Bar cleaning checklist: closing, behind the bar, taps and lines, floors and restrooms

Bar closing cleaning checklist: what to do every night

Every night at close, bar staff break down the bar: bottles wiped, ice wells and soda guns washed and sanitized, tools and garnish trays through the sink or the washer, drip trays emptied, drains flushed, mats lifted and the bar top cleaned. The closers or a cleaning crew then clear and sanitize the tables, clean the restrooms and do the floors last.

The split is the first thing to agree. Most bars keep everything that touches a drink with their own staff, because the health code holds the permit holder responsible for food-contact surfaces and because the bar team knows the equipment. A contract crew usually takes the front of house, the restrooms and the floors, and arrives after the bar staff have finished, often between 2 and 6 a.m. Write down which blocks of the list are yours.

The FDA Food Code is the model that state and local health codes are built on, and it covers bars because they serve beverages and food. Its section 4-602.11 requires surfaces that contact food and ice, including ice bins, beverage dispensing nozzles and enclosed components such as ice makers and beverage and syrup lines, to be cleaned at the frequency the manufacturer specifies or, without one, at a frequency necessary to prevent accumulation of soil or mold. Garnishes and mixers that need temperature control fall under the rule that food-contact surfaces used with such food are cleaned at least every four hours. Section 6-501.12 says physical facilities are cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean, and that cleaning is done when the least food is exposed, such as after closing. That is why the close carries most of the list.

Opening and during-service tasks for bar staff

During service the job is sanitizer buckets at the right strength, wiping the bar between guests, keeping the scoop out of the ice, cleaning up broken glass at once, and checking the restrooms every hour on a busy night.

Sanitizer strength

Food Code section 4-501.114 sets the chemical sanitizer rules for manual and mechanical sanitizing: a chlorine solution of 25 to 49 mg/L needs water of at least 120°F, 50 to 99 mg/L needs at least 100°F (75°F at pH 8 or below), and 100 mg/L works at 55°F; an iodine solution must be 12.5 to 25 mg/L at 68°F or more; and a quaternary ammonium solution follows the concentration on its EPA-registered label, at 75°F or more and in water of 500 mg/L hardness or less. Section 4-302.14 requires a test kit that accurately measures the sanitizer concentration, and 4-703.11 requires a contact time of at least 10 seconds for chlorine and at least 30 seconds for other chemical sanitizers, consistent with the EPA-registered label. Section 4-901.11 requires equipment and utensils to air-dry after sanitizing, which is why towel-drying bar tools fails an inspection.

Broken glass and body fluids

Sweep glass with a brush and dustpan, never by hand, and mop the spill behind it. For vomit and blood in restrooms or on the floor, follow a written procedure with gloves, absorbent material, a disinfectant with the right label claims and a sealed bag; keep guests away until the area is dry. OSHA’s restaurant clean-up guidance tells workers to use the gloves and protective equipment the employer provides, especially heavy-duty gloves for bathroom cleaning, and warns that mixing chlorine and ammonia solutions can release deadly chlorine gas. Never mix products behind a bar.

How to clean beer taps and lines, and how often

Clean draft beer lines at least every two weeks with a caustic line cleaner, disassemble and clean every faucet at the same time, scrub the couplers, and de-stone the lines with an acid cleaner quarterly. Post a cleaning log in the keg cooler.

The Brewers Association’s Draught Beer Quality Manual, which draught installers, wholesalers, retailers and brewers use as the reference, sets the schedule in its cleaning chapter. Every two weeks (14 days): clean the lines with a caustic line-cleaning chemical, completely disassemble and clean all faucets, scrub all keg couplers, and clean all FOB devices in-line. Quarterly: de-stone the lines with an acid line-cleaning chemical. Every six months: completely disassemble and hand-detail the FOB devices and couplers. For caustic strength it recommends at least 2 percent sodium hydroxide for routine cleaning and 3 percent for older or problem lines, with the solution kept between 80°F and 110°F. Its audit section says lines should be cleaned every 7 to 14 days and adds that local ordinances may set the required frequency, so check yours.

Who does it

Line cleaning is chemistry under pressure and belongs to a trained person: the bar’s own trained staff, the distributor’s technician or a line cleaning service. The manual says personal protective equipment, including rubber gloves and eye protection, should be used, that cleaning personnel should have the chemical safety data sheets and follow them, and that concentrate is always added to water, never water to concentrate, because adding water to caustic can cause violent spattering. A cleaning crew without that training wipes the faucets, cleans the drip trays and checks the log; it does not run chemicals through lines.

The log

The manual recommends that all draught system cleaners keep a cleaning log clearly visible to the retailer, the wholesaler and the brewer, showing the last cleaning within the last two weeks and an overall two-week cycle. Put the date on the inside of the keg cooler door; a health inspector and a brewery rep will both look for it.

Weekly, monthly and quarterly bar cleaning tasks

Weekly tasks are the back bar pull-out, cooler interiors, descaling, under-mat floors, full-height chairs and the machine scrub. Monthly tasks are the ice machine, high dusting, walls and the keg cooler. Quarterly tasks are the acid line clean, floor refinishing and upholstery.

How often should a bar be cleaned?

A nightclub runs the same lists with more floor: the dance floor and stage get the degreaser and machine scrub more often, confetti and glitter mean a vacuum before the mop, fog machine residue films every surface near the stage, and VIP booth upholstery is a weekly job. Clubs also open fewer nights and close later, so the crew window is often 4 to 10 a.m. on a weekend. Lay the rotation out with the free cleaning schedule template.

