The short answer

A good Perth strata cleaning visit covers eight common areas every week (lobbies, hallways, stairwells, lifts, bin rooms, bathrooms, mailboxes, entry doors) plus a rotating extras program (carpets, pressure wash, windows, hard-floor strip-and-seal) that runs across the quarter and the year. The checklist below is the one we use to onboard every new building — feel free to hand it to your incoming cleaner verbatim.

How to use this checklist

This isn’t a wishlist — it’s the actual scope a competent Perth strata cleaner delivers across a typical 24–120 unit building. If your current cleaner is missing line items, this is what you should expect added back into the contract before you sign. If you’re tendering, this is what you ask each cleaner to quote against, line by line.

We’ve split it into per-visit items (delivered every weekly or fortnightly clean) and rotating items (delivered on a quarterly, half-yearly, or annual cycle). For each item we’ve added a verification question — the thing you can spot-check after a visit to know it was actually done.

Per-visit checklist (weekly, fortnightly or twice-weekly)

1. Main lobby and entry

Vacuum or mop all flooring edge-to-edge.
Wipe all glass entry doors (interior + exterior, low reach) including hand-print level.
Dust and wipe entry console / intercom panel / mailbox bank.
Empty foyer bins; replace liners.
Spot-clean walls, switch plates and skirtings.
Wipe lift call buttons and surrounding panels.

Verify: Walk into the lobby Monday morning and rub your finger along the top edge of the mailbox or skirting. Clean = done. Dust line = not done.

2. Hallways and lift lobbies

Vacuum carpets edge-to-edge (corners, not just centres).
Mop hard floors with appropriate detergent for the surface (don’t bleach timber-look vinyl).
Wipe handrails, switch plates, fire-hose reels.
Dust skirtings, ceiling vents (low reach), light fittings (low reach).
Spot-clean walls at hand-print level.

Verify: Stand at one end of a hallway and look down it at a low angle. Vacuum tracks should be visible on carpets; mop streaks should be even on hard floors.

3. Stairwells

Vacuum or mop all flights, edge-to-edge.
Wipe handrails along their full length.
Dust skirtings, fire-door tops, signage frames.
Spot-clean walls at hand-print level.
Empty any landing bins; replace liners.

Verify: Look up at the underside of the handrail bracket — a common dust trap. Should be clean.

4. Lifts

Vacuum lift floor edge-to-edge.
Wipe interior walls and mirror surfaces.
Detail door tracks (top and bottom — bottom is where grime accumulates).
Wipe control panel buttons, surround, and emergency phone speaker.
Spot-clean floor scuff marks.
Polish exterior call panels.

Verify: Slide your finger along the bottom door track. Clean = done. Black grime line = not done.

5. Bin rooms

Sweep then mop the floor with a heavy-duty deodorising detergent.
Wash down walls (or at minimum, spot-clean splash zones around bins).
Wipe down the lid and external surface of each bin.
Empty drainage gulleys; flush with disinfectant.
Wipe doors, handles, and switch plates.
Apply a non-perfumed deodoriser.

Verify: Smell. A properly cleaned bin room smells of nothing within five minutes of the cleaner leaving. If it smells of detergent, it was wet-mopped without scrubbing. If it smells of waste, the wash-down was skipped.

6. Communal bathrooms (where applicable)

Clean and sanitise all toilets (bowls, seats, undersides, bases).
Clean and polish all sinks, taps, mirrors.
Mop floors, paying attention to behind toilet pedestals.
Restock toilet paper, soap, hand-towels per the building’s supply contract.
Empty bins, replace liners.
Wipe doors, handles, switch plates.

Verify: Mirror should be streak-free at a glance from the doorway.

7. Mailbox area

Wipe the front face of the mailbox bank.
Sweep / vacuum the floor in front and around mailbox bases.
Empty any junk-mail bin; replace liner.
Dust top edge of bank (a common skip).

Verify: Top edge of the mailbox bank. Should be dust-free.

8. Entry doors and exterior threshold (low reach)

Wipe both sides of entry glass.
Sweep entry threshold and immediate outside footpath / paved area (one metre out, minimum).
Pick up any litter in the entry zone.

