BREEAM-Rated Buildings

You need an experienced cleaning contractor who works to the building’s specification and documents what they do, which is not a specialist discipline in itself. The practical difference shows up in three places: the products used on sensitive finishes, the hygiene of the ventilation systems, and whether waste and chemical records exist in a form your assessor can use. Plenty of contractors clean these buildings well and record none of it, which leaves the evidence gap for you to fill at reassessment.

More than people assume. Corporate head offices and city-centre commercial towers are the obvious ones, but ratings are also common across business and science parks, distribution and logistics centres, university and NHS estate, retail schemes, and mixed-use developments. Local planning conditions often require a rating on new commercial development, so a building does not have to be a flagship to carry one. If you are unsure whether your site is certified, your managing agent or the original project team will hold the certificate.

It can, though not in the way people fear. A change of contractor does not alter your rating directly. What it affects is the continuity of your evidence, because the chemical records, waste data and training logs your assessor asks for sit with whoever holds the cleaning contract. When we mobilise on a certified building we ask what documentation the outgoing contractor produced, so there is no gap in the record between one contract and the next.

Yes, and it is one of the more common problems we see. Low-emission paints, engineered timber, polished concrete and specialist resin floors all come with manufacturer cleaning guidance, and an aggressive or abrasive product can dull a surface or void a warranty. Replacing a floor finish early carries a cost and an environmental impact your building was specified to avoid. We work from the manufacturer’s guidance for each surface and record the products used, so the position stays auditable.

Three, and you can control all of them. The chemistry you use adds or avoids volatile organic compounds in the air. The filtration on your vacuum equipment either captures fine dust or recirculates it. And soil control at the entrance determines how much gets tracked in before anything else happens. We use low-VOC, plant-based products, HEPA-filtered equipment rated to 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns, and extract soil from your existing entrance matting as part of the schedule.

We segregate at source across the streams your building runs, commonly dry mixed recyclables, paper and card, glass, food waste and hazardous or electrical waste. Teams are briefed on what belongs in each stream, because a single contaminated container can make a month’s figures unreportable. Waste data is captured digitally and shared with building management, which gives you recorded figures to put into your annual review.

We always survey before we start. That means walking the building with you to look at floor and wall finishes and their manufacturer guidance, ventilation plant and how it is accessed, the waste infrastructure and streams in use, and where landlord responsibility ends and tenant responsibility begins. The specification is built from that survey. We also ask to see any cleaning requirements written into your Building User Guide or your original assessment, since those set the standard we are working to.

Yes. Post-construction and sparkle cleans on newly built or refurbished buildings are part of what we do, and on a certified project the handover itself matters. Under BREEAM New Construction, the Building User Guide produced at practical completion includes approved cleaning schedules designed to protect surfaces and air systems from day one. We can supply the cleaning schedule element of that guide, which is something main contractors need and are rarely offered.

Yes, and it is a common arrangement. Under BREEAM In-Use, a landlord in a multi-tenanted building has to give tenants formal written guidance on interior cleaning procedures, though the landlord is not required to police whether tenants follow it. In practice that produces inconsistency between common areas and demised space. We can apply one protocol across both, covering chemical standards, HEPA vacuuming and waste segregation, with records held in one place.

They are. We use plant-based, low-VOC products, chosen to avoid the solvents, synthetic dyes and volatile fragrances that add to the chemical load in a sealed or mechanically ventilated building. Products are dosed accurately rather than poured by eye, and used with colour-coded microfibre systems that cut both chemical and water consumption. Safety data sheets and product certifications are held on file and available whenever you need them for an assessment or an audit.