Laboratory cleaning checklist: what a cleaning crew may touch, and what it must leave alone

Daily lab cleaning checklist: what the crew cleans

Each visit, the crew cleans the lab floor and aisles, empties general trash only, cleans door handles and switches, the hand-wash sink and dispensers, and does the offices, corridors and restrooms attached to the lab. Everything on a bench, in a hood, in a cabinet or behind a hazard label is the lab’s own job.

OSHA’s laboratory safety page says more than 500,000 workers are employed in laboratories in the US, and that lab workers are exposed to chemical, biological, physical and radioactive hazards. A cleaner walking the same floor is exposed to the same things without the training, which is why the list below is short on purpose and why the lab decides what gets added to it.

Labs vary a lot. A university teaching lab, a hospital clinical lab, a biotech research lab, a food or materials testing lab and a pharmaceutical cleanroom each have their own entry rules, products and off-limits areas. Treat this page as the common ground, and then build a one-page scope for each lab with the lab manager that lists the rooms you enter, the products you use, and the items you must not touch. Our office cleaning checklist covers the write-up rooms, offices and break rooms that come with most labs.

What a cleaning crew must not touch in a laboratory

Do not touch bench tops, fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, instruments, refrigerators and freezers, chemical storage, gas cylinders, waste containers, glassware, samples, notebooks or anything with a label, unless the written scope assigns a specific task and the lab has trained your crew for it.

Some rules of thumb that keep a crew safe when the table does not cover a situation:

• A label means hands off. Hazard symbols, “biohazard”, “sharps”, “chemical waste”, “radioactive”, a tape line on the floor, or a handwritten “do not touch” all mean the same thing.
• Glass and tips are never picked up by hand. Even in a regular trash can. Report the can and leave it.
• Nothing gets sprayed. Aerosols drift onto benches and into hoods. Apply product to the cloth, not the surface.
• Nothing gets moved. A box on the floor may be a shipment of samples. Clean around it and note it.
• Nothing gets unplugged or switched. Freezers, incubators and pumps run through the night. A switch flipped to plug in a vacuum can destroy years of samples.
• Unknown spills are a stop-and-call. A puddle, a powder or a smell is reported to the lab contact, not wiped up, even if it looks like water.

What the OSHA laboratory standard means for a cleaning contractor

OSHA’s laboratory standard, 29 CFR 1910.1450, applies to employers engaged in the laboratory use of hazardous chemicals and requires them to develop and carry out a written Chemical Hygiene Plan. The plan belongs to the lab, not to the cleaning contractor, but it decides what your crew is allowed to do inside the lab, so ask for the relevant parts before you bid.

The standard’s own definitions show why the cleaning scope is narrow:

• A laboratory is a workplace where relatively small quantities of hazardous chemicals are used on a non-production basis, and laboratory scale means containers designed to be easily and safely handled by one person. Small, open containers of hazardous chemicals on benches is the normal state of a lab, which is why benches are off limits.
• The Chemical Hygiene Plan is a written program that sets out procedures, equipment, personal protective equipment and work practices capable of protecting employees from the health hazards of the chemicals used in that laboratory. The standard also names a Chemical Hygiene Officer, qualified by training or experience, to provide technical guidance on the plan. That officer, or the lab manager, is the person who signs off your scope and your product list.

Your own crew is covered by OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard for the cleaning chemicals you bring in: labels, safety data sheets and training. Many labs also want to see your product list because some cleaners react with what is in the room; a lab that works with oxidizers or certain solvents may ban bleach or alcohol-based products from the floor. Use the lab’s approved list, keep your safety data sheets in the closet, and never mix products.

OSHA’s PPE standard (29 CFR 1910.132) requires the employer to assess the workplace for hazards that call for PPE, to select PPE that fits each affected employee, and to provide it at no cost to employees. For a cleaning contractor, that assessment should be written for each lab account: at minimum safety glasses, nitrile gloves and closed-toe shoes, and whatever the lab adds. Rules differ by state plan, and this page is not legal advice.

Clinical, biosafety and animal labs: extra rules for the crew

If the lab handles blood, body fluids, cultures or animals, your crew needs more than the chemical rules: a biosafety briefing from the lab, and, where contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials is reasonably expected, compliance with OSHA’s Bloodborne Pathogens standard as their employer.

Under 29 CFR 1910.1030, an employer whose employees have occupational exposure must have a written exposure control plan, provide training, provide PPE at no cost and make the hepatitis B vaccine available within 10 working days of initial assignment. The standard defines regulated waste to include liquid or semi-liquid blood and contaminated sharps, and says broken glassware that may be contaminated must not be picked up directly with the hands but with mechanical means such as a brush and dust pan, tongs or forceps. Our medical office cleaning checklist walks through those employer steps in more detail.

Biosafety levels

Labs that work with infectious agents are run at a biosafety level posted on the door. As a practical rule for a contractor: a teaching or basic research lab at the lowest level may allow a trained crew in for floors and trash with lab-coat, glasses and gloves; labs at higher levels usually restrict cleaning to their own trained staff, or allow a crew in only with an escort and after the lab has decontaminated surfaces. Do not accept a scope for a higher-level lab without written entry procedures, and do not let a crew member enter one alone.

Disinfecting in a lab

Where your scope includes disinfecting door handles, restrooms or a cleared surface, use the EPA-registered product the lab names and keep it visibly wet for the label contact time. The EPA’s page of selected EPA-registered disinfectants explains contact time, says to reapply if the surface dries early, and lists products by the organisms they are tested against, including List S for bloodborne pathogens and List B for tuberculosis. The lab will usually tell you which list matters to them.

