Why Hire A Professional Janitorial Service To Clean Your School?

By Jared Sarbit

Thumbnail image of a school cafeteria | Picture Perfect Cleaning

Students and teachers spend most of the day inside their school. Ensuring the health and safety of anyone on school grounds should be a top priority for the administration.

With so many students going in and out of school daily, germs and bacteria are easily transmitted, risking the health and education of teachers, students, and their families.

Along with the health risks of getting sick, productivity among both students and teachers decreases when the space they work in is unclean. That’s why hiring a professional cleaning company to clean your school is one of the best moves you can make.

To better understand this, here are some benefits to having your school professionally cleaned.

Reasons To Have Your School Professionally Cleaned

A Better Learning Environment

One of the most important benefits of a clean school environment is its positive impacts on the learning of the students. Studies have shown that students perform better and achieve higher grades in a clean and tidy environment.

Both kids and adults typically enjoy and work better in a space that’s clean. Small things like unswept floors, scuff marks on the walls, and dirty surfaces act as distractions that negatively affect students’ learning experiences.

More Productive Teachers

Like students, teachers work better in a clean and tidy atmosphere. A clean environment increases productivity in employees, letting them focus on grading, lesson planning, and interacting with students instead of constantly cleaning up.

The classroom needs to be a place teachers feel comfortable, relaxed, and can perform their best. When teachers spend all of their free time cleaning or working in an unclean space all day, morale and productivity are destined to fall.

COVID-19 Decontamination

With new hygiene standards brought on by contagious and deadly diseases like COVID-19, a quick wipe down of desktops is simply not good enough. With so many students, parents, and staff occupying a relatively small space, a professional school cleaning service will give you the peace of mind to know that harmful pathogens, bacteria, and viruses are completely eliminated.

A full-scale fogging service can quickly and effectively sanitize and disinfect an entire room or school in just hours, and is easily scheduled after hours or during holiday breaks.

Consistent Cleaning Schedules

A professional cleaning service won’t just clean your school well, they’ll keep it cleaned on a regular basis. Schools need regular cleaning to maintain proper hygiene standards, and a good company will provide the flexibility and customization a school needs with their janitors.

Healthy Teachers & Staff

Teachers interact with hundreds or even thousands of students every day. With that many people in close proximity, germs are easily spread through the air and left on surfaces.

Having your school regularly cleaned will reduce the chances of teachers getting sick. Teachers need their full energy and capacity in order to do their job properly, but when teachers are “under the weather” or not present at all, their student’s education suffers.

Healthy Kids & Families

Kids are constantly coming into close contact with other peers and teachers throughout the day. When a school is professionally cleaned, germs are less likely to be left on surfaces and be picked up by students. As with teachers, students who are under the weather will not learn as well.

The risks of students picking up germs don’t just stop with them; kids bring back germs to their homes and risk infecting family and friends. This can be particularly dangerous for the elderly or immuno-compromised.

Fewer Sick Days

A professionally cleaned school will remove many of the allergens, pathogens, bacteria, and viruses that live on surfaces and in the air of your school, resulting in fewer sick days and lessons missed for both teachers and students.

Extends Infrastructure & Equipment Lifespan

Keeping your school clean will extend the life of your equipment. This includes the equipment inside the rooms as well as the building itself. A professional cleaning service can often detect early warning signs of infestations or rot that may lead to serious structural damage if left unattended.

Instills Good Habits

A clean school promotes clean behaviors. If kids see a school that’s kept clean, organized, and tidy, they’re more likely to follow suit, respecting the school and the people in it.

If a student sees a classroom full of dirt, grime, and other mess, they likely won’t be inclined to clean up after themselves, either.

Conclusion

While many people think cleaning just involves wiping down desks, chairs, and floors, a comprehensive and professional janitorial service goes well beyond, ensuring every nook and cranny is cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized.

The cleaning standards of Picture Perfect Cleaning go above and beyond what’s expected, employing expert janitors who have a deep understanding of the specific cleaning needs and challenges that the school environment presents. At Picture Perfect Cleaning, we have the expertise, experience, and professional equipment to do the job right the first time.

Our team uses only safe and environmentally-friendly products to clean your school, ensuring that no student, staff, or parents are exposed to harsh chemicals used by some other cleaning services. We take a “green clean” approach with products that are certified environmentally friendly by third parties such as Ecologo & Green Seal. Call us today to book your appointment.

Cost Calculator

What Is In-House Cleaning Really Costing You?

