Cleaning & janitorial
Cleaning Equipment Cost Calculator
Work out equipment cost per hour or per contract, since commercial cleaning is equipment dependent.
Result
Ownership cost is charged as depreciation plus a finance cost on the money tied up, because that is what the machine costs you per year whether or not it leaves the yard. Operating cost is fuel, wear parts and servicing, and it only accrues while it runs. Splitting them is the point: the fixed half is what makes a lightly used machine expensive per hour, and it is why the rent-or-buy answer depends on your annual hours rather than on the price. The cost per thousand square feet is the figure that belongs in a bid, because commercial cleaning is priced by area rather than by machine hour. Note that the square feet per hour figure should be your own productive rate including setup, filling, emptying and moving between areas, not the manufacturer's theoretical coverage, which assumes an uninterrupted straight line and is not achievable in a real building.
Get a Free Business AuditWhat moves the number
- Purchase or lease cost spread across expected operating hours.
- Maintenance and consumable parts such as pads, brushes and filters.
- Whether the equipment is dedicated to a site or shared across contracts.
Where this one goes wrong
Leaving equipment out of contract costing. Machines dedicated to a site are a cost of that contract, and a contract costed on labour alone can be unprofitable once the scrubber assigned to it is counted.
Questions
About this calculator
Should equipment be allocated to contracts?
Where it is dedicated to a site, yes. Shared equipment is better recovered as an hourly cost across all work.
What is the real cost of a machine?
Purchase or lease, maintenance, consumable parts and the downtime when it fails. The purchase price alone understates it noticeably.
Is buying or leasing better?
Leasing preserves cash and includes maintenance; buying is cheaper over a long life if you maintain it. The right answer depends on your cash position and contract length.
The formula
ownership per year = (price - resale) / life + finance + service + battery / battery life; cost per thousand sq ft = cost per hour / sq ft per hour x 1000
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How to use this calculator
- Purchase price ($). Enter your own figure; the page starts at $7,800.
- Useful life (years). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 7.
- Resale value at the end (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 10%.
- Finance or cost of capital rate (%). Enter your own figure; the page starts at 8%.
- Hours of use per week. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 18.
- Weeks per year. Enter your own figure; the page starts at 50.
The result updates as you type, so you can try a figure, see what it does to all in cost per hour, and change it back. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere or saved.
A worked example
These are the figures the calculator opens with. Every number in the results column below is produced by the same calculation the page runs, so you can follow it through before putting your own figures in.
What goes in
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Purchase price | $7,800 |
| Useful life (years) | 7 |
| Resale value at the end | 10% |
| Finance or cost of capital rate | 8% |
| Hours of use per week | 18 |
| Weeks per year | 50 |
| Pads, brushes and chemical per hour | $3.2 |
| Servicing and repairs per year | $600 |
| Battery or major part replacement | $1,200 |
| Battery life (years) | 4 |
| Square feet cleaned per hour | 18,000 |
| Rental per day if you hired instead | $145 |
| Hours you get from a rental day | 8 |
What comes out
| Result | Value |
|---|---|
| All in cost per hour main result | $5.70 |
| Equipment cost per thousand square feet | $0.32 |
| Ownership cost per hour | $2.50 |
| Operating cost per hour | $3.20 |
| Hours per year | 900 |
| Total cost per year | $5,126 |
| Renting instead, per hour | $18.13 |
| Annual hours where buying beats renting | 150 |
This machine costs $5.70 an hour all in, $2.50 of ownership and $3.20 of consumables, across 900 hours a year. Covering 18,000 square feet an hour, that is $0.32 per thousand square feet. Buying beats renting above 150 hours a year.
How sensitive the answer is
Holding everything else steady and changing only purchase price, this is what happens to all in cost per hour. It is worth knowing which of your inputs the answer actually hinges on, and which barely move it.
| Purchase price ($) | All in cost per hour |
|---|---|
| $3,900 | $4.95 |
| $5,850 | $5.32 |
| $7,800 example above | $5.70 |
| $11,700 | $6.44 |
| $15,600 | $7.19 |
Every other input is held at the example value while this one changes, which is not how a real job behaves. Treat it as a guide to which number matters most, not as five separate quotes.
What each figure means
- Purchase price ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 500000, starting at $7,800.
- Useful life (years)
- A number, between 1 and 30, starting at 7.
- Resale value at the end (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 90, starting at 10%.
- Finance or cost of capital rate (%)
- A percentage, between 0 and 40, starting at 8%.
- Hours of use per week
- A number, between 1 and 168, starting at 18.
- Weeks per year
- A number, between 1 and 52, starting at 50.
- Pads, brushes and chemical per hour ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 200, starting at $3.2.
- Servicing and repairs per year ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 50000, starting at $600.
- Battery or major part replacement ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 50000, starting at $1,200.
- Battery life (years)
- A number, between 1 and 20, starting at 4.
- Square feet cleaned per hour
- A number, between 0 and 500000, starting at 18,000.
- Rental per day if you hired instead ($)
- A money amount, between 0 and 10000, starting at $145.
- Hours you get from a rental day
- A number, between 0 and 24, starting at 8.
What the results tell you
| Result | What it is |
|---|---|
| All in cost per hour | The headline result. A money figure. |
| Equipment cost per thousand square feet | A money figure. |
| Ownership cost per hour | A money figure. |
| Operating cost per hour | A money figure. |
| Hours per year | A number. |
| Total cost per year | A money figure. |
| Renting instead, per hour | A money figure. |
| Annual hours where buying beats renting | A number. |
Time is the variable that bites
Pricing that works out on paper fails when the job takes longer than quoted. First cleans, heavily soiled sites and access problems all run over, so it is worth pricing the first visit separately from the recurring one.
Keep going
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