Post-construction cleaning

Sanding dust from plasterboard walls is the last thing to leave a building site. It sits in the tracks under the windows, on top of the door frames and in the threads of new taps, and it only gets properly visible when the morning sun comes through the glass the day after handover.

How does a post-construction clean work?

We walk the premises with you or the site management before the price is set, noting square metres, floor types and what the tradespeople leave behind in sheeting and packaging. Within 24 hours of the walkthrough you have a total fixed price in writing. It only changes if the job changes, and then you get a new quote before we carry on.

The dust is only half the work. New windows, appliances and taps arrive with protective film, tape and labels that have to come off without scratching anything. Paint splashes and adhesive have to come off glass and floors. And the windows need polishing on the inside before the premises can be shown.

One pass is rarely enough. The fine dust keeps settling on frames, glass and floors after the work stops, so a surface that looked finished in the afternoon can be grey again the next morning. That is why we plan several passes and a short follow-up round on handover day. The Danish Working Environment Authority treats construction dust as a chemical exposure rather than ordinary dirt, and points to the least dusty methods and filtered equipment. It is the reason the floors are vacuumed with a filter instead of swept dry.

Where in the build does the final clean sit?

The trade splits cleaning on a building site into three stages. During the build itself, rough cleaning runs as an ongoing clear-up, with packaging and waste taken out and access routes kept clear. Interim cleaning comes when a trade finishes, so painters and floor layers get to work on clean surfaces. Last comes the post-construction clean: dust off every surface, film and labels removed, windows polished inside, just before the premises are taken into use.

The time window is rarely wide. Once the contractor has given notice of completion, AB 18 requires the client to call the handover inspection no later than ten working days after the stated completion date, and the cleaning sits between the two.

Our part of the handover is that the premises look clean for the inspection. The protocol and the building defects sit with the contractor and the client.