Adjust the four numbers below to see your true annual in-house cleaning cost, an estimated cost range with Picture Perfect Cleaning, and what you'd save by making the switch.

Current in-house staff cost

Annual wages plus benefits for your cleaning staff

Supply and equipment costs

Annual spend on products, tools, and machine upkeep

Management oversight time

Hours per week spent scheduling and supervising cleaning

hrs/wk

Sick days or missed shifts

Average per cleaning staff member, per year

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Your Cost Comparison

True In-House Cost

Est. PPC Cost Range

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Estimated Annual Savings by Outsourcing

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Estimates are based on average commercial cleaning rates across Alberta and typical management and coverage costs. Your actual quote depends on square footage, service frequency, facility type, and scope of work. Request a custom quote above for an exact number.

The Hidden Cost of In-House Cleaning

A wage comparison only tells part of the story. Here’s what usually gets left out:

Wages and Benefits

Payroll is usually the first number people look at when they think about cleaning costs, but it rarely tells the whole story. Supplies, equipment, manager oversight, scheduling headaches, and the inevitable sick days all add up over time. By the time you account for everything, the true cost of keeping cleaning in-house can look very different from what’s on the payroll report. That’s exactly what our cost comparison tool is designed to help you see, along with what outsourcing might save.

Supplies and Equipment

Cleaning products, paper goods, vacuums, floor machines, and the replacement parts that keep them running all add up over the course of a year. Businesses that clean in-house often buy retail-grade supplies at retail prices because they don’t have access to the commercial pricing that a cleaning company gets from its suppliers. Equipment also breaks down, and replacing a vacuum or floor buffer every few years is a cost that rarely gets planned for in advance.

Management Time

Somebody has to schedule shifts, check the quality of the work, order more supplies when they run low, and step in when something gets missed. That’s real time pulled from a manager’s actual job, and it rarely gets assigned a dollar value, even though it should. If a facilities manager or office lead spends even a few hours a week on cleaning oversight, that’s time not spent on the parts of their role that actually move the business forward.

Absenteeism and Coverage Gaps

Sick days and missed shifts are part of running any team. When they happen, the work still has to get done, which usually means paying someone else to cover the shift or accepting that some tasks will have to wait. Over the course of a year, those extra costs can become surprisingly significant. There’s another effect that’s harder to measure, too. When cleaning is inconsistent, people notice. Employees notice it, clients notice it, and visitors notice it, even if they couldn’t tell you exactly why the space feels different.

Cost Category	What It Covers
Wages & Benefits	Annual pay for in-house cleaning staff
Supplies & Equipment	Products, tools, and machine upkeep
Management Time	Hours spent scheduling and supervising
Absenteeism	Missed shifts and last-minute coverage

Why Outsourcing Often Comes Out Ahead

Once you’ve seen your own numbers, the reasons behind the gap start to make sense.

Predictable Pricing

A cleaning company quote covers labor, supplies, and equipment on a single line. You know what you’re paying before the work starts, and that number doesn’t shift because someone called in sick or a vacuum broke down. Budgeting gets easier when the cost of cleaning is a single line item rather than four separate ones scattered across payroll, supplies, and management time.

No Coverage Gaps

When a member of an in-house cleaning team calls in sick, someone on your staff has to figure out what happens next. With a professional cleaning service, that responsibility shifts to the provider. If a cleaner is unavailable, arranging a replacement is part of the service, so your team isn’t left scrambling to fill the gap.

Accountability Built In

Picture Perfect Cleaning holds COR certification and provides regular service reporting, so you can see what’s being done and when, without spending your own hours checking on it. That’s the management time most in-house teams never get back. Our team also uses EcoLogo- and Green Seal-certified products, so you’re not trading cost savings for a lower cleaning standard.

Get Your Custom Quote

Wages are only one line in what in-house cleaning actually costs. Once you add in supplies, the hours a manager spends overseeing the crew, and the gaps left by sick days, the real number is usually higher than what shows up on a payroll report and often higher than what a professional service would charge for the same work. That’s the gap the tool above is built to show you, along with what outsourcing could put back in your budget.

Our cost comparison tool gives you a reasonable estimate of what you could save by switching to a professional cleaning service, not a final number. Every building is different, and factors like your cleaning schedule, the size of your facility, and the services you need will affect the actual cost. If you’d like a more accurate quote based on your space, contact Picture Perfect Cleaning, and we’ll walk you through the options.