How often should strata common areas be cleaned? As a starting point, lobbies, entrances and elevators need cleaning several times a week to daily, garbage rooms and corridors at least weekly, and stairwells every week or two. Parkades, carpets, glass and exterior walkways run on a periodic schedule, from monthly to once or twice a year. Busy towers sit at the high end of those ranges and small townhouse complexes at the low end.
Under the Strata Property Act, the strata corporation must repair and maintain common property and common assets, so it’s the council that sets and budgets the cleaning schedule for shared spaces. The table below gives starting-point frequencies for three common building types. Treat it as a first draft to test with a walkthrough and a few inspections, not as a set of rules.
Common area cleaning frequency by area
The frequencies below assume average use: a mix of owners and tenants, some pets and typical amenities. A townhouse complex has ground-oriented homes with shared walkways and mailbox kiosks, and perhaps a clubhouse or underground parkade. A low-rise walk-up has shared corridors and stairs over a few storeys. A tower is a mid- or high-rise with elevators, amenity floors and a multi-level parkade.
| Area | Townhouse complex | Low-rise walk-up | Mid- or high-rise tower |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lobby and entrance | Weekly at mailbox kiosks and clubhouse entry | 2–3× a week | Daily on weekdays; weekends too in busy buildings |
| Elevators | Usually none | 2–3× a week, if present | Daily; door tracks weekly |
| Corridors | Usually none | Weekly | Weekly on every floor; lobby and amenity floors 2–3× a week |
| Stairwells | Covered with walkways | Weekly | Every 2 weeks; ground-floor landings and handrails weekly |
| Garbage and recycling rooms | Weekly at bin enclosures | 2× a week | Daily tidy; floor wash weekly |
| Amenity rooms and gyms | Weekly, or after bookings | Weekly | Gyms 3–5× a week; party rooms after bookings |
| Parkade | Litter check monthly; sweep quarterly; wash yearly | Litter check monthly; sweep quarterly; wash yearly | Litter and spill check weekly; sweep monthly; wash 1–2× a year |
| Interior glass | Monthly | Every 2 weeks | Weekly |
| Exterior walkways and entries | Sweep weekly in leaf season; pressure wash 1–2× a year | Sweep weekly; pressure wash 1–2× a year | Entry plaza swept each visit; pressure wash 1–2× a year |
| Carpet extraction | Clubhouse yearly | 1–2× a year | Lobby and high-traffic runs 2–4× a year; corridors 1–2× a year |
Parkade schedules also depend on drainage, ramps and how much winter grit comes in. Our parkade cleaning guide covers them in more detail.
What changes your strata cleaning schedule
Two buildings with the same number of units can need very different schedules. These factors move an area up or down the table:
- Traffic per entrance and elevator. A tower that funnels everyone through one lobby and two elevators needs more frequent care than the same number of homes spread across several entrances.
- Pets. Dog-friendly buildings get paw prints in elevators and lobbies, more hair in corridors, and accidents that need same-day spot cleaning.
- Amenities. Gyms, party rooms, guest suites and bike rooms each add their own tasks. Rooms that are booked are easiest to clean after each booking.
- Moves and renovations. Move-ins, move-outs and suite renovations bring dust and debris into elevators and corridors. A cleanup booked after each move keeps them from building up.
- Parcels and garbage design. Deliveries fill lobbies with cardboard, and chute rooms need daily attention, while buildings with carts and set pickup days can clean after each pickup.
- Finishes and age. Light carpet, stone and stainless steel show dirt quickly, and worn finishes in older buildings need gentler, more frequent care.
Illustrative example: turning frequencies into visits
Frequencies are easier to budget for and check once you convert them into monthly visits. A task done three times a week works out to about 13 visits a month (3 × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months), a weekly task to about 4.3, and a task every two weeks to about 2.2. If a council sets the lobby at five times a week, it should see about 22 lobby visits a month in the visit logs. The example only illustrates the arithmetic; it isn’t a recommendation for any particular building.
