emptying food waste bins
• Restocking hand soap, paper towels, washing up liquid

Toilets

• Cleaning and sanitising all toilets (seat, rim, bowl, cistern)
• Cleaning sinks and taps
• Wiping mirrors
• Mopping floors
• Emptying sanitary bins
• Restocking toilet roll, hand soap, and paper towels

Desk areas

• Vacuuming under desks and between workstations
• Emptying individual desk bins
• Wiping down communal printer/copier surfaces

Weekly Tasks

• Deep clean of kitchen appliances (microwave interior, fridge shelves and seals)
• Descaling kettles and coffee machines
• Cleaning inside of fridge (including checking for out-of-date food)
• Wiping skirting boards, window sills, and ledges
• Dusting blinds and windowsills
• Cleaning all internal glass and partition panels
• Vacuuming upholstered chairs
• Sanitising desk phones and keyboards (where permitted)

Monthly Tasks

• Deep clean of all kitchen cupboards (inside and out)
• Cleaning behind kitchen appliances
• Full carpet clean or spot treatment of stains
• Deep toilet descaling and grout cleaning
• Cleaning air conditioning vents and diffusers
• Cleaning light fittings and replacing any blown bulbs
• Full wipe-down of all internal walls and doors
• Cleaning under and behind all furniture where accessible

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What Poor Office Cleaning Actually Costs You

This is the part most businesses skip over when they're looking at cleaning quotes.

Staff absenteeism in the UK costs employers an average of £700 per employee per year. A significant portion of sick days — particularly in winter — are respiratory or gastrointestinal, and shared offices with poor hygiene practices accelerate the spread. One norovirus outbreak in a 30-person office can mean 10–15 people off for two days each. That's 20–30 lost working days.

A professional office cleaning contract that costs £2,500 per month covers a 30-person office daily. That's £30,000 per year, or £1,000 per employee. The cost of a single serious illness outbreak in that same office is comparable — and that's before you factor in client-facing impression.

The other cost is subtler. People notice. Staff who work in an environment that's consistently clean and maintained feel valued in a way that's hard to quantify but easy to lose. It's the kind of thing that comes up in exit interviews when nobody says it out loud while they're still there.

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What to Look for in a London Office Cleaning Company

Not all cleaning companies are equal. Before you sign a contract, check these:

Insurance — Public liability insurance of at least £5 million is standard. Ask for the certificate.

Staff vetting — DBS checks should be standard for any office cleaning contract. Ask how staff are vetted and whether checks are renewed.

COSHH compliance — Your cleaning company should provide Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) data sheets for every product they use on site. If they can't, they're not compliant.

Accreditation — BICSc (British Institute of Cleaning Science) accredited companies train their staff to a verified standard. It's not mandatory, but it signals professionalism.

References — Ask for two or three references from similar-sized London offices. Follow them up.

Contract terms — Look for 30-day rolling notice, a re-clean guarantee for specific complaints, and clear escalation procedures.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does office cleaning cost per hour in London?

Professional office cleaning in London typically costs £16–£25 per hour per cleaner, depending on the company, shift time, and accreditation level. Rates below £14/hour are worth scrutinising — they often indicate minimum wage non-compliance or inadequate insurance.

What's the difference between office cleaning and commercial cleaning?

Office cleaning refers specifically to workplace environments — desks, meeting rooms, kitchens, toilets. Commercial cleaning is a broader term that covers offices, retail spaces, warehouses, industrial units, and specialist environments. The cleaning methods, products, and training required vary significantly between sectors.

Do office cleaners need to be DBS checked?

There's no legal requirement to DBS check office cleaners, but most professional London cleaning companies do it as standard practice — particularly for contracts where cleaners will be in the office unsupervised, handling keys, or working outside business hours. Always confirm this before signing a contract.

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Professional Office Cleaning in London

St. Anne's Housekeeping provides professional office cleaning services across all London boroughs. Our teams are DBS checked, BICSc trained, fully insured, and available for daily, weekly, or one-off contracts.

We work with offices from 5 to 500 desks — and we don't lock you into long-term contracts you can't exit if the service isn't right.

Request a free office cleaning quote — we'll come to your office, assess the space, and give you a fixed price within 24 hours.

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Also useful: our office cleaning chart with daily, weekly and monthly checklists and our guide to choosing the right commercial cleaning experts for your business.