Custodial Services is responsible for the custodial care of UBC owned buildings. Our custodial team provides cleaning services and locking and unlocking of exterior doors, as well as set up for university functions and events including final exams and congregation ceremonies.

Cleaning to APPA standards

Custodial Services receives core financing to clean  academic and administrative buildings. All space types are cleaned to a certain service level. These levels are based on industry standards developed and published by the Association for Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA) and involve a sliding scale from 1 to 5.

Faculties who desire a higher level of service in their facilities should contact our team to determine exact needs and an appropriate charge for the service. We’ve developed a fully customizable custodial service package that can help us work with you to identify exactly what parts of your facilities you want services expanded, and an appropriate charge. We can blend service levels on different components of your facility, providing the exact service you need at a precisely determined charge.

Please contact your Facilities Manager for more information on this program.

View Custodial Services Quality Plan (CWL required)

Custodial Services Quality Assurance Dashboard

The UBC Facilities’ Custodial Services Quality Assurance Dashboard serves as a comprehensive tool for monitoring the overall cleanliness standards across the campus. The target reflects a campus-wide quality level consistent with APPA Level 3, which represents the level of care provided. The dashboard displays results derived from our returned inspections, providing a holistic view of the custodial services quality across the University. It is important to note that these results represent the collective performance across all inspected areas, and may not directly correspond to the conditions of each individual building. Further trending of results is available in the breakdown per space type. For more details, please contact your Facilities Manager.

View Custodial Services Quality Assurance Dashboard (VPN and CWL required)

Services we provide

• Custodial cleaning of all offices, classrooms, labs, and common areas
• Waste removal from buildings. For more information, see UBC Waste Management Recycling Programs
• Interior waste infrastructure procurement for existing buildings UBC Waste Infrastructure Guidelines
• Pest control and monitoring Facilities’ Integrated Pest Management Plan
• Locking and unlocking of exterior doors
• Respond to emergencies, such as floods and plugged toilets
• Cleaning restricted areas upon request

Services we provide on request (fee for service):

• Special project/event cleaning such as exams, graduation, weddings, movie shoots, etc.
• Post-renovation/post-construction cleaning
• Interior and exterior window cleaning (on a requested schedule)
• Window blind cleaning
• Carpet and furniture cleaning
• Set up and break down during events
• Table and chair delivery

Cleaning frequencies

Keeping UBC safe and clean is a shared responsibility.

• Common areas: Custodial Services will continue to clean main corridors, elevators and stairwells, refill hand washing supplies (soap, paper towel, sanitizers stations at building main entrances) where dispensers are installed in common areas.
• Laboratories: Custodial Services is not responsible for cleaning any laboratory equipment and will not be using cleaning products on laboratory counters. In these spaces, Custodial Services will empty regular garbage cans and sweep floors.
• Offices: Offices are cleaned once every two weeks. Office occupants are expected to bring their bins to the centralized sorting stations provided on all floors in each building.
• Shared areas (Office kitchens, meeting room, etc.): Resume normal use supplemented by daily cleaning schedule.
• Teaching spaces (Classrooms, lecture theatres, etc.): Daily cleaning from Monday to Friday. Cleaning will include wiping down high-touch point surfaces (door handles, table tops, etc.).
• Washrooms: Washrooms are cleaned once per day, and additionally, sanitized at least once over a 24-hour period.
• Workstations: Desktops and personal items are not cleaned by Custodial Services. Everyone is encouraged to wipe down their own work surfaces and common office equipment regularly. Please consult with your supervisor/manager to determine your department’s approach to procuring these supplies.

Exterior window cleaning

Custodial Services provides maintenance focused exterior window cleaning within the core funding allocated to this effort.This schedule rotates through all core buildings on an approximate 5 year cycle.

Window cleaning is typically scheduled between the months of May and September. Requests for exterior window cleaning off-cylcle or at an increased frequency can be arranged for a fee. For these customer-funded requests, our team will help coordinate and plan for this work with your faculty/department. Custodial Services will supervise the work during the cleaning and ensure all applicable policies and procedures are respected.

Request for window cleaning

• Submit a Service Request
• Identify the person/point of contact
• Scope of work
• Timeline: Please provide Information on when you would like the work to be performed. Custodial Services will do their best to meet your request based on the vendors’ availabilities.
• For questions, please contact your Facilities Manager.

We recommend submitting a Service Request for window cleaning by March to allow our team to coordinate the work with the vendor and provide a response back to you. Once a quote is established, the faculty/department will need to approve the work in Planon. Final billing will also be completed through Planon.

A 15% fee will be applicable to cover the service for planning and coordinating the work.

Social parties and events

Custodial Services’ staff perform routine maintenance cleaning. For this reason, we offer event support for cleaning on a fee for service basis. To request support for any events that require cleaning support, please enter a service request via Planon.

Events booked through UBC Scheduling Services may also incur an additional fee payable to Custodial Services, depending on the number of attendees, if food is served, and the length of the event.

Some venues require Custodial Services to be scheduled before rental of the space is permitted. Please enquire with the building administrator directly to see if this is a requirement.

For information about building access and lock-up for your event, please contact Campus Security.

Request for extra cleaning

Any events that require support for cleaning is a fee based service and requires a service request via Planon. Extra cleaning is charged per hours or portion thereof. Fore details on charg-out rates, please visit charge-out rates. You will only be charged for time spent on cleaning.

Your invoice will be emailed to you after your event is complete. Internal requests via Planon will follow the regular billing process. Requests from units external to UBC will have the invoice emailed to the point of contact identified on the request after the event has concluded.

For more information on Custodial Services, please visit Custodial Services.