Bar floors and restrooms: sticky floors, drains and slips

A bar floor is sugar, beer and grease, and it is the floor OSHA’s walking-working surfaces rule describes: it must be kept clean and as dry as feasible, free of spills, and inspected and fixed before anyone walks it. Degrease it every night, lift the mats, and let it dry before the mats go back.

Floors

29 CFR 1910.22 requires the employer to keep walking-working surfaces clean, orderly and sanitary, workroom floors clean and dry to the extent feasible, and surfaces free of hazards such as spills and leaks, with drainage and dry standing places such as mats where wet processes are used. Behind the bar that means the rubber mats come up every night, the floor under them gets a degreaser and a deck brush, the drains and floor sinks get hot water and a scrub, and the mats go back only on a dry floor. On the guest floor, sweep first, then mop in sections with a degreaser where drinks spilled, and finish with clean water so the floor is not tacky at opening. The Food Code’s 6-501.13 adds that floors are cleaned by dustless methods, such as wet cleaning, vacuuming or treated dust mops.

Restrooms

Bar restrooms take more abuse per square foot than any other room in the building. Food Code 6-501.18 requires handwashing sinks, toilets and urinals to be cleaned as often as necessary to keep them clean, which on a Saturday means hourly checks and a full clean at close. Clean and disinfect every fixture and partition, pull paper and bottles from behind the toilets, refill every dispenser, and mop last. Post a restroom cleaning log on the door; guests and inspectors both read it.

Health code and inspections

Bars are inspected under the same food code as restaurants. The FDA publishes the model, and its state adoption page tracks which edition each state and territory has adopted for restaurants and retail food stores, so the exact section numbers and a few details differ by state and even by county. Ask the bar which code it is inspected under and what its last report flagged. For the kitchen side of a bar that serves food, our restaurant cleaning checklist covers the line, hoods and the walk-in.

How to price a bar cleaning account

Price a bar from a minimum visit time per night, not from square footage. A 2,500-square-foot bar with sticky floors, 60 chairs and two abused restrooms takes a crew longer than a 5,000-square-foot office, and the window is in the middle of the night.

Walk the bar with the owner or general manager before you quote and note:

• Which blocks are yours: usually front of house, restrooms and floors, sometimes the bar floor and mats, rarely anything that touches a drink.
• Floor types (tile, sealed concrete, wood dance floor, carpet in lounges) and the square footage of each.
• Seats, booths, barstools, restroom fixtures, patio and smoking area.
• Nights open, closing time, the cleaning window, alarm and keys, and whether staff are still in the building.
• Nightclub extras: dance floor, stage, VIP, confetti and fog residue.
• Who supplies paper, soap, liners and the degreaser, and whether the ice machine and beer lines have their own service.

Our commercial cleaning calculator has no bar setting; use the restaurant logic in our commercial cleaning prices guide, with a minimum visit of about 2 hours a night for a neighborhood bar and more for a club. Those are planning assumptions, not measured standards; time the first weekend before you fix the price.

A worked example, with hypothetical numbers

A 2,500-square-foot bar cleaned six nights a week at a 2-hour minimum visit is 12 hours a week, about 52 hours a month at 4.33 weeks. At an $18 wage plus 20 percent payroll burden ($21.60 an hour), labor is about $1,123 a month. Add 5 percent for supplies ($56) and 15 percent for overhead ($168) for a cost near $1,347, and a 20 percent margin puts the monthly price around $1,685. Add a night differential if your crew works 3 a.m. starts, and quote the weekly machine scrub, the quarterly floor refinishing and the upholstery as separate lines.

The cleaning proposal template presents the scope with a frequency beside every task and the bar staff’s blocks shown separately. Bars are sold owner to owner or through a restaurant group; our guide on commercial cleaning contracts covers the walkthrough, the proposal and the agreement, and the cleaning contract template gives you something to attach the scope to. Expect to show general liability insurance, and a janitorial bond helps when your crew is alone in a building full of liquor.

Printable bar cleaning checklist (PDF and print)

Every list above has a Print button that prints just that list, and the PDF button, where it appears, downloads it. Or post this one-page summary behind the bar with a column for initials and the date.

Build a version with your business name, the bar’s name and only its areas in the free cleaning checklist maker, and find the other commercial lists in the checklist library.

Where Broombook fits for a company that cleans bars

Broombook is booking, scheduling, reminders and checklists on the crew app for recurring service businesses. It fits a cleaning company whose work is mostly recurring visits and that cleans a bar or two on fixed nights; it is not a janitorial bid and contract system.

The bar sits on the same calendar as your recurring clients. The cleaner opens each night’s visit from a private crew link with nothing to download, works through the checklist with photos, and clocks in and out from the phone, which feeds the payroll export. Access notes, such as the alarm procedure and which door the closers leave unlocked, are translated into Spanish, French or Portuguese for each cleaner, with codes left as written. Texts to clients go out in daytime hours, never at night, so a 3 a.m. visit does not wake the owner.

It does not manage bids, build a per-site scope with nightly, weekly and quarterly frequencies, share inspection results, sync with QuickBooks or install from an app store. If bar and restaurant contracts are most of your business, compare tools on our best cleaning business software page, and see the features and pricing for what Broombook includes.