Strata cleaning is one of the most variable services in the property industry. Two buildings of similar size and age in the same suburb can have wildly different cleaning standards because the contracts that drive them are written differently. The owners corporations that get this right protect their building's condition for decades. The ones that don't pay for it through accelerated wear on carpets and finishes. Resident complaints follow, driving a slow churn of dissatisfied owners.
The legal frame is set by section 106 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015, which requires owners corporations to "properly maintain and keep in good repair the common property." The NSW Government's strata repairs and maintenance page explains the duty in detail. Cleaning is part of that obligation. Filthy or neglected common areas are a maintenance failure, and as of the recent strata law reforms, NSW Fair Trading has enforcement powers including compliance notices and penalty infringement notices for owners corporations that don't meet the standard.
We do strata cleaning for buildings across Sydney and the pattern of what separates well-cleaned buildings from poorly-cleaned ones is consistent. Here's the method that protects building condition and meets the duty under section 106.
The Scope Most Contracts Don't Specify Properly
A standard strata cleaning contract names the rooms and the frequency. Daily lobby. Weekly stairwell. Fortnightly carpets. That's the easy part. What separates good strata common area cleaning from average is the brief itself. Most contracts don't specify the method or the standard the cleaner is held to. Products go unspecified too.
Without a specification, you get a contractor who cleans to the minimum interpretable level of "clean." Which means carpets vacuumed but not properly extracted. Skirting boards never touched. Lift buttons wiped over without disinfection. Bin chute interiors washed once a year if at all.
Common Areas the Cleaning Brief Has to Cover
Lobby and entry. Floor cleaned to material spec (different for marble, tile, vinyl, timber). Glass doors and side panels both sides. Reception counter or noticeboard area dusted. Mailboxes (the cluster, not inside individual boxes) wiped fortnightly.
Lift interiors. Floor mopped daily and mirror surfaces cleaned. Buttons and touchscreens disinfected. The track at the floor of the lift door tends to fill with debris and gets neglected by most contracts.
Hallways and corridors. Carpet vacuumed properly (slow with overlapping passes), or hard floors mopped. Skirting boards damp-dusted monthly. Doorframes wiped at the same time. Cobwebs cleared from corners.
Stairwells. Handrails wiped daily. Treads swept and mopped. Walls spot-cleaned for marks. The top of the doors at each landing.
Bathrooms (where applicable, in lobby or gym areas). Standard commercial bathroom protocol, daily.
Gym, pool deck, sauna (where applicable). Each has its own protocol. Pool deck especially needs algaecide and pH-aware cleaning.
Garage and basement. The most under-cleaned space in nearly every strata building. Oil drips, tyre marks, dust accumulation, mould in damp corners, debris from vehicles. Sweep monthly and mop quarterly. Pressure wash at least annually.
Bin areas. The most neglected high-impact spot in strata. Wash the bin enclosure floor weekly. Hose down the bins themselves monthly. Disinfect the chute interior twice a year minimum.
High-Touch Surfaces That Drive Resident Dissatisfaction
Every resident touches the same lift button, intercom panel, door handle, and mailbox lock. These surfaces transfer germs faster than anywhere else in the building. A strata cleaning contract that doesn't include daily disinfection of high-touch points is missing the part that residents actually notice.
The list:
- Lift call buttons (outside and inside the lift)
- Intercom or building entry panel
- Front entry door handles (push plates if push doors)
- Stairwell door handles at every level
- Mailbox cluster surface
- Carpark gate buttons
- Pool gate and gym entry handles
Why Carpet Choice and Carpet Care Matter More Than People Think
Carpets are the single biggest condition asset in most strata common areas. Replacing common area carpets for an average mid-sized residential block can run anywhere from $40,000 to $120,000. The life of those carpets depends almost entirely on cleaning frequency and method.
Daily vacuuming with a HEPA-sealed commercial vacuum keeps surface soil from grinding into the fibre. Quarterly hot-water extraction (steam cleaning) by a professional carpet cleaner removes the deep soil that daily vacuuming can't reach. Without the extraction cycle, the carpets visibly age within three to five years rather than the eight to twelve they should last.
The wrong vacuum makes carpets dirtier. A non-HEPA vacuum in a sealed common area redistributes fine particles into the air and back onto the carpets. Commercial cleaning contracts that don't specify the vacuum type leave this up to the contractor, and the contractor picks the cheapest option.
Frequency Benchmarks
Daily: lobby, lift interiors, high-touch points, bins emptied if internal, entry glass.
Weekly: stairwells, hallways, bin enclosure floors, gym surfaces.
Fortnightly: skirting boards, doorframes, cobwebs, mailbox surfaces, signage.
Monthly: garage swept, lift door tracks, ceiling vents and light fittings spot checked.
Quarterly: carpet professional clean, garage mopped, full window clean inside and out.
Annually: pressure wash garage and pathways, deep clean bin chutes and enclosures, full audit of common area condition.
What Owners Corporations Should Specify in the Tender
Most owners corporations send out cleaning tenders that list rooms and frequencies without specifying method or standard. The result is commodity quotes and commodity cleaning. A better tender specifies:
- The cleaning frequency for each area as above
- The vacuum specification (HEPA-sealed commercial unit minimum)
- The chemical specification (TGA-listed disinfectants for high-touch surfaces, pH-neutral cleaners for stone or timber finishes)
- The disinfection contact time required on high-touch points (30 seconds minimum after a thorough clean)
- The reporting standard (monthly written report with photos of issues)
- The KPI for escalation (what happens if a standard is missed)
- The insurance and licensing requirements (public liability minimum $20 million for most strata work)
A contract written this way costs more, by 20-30% over commodity quotes. It also typically delivers buildings that hold their condition for the full useful life of their finishes, which is the financial return.
When Professional Commercial Cleaners Earn Their Place
Strata cleaning sits between routine and specialised. A well-run commercial strata cleaning operation with strata experience can deliver to the spec above, handle the periodic deep clean cycles, manage the reporting requirements, and respond to incident calls (water leaks, illness outbreaks, vandalism cleanup) without renegotiating the contract every time.
A cheap mob without strata-specific experience treats every building like a basic commercial site and misses the legal obligation context behind the work.
If you're an owners corporation, strata committee member, or strata manager looking for a cleaning brief that actually protects the building's condition, our strata cleaning service covers the full scope including the periodic deep cleans and the reporting standard.
