The Framework Advantage: Strata Property maintenance made easy for Strata Managers in Vancouver

Strata common-area cleaning usually fails for one reason: nobody wrote down what clean means for each area. A contract that names the areas, the frequency and the standard is easier to price, easier to inspect and easier to defend at a council meeting. Here is how to build one before renewal.

What strata cleaning in Vancouver actually covers

A strata building is not a large house. It is a set of separate cleaning problems with separate standards. The lobby is judged by residents and realtors, the parkade by whether the ramp is slippery, the garbage room by smell two floors up. One flat line item for common areas cannot cover all three honestly. The full area list sits on our strata cleaning page.

The areas residents notice

Entry glass and the front door pull. Elevator cab walls, floor and the sill track. Hallway carpet, especially the first three metres inside each entrance. Stairwell handrails. The mail room counter. These are the surfaces people touch and photograph, so a contractor prices them first.

The areas nobody notices until they fail

The floor behind the garbage bins and the wall behind them. The chute door and the room it opens into. Parkade stairwell corners, where grit collects and never leaves. Janitor closets and the mop sink, where mould starts. Roof drain scuppers in October. A scope that skips these looks fine for two months and then becomes an insurance conversation.

Scope by area, not by hours

An hourly contract pays a contractor to be slow. A per-visit flat rate pays them to be organised. Either way the document that matters is the same: for each area, how often, and what finished looks like. Put that in a table, attach it to the agreement, and an inspection becomes a yes or no. Our strata cleaning checklist is built the same way.

Area	Frequency	Standard
Lobby and mail room	Five visits weekly	Glass streak-free, floor damp-mopped, mats done both sides
Elevator cabs	Each visit	Floor dried, walls wiped, door track vacuumed
Corridor carpet	Weekly	Vacuumed in two directions, spots treated same visit
Stairwells	Weekly	Handrails, nosings, corners, landing behind the door
Garbage and recycling room	Three visits weekly	Floor scrubbed to the drain, bins rinsed, chute wall washed
Parkade and ramp	Weekly sweep, monthly scrub	Salt swept dry, oil spotted, ramp left dry
Washrooms, amenity rooms	Daily when open	Fixtures, mirrors, restock, floor dried before opening
Doors and exterior glass	Monthly doors, glass twice a year	Frames and sills included, not just the pane
Bike room, storage, loading bay	Monthly	Swept, cobwebs removed, drains clear

Frequency: traffic and weather, not square footage

Two buildings the same size need different schedules. A 40-unit woodframe walk-up with one entrance is not a 180-unit concrete tower with a gym, a pool deck and four elevators. Count doors before you count square feet, then count what creates traffic: a dog run, a daycare in the amenity room, short-term rentals, a bike room used by commuters.

Test the schedule against the worst day, not the average one. Walk the building at 8am on a Tuesday in February, when every mat is soaked and the ramp has been salted twice. If the scope holds then, it will look generous in July.

Vancouver constraints that change the schedule

Two things here affect a strata schedule more than square footage does.

Parkade salt and the drain rule

From November to March, salt and sand come in on every tire. Sweep it dry before it gets wet. Once brine dries on concrete it pulls moisture back into the slab, and the white bloom along the base of the wall looks like a leak and is not. Do not hose that floor into the drain at the bottom of the ramp. In much of Vancouver that drain leads to the storm system, and in older parts of the city to a combined sewer. Neither is a place for detergent, brine or sweepings.

Rain, mats and the November entrance

A saturated mat stops being a mat. Buildings that look after their entrances run two mats, swap the wet one mid-week through the rainy months, and mop the tile with clean water rather than more detergent. Detergent film plus rain is the slickest surface in the building. If the tile is sealed, test the sealer with a drop of water: if it soaks in within a minute, the sealer is gone.

What council should receive every month

Council needs evidence it can attach to minutes, not a story. Ask for the same six items monthly, in the same order.

1. A visit log with date, time in and out, and the lead on site.
2. An exception list: what was found, what was done, what needs a tradesperson.
3. Photos of anything unusual, before and after.
4. A consumables note: restocked, and what to order before the next visit.
5. Incidents in writing the same day, including damage or a slip.
6. A one-page monthly summary and an annual scope review priced before budget season.

What belongs in the contract

A strata cleaning agreement is a small document that decides large arguments. Fix the term and notice period, the price per visit and the annual total, how an area is added or dropped, who supplies consumables, and who is responsible for damage. Put snow and ice removal in writing as included or excluded. Most disputes are not about quality. They are about a task nobody agreed was in scope.

Insurance and worker coverage

Ask for a certificate of general liability insurance before the first visit and again at renewal, and ask whether the strata corporation can be named on it. Ask who employs the cleaners, whether they are covered by WorkSafeBC, and who is responsible if one is injured on the property. A contractor working alone with no coverage is cheaper for a reason, and that reason lands on council.

Access is where a strata contract usually fails

Most missed visits are access failures, not cleaning failures. Two things decide whether a crew gets in, gets the cab and gets out on time.

Elevator bookings and the door track

Book the cab, protect it with hardboard rather than a blanket, and vacuum the door track before you leave. A blanket sheds lint into the track and the door starts faulting a week later. Leave the pad down until the floor is dry.

Keys, fobs and alarm codes

Keep a fob and key register with the strata manager, not in a drawer in the janitor closet. Change alarm codes when a contract ends. Decide in advance who authorises after-hours attendance and at what rate, because the call comes at 11pm and nobody reads the agreement then.

What strata cleaning costs in Vancouver

Strata work is quoted after a walkthrough, and a number given over the phone is a guess with a font. Price depends on entrances, carpet against hard floor, garbage rooms, parkade, glass and frequency. Daily lobby attendance plus a monthly parkade scrub is two services on one invoice.

For scale, residential flat rates run from $119 for one bedroom and one bath to $179 for four or more, a deep clean at $349 to $549, a move-out clean at $329 to $549, and listing prep at $249. Strata work is quoted by scope across 32 Vancouver neighbourhoods, and never by the hour. Compare the annual total, the cost per visit and the excluded list, not the headline monthly figure, and make every bidder price the same scope document.

Frequently asked questions

Do we still need a contractor if we have a caretaker?

Usually yes, and the split matters more than the contract. A caretaker handles what happens between visits: a spill, a bulb, a door that will not latch. A contractor handles the scheduled scope with the right equipment and a record of it. Write the split down, or both parties will assume the other one owns the garbage room floor.

How long does a walkthrough take?

Half an hour to an hour for a typical building, with one council member and the strata manager present. Bring the current contract, the budget line and last year’s complaints. Walk the garbage room, the parkade ramp and the worst stairwell first. Those three areas say more about the building than the lobby does.

Can we add suite turnovers to the same contract?

Yes, as separate line items with their own per-unit price. A move-out clean in Vancouver runs $329 to $549 depending on size and condition, and listing prep is $249. Keeping those out of the common-area fee shows council what the building spends on shared space and what it spends on one suite.

Need a scope built? Framework Property Care cleans strata common areas across Vancouver, flat rate and quoted after a walkthrough. Request a walkthrough or call 604-966-3882.

If you manage a building rather than sit on council, the property-manager checklist covers the turnover gaps that cause complaints.