How much does a builders clean cost

See the published per sqm rate, the per-item costs added on top, and a worked total for a typical job, so you know what a quote should cover.

After construction cleaning in Australia is published at $6 to $12 per square metre, or $350 to $1,800 and up per project. That is the headline rate and it is the number quotes lead with.

It is also only part of the job. The detail work that determines whether a handover inspection passes is priced per item, not per square metre, and that is where quotes diverge.

Source: Everyday Clean, After Construction Cleaning Cost Guide Australia

The per square metre rate

Item	Published rate
After construction cleaning, overall	$6 to $12 per sqm
Typical project total	$350 to $1,800 or more
Floor deep cleaning	$1 to $2 per sqm
Exterior window cleaning	$6 to $10 per sqm
Pressure washing	$4 to $7 per sqm

Source: Everyday Clean, After Construction Cleaning Cost Guide Australia

Builders clean price per square metre: a second published rate

Eco Cleaning Brisbane, in an advice article scoped to post-construction cleaning in Australia, tells readers to expect 15 to 50 cents per square foot for larger post-construction cleaning jobs, cheaper per unit area than for smaller ones. That converts to roughly $1.61 to $5.38 per square metre (our conversion, at 1 square foot = 0.09290304 square metres).

This is a second published Australian range for post-construction cleaning, and it does not overlap with the $6 to $12 per square metre range published above: the floor of that range sits above the ceiling of this one. No source we hold explains why the two published ranges differ, so we are not going to guess at a reason. Treat them as two separate reference points from two separate published guides, not as a single market rate.

Source: Eco Cleaning Brisbane, What Factors into the Price of Construction Cleaning Services?

Work out your own range

Enter your floor area to see the area-rate component of your job, calculated at the published $6 to $12 per square metre rate above.

The items priced per unit

Item	Published cost	Why it costs what it does
Window and track detailing	$40 to $120 per window	Paint, dust and silicone require scraping and precision work
Adhesive and silicone removal	$80 to $150 per bathroom	Often embedded in tiles and joints, requiring manual tools
Grout haze removal	$100 to $200 per bathroom	Needs chemical neutralisers and repetitive polishing
High-finish surface detailing	$30 to $200 extra	Materials require non-abrasive, specialised products
Debris bagging and removal	$150 to $900	Weight and disposal fees increase the cost
Rubbish removal	$150 to $900	Depends on load
Carpet steam cleaning	$40 to $80 per room

Source: Everyday Clean, After Construction Cleaning Cost Guide Australia

A worked example

Take a 200 square metre new build with fifteen windows and three bathrooms. This is our own arithmetic on the published rates above.

Component	Low	High
Area rate at $6 to $12 per sqm	$1,200	$2,400
Window and track detailing, 15 windows	$600	$1,800
Grout haze, 3 bathrooms	$300	$600
Adhesive and silicone, 3 bathrooms	$240	$450
Debris and rubbish removal	$150	$900
Indicative total	$2,490	$6,150

Our derivation from the published rates. The area rate is between a third and a half of the total, which is why quoting on it alone is misleading.

Source: Derived from rates published in Everyday Clean, After Construction Cleaning Cost Guide Australia

Builders clean vs bond clean: the cost difference

These are different jobs, priced on different bases: see builders clean or bond clean for the scope difference.

In Sydney, Everyday Clean, the same publisher as the builders clean rate above, also publishes bond cleaning prices on a separate page, by bedroom count: studio or one bedroom $250 to $350, two-bedroom unit $350 to $450, three to four bedroom house $500 to $700 or more. That figure is scoped to Sydney, not national, and it is priced per property rather than per square metre.

The builders clean rate above is priced the other way: $6 to $12 per square metre, published for Australia. Comparing the two headline numbers directly does not tell you much, since one is a per-property figure and the other is a per-area figure; a genuine like-for-like comparison needs the size and bedroom count of the specific job.

Source: Everyday Clean, Bond Cleaning Service in Sydney

The question that makes quotes comparable

Ask each cleaner to state, in writing, whether window tracks, grout haze, adhesive and silicone removal, and rubbish removal are inside the square metre rate or charged on top.

That single question resolves most of the difference between quotes, and it is worth asking before you compare the headline rates at all. A quote at the bottom of the published range with every detail item excluded is more expensive than a quote at the top of it with everything included.

Price is one side of comparing quotes; what BSCAA membership does and doesn't confirm is worth checking on the contractor side of the same decision.

For how this market is sized nationally, see the Australian cleaning and construction data.