Post-Construction Cleaning in Tampa Bay

Construction dust is not regular dust. It is fine, it is everywhere, and it settles three times after you think you have got it. Sweeping a new build and calling it clean is how you end up with a homeowner running a finger along a door frame at the walkthrough.

We do final cleans on new builds, additions and remodels around Tampa Bay. The job is to take a finished-but-filthy space and hand it over ready to be photographed, inspected or lived in.

Rough clean, final clean, touch-up

Most projects want two or three passes, and builders who skip to the last one usually regret it.

• Rough clean. After the major trades finish and before finishes go in. Debris removal, sweeping, getting the site workable.
• Final clean. The big one. Every surface, inside every cabinet, all glass, all fixtures, all floors. This is what most people mean by post-construction cleaning.
• Touch-up. A short pass right before the walkthrough or handover, after the last punch list items are done and the trades have tracked back through.

Dust keeps falling for days after the work stops. A final clean followed by a touch-up the morning of the walkthrough is the combination that actually holds.

What the final clean covers

This is a detail job and it takes real time. Every horizontal surface in the building gets touched, and most of them get touched more than once.

• Dust removal, top down. Ceilings, fans, light fixtures, door frames, ledges, window sills and tracks, vents and returns, baseboards. Done in order so nothing falls onto a finished surface.
• Windows and glass. Interior glass cleaned, stickers and labels off, tracks and frames vacuumed out. Paint specks and adhesive residue removed from glass where they come off safely.
• Cabinets and built-ins. Inside every box, every drawer, every shelf, then the fronts and the toe kicks.
• Fixtures and appliances. Protective film peeled, labels removed, stainless polished, sinks and tubs cleaned of grout haze and drywall slurry.
• Bathrooms and kitchens. Grout haze off tile, caulk lines cleaned, fixtures detailed, mirrors done last.
• Floors. Vacuumed with proper filtration, then cleaned to the flooring manufacturer's method. Hardwood, tile, LVP and polished concrete all get handled differently.

Why filtration matters

Running a shop vac with a worn filter through a new build is how fine dust gets redistributed instead of removed. It looks clean for an hour, then the haze comes back on every dark surface.

We vacuum with proper filtration and we work top down so gravity is on our side. Air filters and HVAC returns get attention too, because a system that ran during construction has been pulling that dust in and will keep putting it back out.

If the HVAC ran through the build without filters in place, mention it. Duct cleaning is a separate specialty and we will tell you when a job needs one rather than pretending a surface clean solves it.

For builders, GCs and remodelers

The final clean is the last thing that happens before a client forms an opinion about the whole project. It is a bad place to save two hundred dollars.

We schedule around your punch list rather than showing up on a fixed date and cleaning around open work. Tell us realistically when the trades will be out. If the date moves, call us and we will move with it where we can.

For remodels inside occupied homes, containment matters as much as cleaning. We clean the work area and the path the crew has been walking, which is usually where the homeowner actually notices the dust.

What affects the price

Post-construction is quoted per project. Square footage matters less than the finish level and how much glass and cabinetry there is.

• Total glass area, since windows are the slowest part of a final clean.
• Cabinet and built-in count, cleaned inside and out.
• Bathroom count and how much tile work there is, because grout haze is time.
• Floor types and what method each one requires.
• Whether the site has power, water and lighting when we arrive.

Common questions