Seasonal adjustments
Metro Vancouver: the long wet season
From fall to spring, rain and grit are tracked into lobbies and elevators every day. Add larger or extra entrance mats, clean or swap them more often, and move entrance floor care up a step in the table, for example from three times a week to daily. In fall, leaves clog walkway and parkade entry drains, and moss and algae make shaded walkways slippery. That’s especially true on the North Shore, where rain is heavier and many sites get less sun. Many buildings book pressure washing before the wet season and again after it.
Fraser Valley: winter grit and summer dust
Valley winters are colder, with more snow, ice and strong outflow winds. Once gravel and de-icer start coming indoors, entrances need daily attention during icy spells, and hard floors need regular cleaning so de-icer residue doesn’t build up on the finish. Summers are hotter and drier, bringing dust, pollen and, in some years, wildfire smoke. Add glass, ledge and vent-grille dusting during dry or smoky stretches. Our Fraser Valley page covers local conditions.
Summer water restrictions
Where you can, schedule exterior washing for spring and early fall. In municipalities supplied by Metro Vancouver’s regional water system, Stage 1 restrictions apply automatically from May 1 to October 15. Washing hard surfaces is allowed at Stage 1. At Stage 2 it’s limited to health or safety reasons, preparing a surface for painting or similar treatment, or aesthetic cleaning by a commercial cleaning operation. At Stage 3, aesthetic cleaning isn’t allowed at all. Abbotsford and Mission have their own staged restrictions, so check the current stage before you book.
Signs the schedule is too light
Tick any that sound familiar
- A grey grit line at the entrance mats by midweek
- Elevator door tracks packed with debris, or panels that stay smudged between visits
- Sticky floors or odours in garbage and recycling rooms, or pests spotted nearby
- Resident complaints that cluster in the day or two before the next scheduled visit
- Traffic lanes in the carpet that extraction no longer lifts
- Moss and algae returning on walkways long before the next wash
- Visit logs showing tasks skipped or rushed because the crew ran out of time
- Inspection results that slip every wet season
If several apply, don’t add hours across the board. Find the zones that are falling short and raise those frequencies first. Otherwise you’ll pay for extra visits to areas that were already fine.
Set frequency and budget by zone
Grouping areas into zones makes the schedule easier to price, inspect and adjust:
- Zone A, first impressions: entrances, the lobby, elevators, and garbage and recycling rooms. These get the highest frequency, and residents notice lapses here first.
- Zone B, circulation and amenities: corridors, stairwells, amenity rooms, gyms and bike rooms, cleaned weekly or after bookings.
- Zone C, periodic work: carpet extraction, parkade sweeping and washing, detailed glass cleaning, high dusting and exterior pressure washing, each booked for named months.
Ask bidders to price each zone separately and list periodic work as separate lines. When the budget is tight, the council can then trim Zone C, or move a task to another season, without cutting daily care in the lobby. Under the Strata Property Act, the operating fund covers common expenses that usually occur once a year or more often, while the contingency reserve fund is for less frequent expenses. That means recurring cleaning, including a yearly parkade wash, normally belongs in the annual operating budget.
For how cleaning fits alongside inspections, repairs and seasonal exterior work, see our strata maintenance schedule.
Writing the schedule into your contract
A schedule only works if the contract makes it checkable. For each area, write down:
- The tasks, listed specifically (for example, “vacuum and wet-mop lobby floor; clean both sides of the entry door glass”).
- The frequency, and the day where timing matters, such as cleaning the garbage room after pickup day.
- A short standard a council member can check on a walkthrough.
- Target months for periodic work, plus any agreed wet-season or winter increases and their pricing.
- What happens after a missed visit: whether it’s made up or credited, and how soon.
- The visit logs and photo reports that show the work was done.
The Province’s guidance on strata maintenance records suggests keeping written maintenance guidelines that state your building’s standards, such as how often exterior windows are washed each year. Your cleaning schedule can form the cleaning section of those guidelines. Our strata cleaning contract checklist covers the rest of the agreement, and our strata cleaning team can walk your building and turn this table into a written, itemized scope.