Cleaning keeps a building presentable. Maintenance keeps it working. This checklist covers the second, and the overlap where a cleaner is your best early-warning system.
Monthly
Safety
- Emergency lighting indicator lights checked
- Fire extinguisher gauges in the green, seals intact
- Fire exits unobstructed and opening freely
- Fire equipment access clear
- Smoke alarm indicators
- First aid kit contents and expiry dates
- Evacuation plans current and displayed
Building fabric
- Doors closing and latching properly
- Door closers adjusted
- Window locks and stays working
- Blinds operating
- Visible water stains on ceilings or walls
- Cracks or movement
Services
- Heat pump filters checked
- Extract fans running
- Toilets not running continuously
- Taps not dripping
- Hot water at expected temperature
- Lights out or flickering logged
Exterior
- Gutters and downpipes clear
- Drainage clear
- Paving even, no trip hazards
- External lighting working
- Signage secure
Quarterly
- HVAC serviced per schedule
- Backflow prevention tested (per council requirement)
- Pest inspection
- Roof inspected for debris
- Weather seals on external doors
- Carpet and flooring condition assessed
- Furniture condition, chairs especially, gas lifts fail quietly
- Security system tested
- Access control audited, who still has cards or keys
Annually
- Fire evacuation drill and record
- Emergency lighting full-duration discharge test
- Fire alarm system certification
- Electrical test and tag
- RCD testing
- Building WOF (BWOF) items per compliance schedule
- Insurance valuation review
- Deep clean and carpet extraction
- Lease obligations reviewed, make-good, maintenance requirements
The cleaner as early-warning system
Your cleaner is in the building more regularly than anyone else, usually when it’s empty and quiet. They notice things nobody else does:
- A tap that’s started dripping
- A toilet that’s running
- A door that’s stopped latching
- Water on a floor that shouldn’t be wet
- A ceiling stain that’s grown
- Signs of pests
- A carpet edge lifting
- A light that’s out
- A window left open
- A security door propped
Make reporting this an explicit duty, and give them a channel. A cleaner with no way to report a problem stops noticing problems within about a month.
Our teams photograph anything they find and log it against the visit, so it reaches the facility manager the same night. Several of our clients have caught leaks over a weekend this way, the cost avoided on one of those pays for a year of cleaning.
What’s cleaning and what’s maintenance
Worth being explicit, because the boundary causes friction:
| Task | Cleaning | Maintenance |
|---|---|---|
| Wiping a heat pump face | ✓ | |
| Changing a heat pump filter | ✓ | |
| Dusting a light fitting | ✓ | |
| Replacing a tube or globe | ✓ | |
| Cleaning an extractor grille | ✓ | |
| Servicing the extract fan | ✓ | |
| Mopping up a leak | ✓ | |
| Fixing the leak | ✓ | |
| Cleaning gutters | ✓ (usually) | |
| Reporting any of the above | ✓ |
Write the boundary into both contracts. The most common gap is filters, cleaners dust the grille, maintenance assumes cleaning changed the filter, and nobody does.
Building a simple system
You don’t need software:
- A calendar with recurring entries for every item above
- A single log, spreadsheet is fine, of issues raised, date, status
- One person who owns it
- A five-minute review monthly
The failure mode isn’t complexity, it’s that nobody owns it. Assign it by name.