Verify: Glass should be streak-free at eye height.

Rotating extras checklist

These don’t fit a weekly visit — they’re scheduled across the quarter and the year on a rotating program. Most cleaners build this into the standard agreement; if yours doesn’t, ask for it.

Quarterly (every 3 months)

Carpet steam clean of high-traffic common areas (lobby, lift lobby, hallway carpets). Use hot-water extraction, not dry-foam. Plan on $4–$9 per square metre.
Surface car-park sweep (if not already done monthly). Includes oil-stain treatment on visible patches.
Stairwell deep clean — pressure / steam treatment on grouted floors, full wash-down of walls.
Lift detail — full ceiling clean, ventilation grille wipe-down, mirror polish, door-track deep-clean.

Half-yearly (every 6 months)

Window detail — exterior of low-reach common-area windows, all interior glass.
Bin-room pressure wash — full floor, walls and bins pressure-washed and deodorised.
Hard-floor scrub-and-recoat on vinyl / lino common areas (lighter than a full strip-and-seal).

Annual (every 12 months)

Strip-and-seal hard floors in heavy-traffic areas (lobbies, lift lobbies). 4–6 coats of commercial sealer.
Building exterior pressure wash — render, paved entries, courtyards. Soft-wash on rendered surfaces; pressure on concrete.
Common-area window professional clean — including upper levels if accessible (pole-fed pure water system or rope-access).
Comprehensive audit — re-walk the building with the strata manager, log any drift in scope, update photos.

What a good photo report looks like

Per-visit photo reports should include:

Before/after of any “problem area” the building has flagged (often the bin room or a specific lift).
A timestamped wide shot of each main common area (lobby, lift lobby per floor for buildings with floor-level cleaning, bin rooms, stairwell).
A note field flagging anything that needs attention next visit or escalation now (e.g. graffiti, water damage, broken light).

A weekly visit should produce 8–14 photos for a typical 24-unit building. Anything less is a tickbox exercise.

Questions Perth strata committees often ask

How often should our building be cleaned?

The honest answer depends on traffic. A 24-unit walk-up with no shared amenities is comfortable on fortnightly cleaning with a weekly bin-room visit. A 60-unit secured tower with two lifts, a gym and a bin chute needs twice-weekly minimum. Most Perth buildings sit at weekly, which is the sensible default.

Who is responsible for cleaning strata common areas?

Under the WA Strata Titles Act, the owners corporation (body corporate) is responsible for maintaining common property — including its cleanliness. The strata manager arranges the cleaning service on the corporation’s behalf. Individual owners aren’t responsible for cleaning common areas, even areas immediately adjacent to their lot.

What’s not included in a standard strata clean?

Generally excluded from the base scope:

Inside individual lots.
Window cleaning above low reach (handled in the rotating program).
Carpet steam cleaning every visit (rotating program).
Heavy-duty graffiti or vandalism remediation (specialist call-out).
Garden maintenance / lawn mowing (separate contractor).
Lift mechanical maintenance (specialist contractor).
Pool / spa cleaning (specialist contractor).

Can the strata committee adjust the scope mid-contract?

Yes — and a good cleaner will welcome the conversation. Most agreements have a quarterly review point built in. Scope adjustments are usually free for additions of the same character (e.g. adding a foyer wipe-down); a properly-quoted variation is needed for material additions (e.g. adding a second weekly visit, taking on the bin chute).

How long should a strata clean take for our building?

Rough Perth benchmarks for a competent crew:

24-unit walk-up, weekly: 90–120 minutes.
60-unit mid-rise with one lift, weekly: 3–4 hours.
120-unit secured tower, two visits per week: 5–6 hours per visit with two cleaners.

A cleaner who’s in and out in materially less time is skipping scope.

Want a quote against this checklist?

We use this exact checklist to onboard every new strata building. Request a strata cleaning quote and we’ll send a line-itemed quote within 48 hours of the site walk-through.

Strata cleaning checklist for Perth properties (what every common-area clean should include)