We clear build-out dust before move-in

We clean new office space top down

A build-out leaves fine dust on every flat surface in the suite, and most of it sits above eye level. So we start high. We wipe the tops of door frames and light fixtures first. Anything knocked loose up there lands on whatever sits below it. Next come the walls and the interior glass. Then the break room, including the inside of the refrigerator. Restrooms get a full cleaning. The floor comes last, once nothing else is going to fall on it.

Done right, the office looks like nobody has worked in it yet. Run a dark cloth along a window sill or a new desk and it comes back clean. The tracks on glass partitions have no gray line in the corners, and the restroom is ready for the first person who walks in. One Google reviewer, Milan Popovic Jr, put it this way: "Very professional, left our building with a brand new feel to it."

Skip the high work and the problem shows up about a week later. The heat or the air conditioning kicks on and blows the dust off the fixtures and vent covers. It settles on every desk and keyboard in the room. Staff wipe it with a paper towel and it smears. Mop the floor before the dust comes down and it needs mopping again. On this job the order counts, and a crew that cleans the floor first will be cleaning it again by Friday.

• High ledges and vent covers wiped first
• Interior windows and glass partitions cleaned
• Break room refrigerator cleaned inside
• Restrooms cleaned before anyone moves in
• Floors cleaned last, after the dust settles

Construction dust keeps falling for days

Sanding joint compound on new drywall puts a fine white dust in the air, and plenty of it is still floating when the contractor packs up. Over the next few days it drifts down onto surfaces that were clean the night before. Some of it gets pulled into the return vents and blown back out once the building's air system runs on its normal schedule. One pass cannot catch dust that has not landed yet.

So our Extreme Clean Program does not end with the first cleaning. It starts with an intensive initial cleaning of the whole space. After that, we test surfaces with equipment to measure what is actually left on them, and we test again from time to time. A desk can look clean and still test dirty. The results tell the crew where dust is settling back, which is where the next visit goes first.

A lot of office space around Lisle and Naperville sits in low-rise buildings with steel frames and glass or brick on the outside. Inside, the suites are drywall partitions under a suspended tile ceiling. That ceiling grid is where build-out dust hides. The top of every light fixture and air diffuser up there holds a thin layer. It comes down when someone bumps a tile or the air starts moving. We dust those fixtures and diffusers in a build-out clean, because dust left up high ends up on the desks.

Illinois winters bring grit into the office

From the first snow until spring, everyone who walks into your building brings road salt and grit in on their boots. Most of it drops in the lobby. The rest rides up the elevator and gets walked down the hall into your suite. By the reception desk it grinds into the carpet, and on hard floors it dries into a white film. In an Illinois office, the winter cleaning starts at the front door.

Heating season dries the air out, and dry air builds static. Static holds dust on computer screens and plastic chair backs, so a quick pass with a dry rag just moves it around. With the windows shut for months, the same air keeps moving through the building and the dust inside moves with it. Our crews use microfiber cloths and flat mops, which hold the dust instead of pushing it back into the air.

Winter is also cold and flu season, and a shared office passes a cold around fast. Our crews are trained to clean and disinfect high touch surfaces daily: door handles, light switches, elevator buttons and the handle on the break room refrigerator. A disinfectant only works if it stays wet on the surface for its full dwell time. Our people give it that time, rather than spraying a handle and wiping it dry a moment later.

One CLS contact answers for your office

Every building we clean gets one point of contact at CLS. That person is responsible for the CLS Everyday Cleaner Standard, the level your office is held to every day once the initial cleaning is done. If a conference room was missed, you tell that one person. Getting it put right is their job. You do not have to explain your building to a new name every month.

All of the work is done by our own staff, and few of them leave. Our cleaning technicians average more than ten years of facility maintenance experience, and many have been with CLS for over ten years. In an office, that shows up in small ways. The same people keep coming back. They learn which doors stay locked and which desks are to be left exactly as they are.

Our evening janitors clean after your people go home, so the desks and conference rooms are ready in the morning. Some buildings need someone on site during business hours. Our day porters keep up the restrooms and break rooms while the office is busy. We clean single office suites and whole buildings, up to a two million square foot corporate headquarters. One long time customer is a world headquarters here in Lisle with more than a million square feet.