Cleaning sub contracts: working under bigger cleaning contractors

How cleaning subcontracting works

A prime contractor signs the contract with the end client: an office landlord, a retail chain, a hospital trust, a government agency. The prime is responsible for the whole contract, and it decides which parts to deliver with its own staff and which to subcontract. Common reasons to subcontract are geography (a site far from the prime’s own teams), specialist tasks (window cleaning, floor care, carpet extraction, post-construction cleans) or capacity (more sites than the prime can staff).

For you, the client is the prime, not the building. The prime sets the scope, inspects the work, pays your invoices and can end the arrangement. The building occupier may never know your company name. That is the trade: you get work without selling to each end client, and in exchange you work to someone else’s rules and price.

Where to find cleaning subcontract work

• Supplier portals of facility management firms. Many large firms have a supplier or subcontractor registration page. Registering alone may not be enough; follow up with the regional manager who covers your area.
• Operations managers of larger cleaning companies. Ask who handles sites in your area and whether they need cover for absences, holidays or a site far from their base. Covering one short-notice gap reliably can be how a longer arrangement starts.
• US federal subcontracting. The SBA runs SUBNet, where large contractors post subcontracting opportunities, and publishes a directory of prime contractors that hold subcontracting plans. Your SAM.gov profile also feeds the SBA’s Small Business Search, which primes use to find subcontractors, so complete it with your NAICS codes and a capabilities narrative.
• UK and Canadian public contract awards. Award notices on Find a Tender, Contracts Finder and CanadaBuys tell you which firms just won cleaning contracts in your region. A short call to the winner, with your area and capacity, is better timed than any cold list.
• Builders and fit-out firms. Every finished building needs a handover clean. Local builders are easy to list and call.

To build the call list of facility management firms, cleaning contractors and builders in your area, search those business types by city with LeadsIt; it returns the phone numbers, websites and emails each firm publishes. The guide to finding local B2B clients shows how to work that list.

What prime contractors check before they use you

A prime takes the risk for your work in front of its client, so it may vet you more strictly than a direct client would. Have this ready as a single supplier pack:

• Insurance certificates. US: general liability, workers’ compensation once you employ staff, often commercial auto and a janitorial bond; the prime may ask to be named as an additional insured. UK: public liability, plus employers’ liability insurance, which is compulsory for most employers. Canada: general liability and your provincial workers’ compensation clearance. Check limits against what the prime asks.
• Business registration and tax documents in the form your country uses, plus bank details on headed paper.
• Staff vetting and right to work: how you check identity, eligibility to work and, for sensitive sites, background checks.
• Health and safety documents: method statements or written procedures, chemical safety information for the products you use, training records.
• References: two or three current clients with similar sites, who agreed to be called.
• Capacity: team size, area covered, hours you can staff, and how you cover absences.

The margin question, with a labelled example

The prime keeps part of what the end client pays to cover its own account management, insurance, sales and profit. What reaches you is lower than if you held the client directly, so the only safe approach is to price from your own costs, not from the rate on offer.

Check whether the hours the prime quotes are realistic: walk the site before accepting, and time it against your own production rates. A site priced with too few hours becomes your problem, not the prime’s. The costing steps (area, production rates, labor, supplies, overhead) are summarised in the pricing section of the hub guide.

Contract clauses to read before you sign

• Payment terms: how many days after invoice, and whether payment depends on the prime being paid by its client (“pay when paid”). On UK public contracts, the Procurement Act 2023 implies 30-day payment terms into public sub-contracts, with some exclusions; outside that, the terms are whatever you agree.
• Termination: notice period on each side, and whether the prime can end it “for convenience” at short notice while you are tied in for longer.
• Non-solicitation: subcontract agreements often forbid you from contracting directly with their client during the agreement and for a period after. Know how long and how wide it is before you sign.
• Deductions and penalties: credits for missed visits or failed audits, how they are measured and whether you can dispute them.
• Scope changes: who approves extra work and at what rate. Never do extra work on a verbal request from the building occupier.
• Insurance and indemnity: the limits required, and whether you indemnify the prime for things outside your control.
• Staff transfer rules: in the UK, a change of cleaning contractor can trigger TUPE, meaning existing cleaners may transfer to you with their terms. Ask before you take over a site, and take advice if it applies.

Risks, and how to keep subcontracting a stepping stone

Subcontracting brings steady volume and real references, but it concentrates risk: one prime can be a large share of your revenue, sets your price, and can end the arrangement on its schedule. Its payment delays become your cash-flow problem, and it holds the client relationship.

• Cap how much of your monthly revenue any one prime represents, and keep winning direct clients alongside.
• Get paid on time before you take a second site from the same prime.
• Ask the prime for a written reference after a few months of good audits; it counts for your own bids and for public tenders later.
• Respect the non-solicitation clause. Breaking it ends the relationship and can lead to a claim.

A balanced plan is subcontract work to fill routes and build references, and direct prospecting to build clients you own. For the direct side, start with the 8 steps to get commercial cleaning contracts, find commercial cleaning clients near you, and use the commercial cleaning proposal template for your quotes. Ideas to market your own company are in cleaning business advertising, and more resources are on the cleaning companies page.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• SBA — Prime and subcontracting (SUBNet, prime contractor directories)
• SBA — How to win contracts
• legislation.gov.uk — Procurement Act 2023, section 73 (payment terms in public sub-contracts)
• GOV.UK — Employers’ liability insurance
• GOV.UK — Business transfers, takeovers and TUPE