Animal facilities

Vivariums have their own husbandry staff and cleaning procedures, allergen controls and entry rules. Unless you are hired specifically for that work, with its training, keep animal rooms out of your scope and clean only the corridors and support rooms the facility assigns.

Cleanroom cleaning checklist: gowning, wipes and the client’s procedure

A cleanroom is cleaned to the client’s written standard operating procedure (SOP), not to a generic list: a set gowning order, only the lint-free wipes and pre-mixed solutions the SOP lists, a fixed cleanest-to-least-clean path, one-direction overlapping strokes, and a log entry for every clean. Below is the shape of that routine so you know what to expect; the client’s SOP replaces every line.

Cleanrooms are classified by how many particles of a given size are allowed per volume of air, and the class drives the routine: how often, which solutions, how many wipe passes, and what records the client’s auditor expects. Pharmaceutical, medical device and semiconductor cleanrooms also follow their own regulators’ and customers’ requirements, so the client will train your crew on their SOP and may test them before they clean alone.

Things that are normal in an office and forbidden in a cleanroom:

• Cardboard, paper towels, cotton cloths and string mops, all of which shed fibers.
• Spray bottles, because aerosols settle on product.
• Back-and-forth wiping, which redeposits what the wipe picked up.
• Street shoes, makeup, jewelry, phones and anything that was not wiped down in the airlock.
• Opening two doors of an airlock at once.

Price cleanroom work per visit from the SOP’s time and materials, not per square foot: gowning alone adds several minutes per person per entry, more in the stricter classes, the wipes and solutions are consumables the client may supply or bill, and the log must be filled in before you leave. If the client supplies the materials, say so in the agreement so a shortage on their side does not become a missed clean on yours.

How to train and brief a crew for lab work

Every cleaner assigned to a lab gets a site briefing from the lab before the first visit, a written scope they carry, and a short list of stop-and-call rules. Document the briefing with the date and the names, because the lab’s safety officer will ask.

1. Walk the lab with the lab manager or chemical hygiene officer. Mark on a floor plan which rooms the crew enters, where the exits, eyewash and shower are, and which trash cans are theirs.
2. Agree the product list. Neutral floor cleaner, restroom products, and the disinfectant for handles and restrooms, each approved by the lab.
3. Agree the PPE. What the lab supplies (often lab coats that stay on site) and what you supply (glasses, gloves, shoes), with the hazard assessment written for the account.
4. Write the stop-and-call list and the contact numbers for a spill, an alarm, an open flame, a smell or a loose sharp. Post it in the closet and on the crew’s phone.
5. Set the schedule around the lab. Many labs prefer cleaning after hours but want a staff member reachable; some want it during the day with staff present. Overnight experiments and animal rooms often rule out certain hours.
6. Train on hazard communication for your own products and keep the safety data sheets on site.

Keep the same two or three cleaners on a lab account rather than rotating the whole team through it. Familiarity with what is normal in that room is what lets a cleaner notice the one thing that is not, and report it. Our guide on how to hire cleaners covers screening and background checks, which most labs require for anyone with badge access.

How to price a laboratory cleaning account

Price a lab from the scope and the time, with a premium for the PPE, the training and the slower, more careful work, and keep lab space on its own line separate from the attached offices and corridors. A lab floor takes longer per square foot than an office floor because the crew works around equipment and cannot move anything.

A worked example with hypothetical numbers:

• A research lab suite with 4,000 sq ft of lab space, 2,500 sq ft of offices and write-up rooms, two restrooms and a break room, cleaned five nights a week.
• Lab floors, trash, doors and sinks: 1.5 hours a night. Offices, corridors, break room and restrooms: 1.5 hours a night. Total 3 hours, about 65 hours a month.
• At a loaded labor cost of $24 an hour: about $1,560 a month. PPE, approved products and laundering lab coats if that is yours: about $120.
• Supervision and the periodic walk with the lab manager: about $150 a month. Overhead and margin at 30 percent on top brings the monthly price to roughly $2,380.

Build it from labor hours the way our commercial cleaning prices guide shows, run the numbers in the free commercial cleaning calculator, and present the scope with the exclusions in the cleaning proposal template. Cleanroom visits are quoted separately, per visit, from the SOP.

What a lab will require

• General liability and workers’ compensation, with the institution named as additional insured; some research institutions set higher limits. See our cleaning business insurance guide.
• Background checks and badge access per cleaner, and sometimes export-control or confidentiality agreements for private research labs.
• Your product list with safety data sheets, your PPE hazard assessment and your training records.
• A named contact on your side who can answer a call during the clean.

Universities, hospitals and public research institutions post their cleaning bids the way other institutions do. Our guide on winning commercial cleaning contracts covers where bids are posted and how to respond.

Is Broombook a fit for laboratory cleaning?

For a single lab suite cleaned on a recurring schedule, as a small commercial account, it can be; for a multi-building research campus with inspections and audit trails, no. We make Broombook, and it is built for residential cleaning companies and small commercial recurring accounts.

What fits: the lab is a client with the suite as its property, with access notes and the stop-and-call contacts on the record; a recurring schedule with skips for holidays; a crew link with the lab’s checklist, photos and clock-in; text and email confirmations; and card on file or monthly invoicing. See features and pricing.

What does not fit: scored inspections shared with the client, employee training and document tracking per account, and multi-site scheduling with missed-shift alerts. If labs are a large part of your business, look at the commercial janitorial tools in our comparison of cleaning business software.