Post-construction cleaning clients are general contractors, and the right moment to reach them is about 30 days before a project's handover date. This page follows one fictional four-person crew for 30 days: how it listed 20 projects close to handover, what it sent to the superintendents, how the walk-throughs and quotes went, and the numbers at the end, including what the first job actually earned. The figures are illustrative, but each one adds up, so you can plug in your own rates.

The buyer is a project manager or superintendent with a hard date: a certificate of occupancy, a tenant move-in, an owner's walk-through. They need the building clean enough to hand over, and they need it done once per project. That's different from regular commercial cleaning, where you sign an office for a year, and it's why how to get commercial cleaning clients covers a different problem. Rocketship finds business buyers; here that means contractors, not building owners looking for a janitor.

The company and the goal

Grayson Final Clean is a four-person crew in Nashville run by Tasha Grayson. She has a van, her own supplies and a certificate of insurance (COI) plus a W-9 ready to email. Contractors will ask for both before they let anyone on a site, so she keeps them in a folder. Her price list: $0.45 per square foot for a standard final clean (all surfaces, glass, floors, fixtures), $0.40 for large open floors above 20,000 sq ft, $0.55 for medical or lab space. Her 30-day goal: three quotes, one booked job. Her cost: four people at $20 an hour, supplies about $190 per job.

Week 1: 20 projects near handover

The signal is a project near the end. Tasha searches new commercial building permits and notes ones that already have a final inspection scheduled or that were permitted 8 to 14 months ago for a small build. She also looks at "now leasing" or "coming soon" signs on new tenant buildouts, and she drives the east side on Friday mornings to spot job-site signs with the GC's name. Her sheet has: project address, GC name, superintendent or project manager (from the permit or the GC's website), square footage, expected handover, and email. She ends with 20 projects. Rocketship can build the same list from a description (commercial general contractors with active tenant improvement projects), show 25 by name for free, and send from her own Gmail. See how to find general contractors to sell to.

Week 2: emails to superintendents

Subject: Final clean for the Wedgewood dental buildout, before the Oct 28 handover

Hi Luis, I saw the Wedgewood Plaza suite 120 buildout is set for handover around October 28. Grayson Final Clean does the rough and final clean for contractors around Nashville, and I can walk the suite this week and give you a price and a start date in writing. We bring our own supplies, a COI and a W-9, and we can work evenings so we don't block other trades. If someone already has it, tell me who and I'll write to them next time.

Tasha Grayson, Grayson Final Clean, tasha@graysonfinal.example, 612 Church St, Nashville, TN 37219. Reply "stop" to end these emails.

Superintendents are on-site and often read email on a phone at lunch. Short wins. Naming the handover date shows you looked. Cold email to a business is fine in the US with honest headers, your physical address and an opt-out (CAN-SPAM). Tasha sends 20 emails over three days, then calls the 8 superintendents with phone numbers on the permit, between 6:30 and 7:30 a.m., before crews spread out. Results: 5 replies, 4 asking for a walk-through.

Week 3: walk-throughs and quotes

At a walk-through, Tasha asks four questions: what finishes are in the space (polished concrete, carpet tile, glass storefront), how much debris remains, when the punch list ends, and whether other trades will be back. She also asks who signs the cleaning subcontract. Then she measures, photographs, and sends the quote that evening with the start date. Three quotes:

  • Retail tenant improvement, 9,500 sq ft at $0.45: $4,275.
  • Office floor, 22,000 sq ft at $0.40: $8,800.
  • Dental office, 6,000 sq ft at $0.55: $3,300.

She writes each quote with the start date, the number of visits (a rough clean, then a final clean and a touch-up before handover if asked), and an exclusion list: no exterior glass above the second floor, no removal of paint or caulk on finished surfaces, no work on a site that's unsafe. Wording for the follow-up is in how to follow up on a quote.

Week 4: the first job and the GC follow-up

The retail contractor accepts on day 3 after the quote: the handover moved up by a week, and the previous cleaner cancelled. The crew works two evenings. Labor: 4 people for 2 days at 8 hours each, which is 64 hours at $20, or $1,280. Supplies $190. Cost $1,470 against $4,275 charged, leaving $2,805, about 66 percent. The office floor contractor says yes to the schedule next month: booked, $8,800, start date November 12. The dental quote is lost to a cleaner the GC already uses. Tasha asks for the reason (price and history) and asks to be the second quote on the next job.

After the retail job, she emails the superintendent a short thank-you with six before and after photos, and asks: "Who else at your company is finishing a project this quarter?" That one question is worth more than the whole cold list, since the next three leads usually come from it. Our post on asking for a testimonial has wording for the review request.

Month-end numbers for the crew

  • Projects listed: 20. Emails: 20. Calls: 8.
  • Replies: 5. Walk-throughs: 4. Quotes: 3.
  • Won: one job done ($4,275), one booked ($8,800), one lost ($3,300).
  • Month-one revenue: $4,275. Booked for next month: $8,800.

One pattern to watch: the best leads are projects within 30 days of handover. A project 90 days out will get an interested reply and nothing else. Log the date and set a reminder 6 weeks before it ends.

Copy the paperwork, change the prices

Copy: the COI and W-9 ready in a folder, the handover date in the first line, the evening schedule offer, and the question to the superintendent at the end of every job. Change: your prices and your square-foot tiers, and the project types. If you sit near hospitals or labs, add a price for medical space. If your region has few permits online, drive routes and check signs. The neighbor pages on excavation and demolition cover the early end of the same projects.

Keeping that project list fresh each week is the part that gets dropped. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number works on Launch, with call minutes bought as you go ($15 for 50), and a dedicated line is $5 a month. See the AI workers.