Benefits of Subcontracting Specialty Services

Key Takeaways: 

• Strategic subcontracting can help cleaning managers maintain operational consistency by offloading labor-intensive specialty projects that strain staff, storage, and resources.
• The true cost of handling specialty work in-house often extends beyond labor to include safety risks, equipment investments, inventory management, and reduced team capacity.
• Successful subcontracting depends on selecting qualified partners with proven experience, strong safety practices, clear communication, and well-defined scopes of work.

 

Fewer things are more exhilarating for cleaning operations than when everything falls into place. Ask anyone who’s been managing a cleaning program for any significant period of time, and they will say there’s a moment when the hours of planning, coordination of personnel, and execution of daily tactics finally begin to harmonize in a symphony of cleaning greatness. Getting a cleaning operation to this point is no small feat. Many variables must come together to reach the point where daily outcomes are consistent and measurable. 

The tricky part is it doesn’t take much to disrupt that consistency. Absenteeism, heavy occupancy, complaints, and multiple facility events can disrupt operations. When this happens, a common practice is to defer to the slower times of year—typically during the summer—to play catch-up and, more importantly, use the time for deep cleaning and heavy-duty projects. 

This is a very labor-intensive time for most in-house cleaning operations, particularly schools and universities. It is a time when gym floors, hallways, and large areas of hard flooring are stripped and refinished; when carpeted areas are deep cleaned, extracted, and dried; and when high interior and exterior glass have a year’s worth of buildup removed. On top of all of this, the rest of the building receives its annual deep clean. The team is already in place, the facility is less occupied, and instead of assigning everyone their usual area of responsibility, the priority shifts from maintaining the dirt and grime that came into the facility to the things have that accumulated throughout the year. 

It can be tempting to tackle all this internally—especially if the staff and the expertise are on hand. On the surface, this approach can feel practical, but not every cleaning and maintenance task needs to be the core function of a cleaning program. Projects—especially labor-intensive tasks such as hard floor care, carpet care, and window care—require specialized equipment, advanced safety considerations, and even technical expertise that may not align with a custodial program’s daily operations. 

Doing the work internally doesn’t automatically make it more efficient or less expensive. Many will point out that subcontracting the big projects to an outside contractor will save time and money. It can also help maintain consistency in cleaning operations. 

Strategizing via Subcontracting 

First, facility cleaning managers should consider storage and inventory space. Most cleaning operations struggle to find storage space, let alone optimize it for daily use. What often happens is that closets and bulk storage areas become catch-alls for chemicals, specialized equipment, and extra materials for projects. Furthermore, it’s not uncommon to overbuy these materials because the distributor offers a discount for purchasing in bulk. 

The end result is winding up with much more material than needed, which is then stashed away in a closet with a vague plan to use it for a future project. Oftentimes, it is forgotten about, and new material is purchased—or overpurchased—the following year when it comes time to plan projects. 

This creates a few issues. For example, it can lead to investing in machines that take up a lot of space but are only used sparingly. Or worse, it can make it difficult to get a handle on the total chemical inventory, which can challenge Hazard Communication (HAZCOM) law compliance. The more chemicals in an inventory, the greater the opportunity for mishaps and misuse. 

Second, depending on an operation’s crew size and capacity, special projects can pull people away from regular cleaning assignments and introduce safety hazards. Seasonal or specialty projects are often physically demanding, have slower completion times due to their complexity, require more water and training, and thus place the crew at a higher risk of on-the-job injuries. Slips and falls are among the highest categories of injury for custodial professionals, followed by repetitive strain and fatigue-based injuries. Additionally, these tasks may require more supervision and specialization to complete successfully. If not executed properly, they can result in costly redos, or worse, cause damage to the facility. 

Third, and finally, is the overall bandwidth of the frontline team. For the past 20 years, the overarching mantra of the cleaning profession has been “do more with less.” Each year, cleaning crews are expected to meet higher standards, while managers work creatively to coordinate their staff to maintain results. Over time, this has left many cleaning operations scrambling to keep up with demand, spreading projects out over the year, or simply getting to them when they can. 

The cost of keeping specialty work internal is rarely limited to labor. It often shows up in storage, supervision, safety exposure, and operational bandwidth. Partnering with a subcontractor may make sense in these scenarios to preserve an operation’s consistency. 

This is not a recommendation to outsource the entire department; it is about alignment. Bringing in the right partner to handle the labor-intensive, high-risk tasks can help bolster the consistency of a cleaning operation. Of course, the success of this strategy depends heavily on selecting the right partner. The managers who get this right tend to approach partner selection the same way they approach their operations: methodically, and with hard-won criteria. 

For example, experience matters, and it is not universal. Not all contractors have worked across all environments. Stripping and refinishing large hallways and gym floors is a fundamentally different scale from working in a small convenience store. A contractor who underestimates the crew size or timeline for a project can set the entire summer back. The right partner will have done this before, at this size, and won’t need much prompting to prove it. 

Scale and experience alone, however, are not enough. Safety and compliance are non-negotiable. Seasonal cleaning and maintenance projects involve higher-risk tasks that expand beyond daily custodial work. Lift access for high glass, exterior work, specialty floor care, carpet extraction, and wet work all introduce hazards that require specific training, planning, and oversight. At a minimum, verify proof of workers’ compensation coverage and general liability insurance. This is more than a paperwork exercise. A contractor without proper coverage can quickly turn a project into a significant liability event. 

Training and certification matter as well. Specialty floor and carpet care continue to evolve with new chemistries, equipment, and best practices. A reputable contractor should be able to demonstrate that their team has been properly trained on required equipment and clearly articulate the methods they intend to use. If certifications are relevant to the scope of work, ask for them to verify that they are current. The contractors who do this work well don’t leave much to interpretation, and that should be apparent before anyone signs anything. 

Managers who successfully navigate this tend to put the scope of work in writing before anything else. Not in broad strokes, but specifically: which areas of the building, actual measurements, and exactly what tasks are expected to be completed. A timeline belongs in there, too, because “when it’s done” means different things to different people. 

Just as important is spelling out what’s not included in the scope of work. Experienced managers know that assumptions about post-work cleanup or future touch-ups have a quiet way of becoming disputes. The clearer the agreement is going in, the less time is spent sorting out who’s responsible for what once the work wraps up. 

Execution often comes down to communication. If a contractor is disorganized during the quoting process, expect disorganization during the job. The last thing anyone needs is to split time between managing two operations—especially since the point of subcontracting is to free up operations to ensure consistency. 

It’s also important to remember that the lowest bid does not always equal the lowest operational cost. There are inexpensive contractors who do great work, but inexpensive work can create additional burdens, such as complaints, rework, or worse, property damage. Make sure the price aligns with expectations, and above all, when in doubt, do not proceed. 

Cleaning operations are ecosystems. The moment one part becomes overloaded, the entire system feels it. Smart leaders understand that protecting consistency sometimes means resisting the temptation to do everything internally. When subcontracting is approached strategically, and with the right partner, it becomes less about outsourcing the work and more about protecting the operation leaders worked so hard to build. 

Ben Walker is the President of Walker Foundry, a cleaning industry consultancy. A 20-year industry veteran, he writes regularly on the human element of cleaning, elevating custodial operations, and workforce innovation.