What a builders clean includes
Room by room, what a final builders clean covers in Australia, and the items most often excluded from the rate.
A builders clean is the handover clean: the one that takes a finished but filthy building and makes it presentable for inspection or occupation. There is no Australian standard defining its scope, which is why written scope matters.
Normally covered
- All internal glass, plus frames, tracks and sills, with paint specks, silicone and sticker residue removed.
- Removal of all protective film, stickers and manufacturer labels from windows, appliances and fixtures.
- Cabinetry and joinery cleaned inside and out, including the tops of overhead units.
- Kitchens and bathrooms cleaned to a ready-to-use state, including appliance interiors.
- Floors cleaned to their finished condition using a method suited to the material.
- Skirtings, architraves, door tops, ledges and other horizontal surfaces where construction dust settles.
- Switch plates, power points, door furniture and handrails wiped and free of overspray.
- Light fittings, vents and exhaust fans dusted or wiped where safely reachable.
- Wet areas checked for grout haze and silicone smears.
Commonly excluded or charged separately
- External windows, published separately at $6 to $10 per sqm.
- Pressure washing of driveways, paths and external surfaces, at $4 to $7 per sqm.
- Carpet steam cleaning, at $40 to $80 per room.
- Rubbish and debris removal, at $150 to $900 depending on load.
- Heavy grout haze or adhesive removal beyond a nominal allowance, at $100 to $200 and $80 to $150 per bathroom.
- Specialised care for stone, timber or high-finish surfaces, at $30 to $200 extra.
Source: Everyday Clean, After Construction Cleaning Cost Guide Australia
The exclusions that cause disputes
Two come up repeatedly. The first is grout haze, which some cleaners treat as a tiler defect rather than cleaning, and which is very visible under natural light. The second is paint overspray on hardware and glass, which is a painter defect by the same argument.
Neither position is unreasonable. The problem is only ever that nobody agreed which it was before the invoice. Settle both in writing before work starts.