Cleaning is one of the few services where nobody notices success and everybody notices failure. That makes inspection the quiet center of the whole janitorial vs in-house Marietta question. Whichever model you pick, somebody has to walk the building on a schedule, look behind the doors, check the corners and write down what they found. An internal team needs a supervisor who is not also the cleaner. A contracted crew should bring one. If neither exists, both models fail the same way, just on different letterhead.

Self-inspection is not inspection

Ask a person to grade their own work and you will get a good grade. That is not dishonesty, it is human, and every trade deals with the same thing.

A separate set of eyes on a set interval is what keeps a standard from sliding. It is also the first thing cut when a building tries to run lean.

Building quality control into janitorial vs in-house Marietta plans

Write down what gets checked, how often and by whom. Restrooms, entry glass, break rooms, corners, high touch points, trash in back corridors. Six items on a schedule beats a vague promise of excellence.

EPA Safer Choice lists products screened for safer ingredients, which is a useful reference when your checklist also covers what is being used, not just whether the room looks tidy.

Distance is our honest disclosure here

Marietta is our longest drive, roughly forty minutes from Norcross. We run it with a dedicated Cobb crew on a capped load, which means we occasionally tell a prospect the timing does not work yet.

We would rather say that than take a building near the Square or out by Wellstar Kennestone that we cannot serve properly. If you are weighing a local hire against a distant vendor, that is a legitimate point in the hire column.

What we will not do is the usual thing. Quote a rate per square foot, staff it with whoever came in lowest that month, and let the standard drift. We write the scope from a walkthrough on your hours and return with the crew who learned it.

Most commercial cleaning gets sold on price per square foot, then quietly handed to whoever was cheapest and free that night. That’s why quality slides after month two — the scope was never real to begin with. We build yours from an actual walkthrough of your actual building, on your actual hours. Then we send the same crew who learned it. Boring? Completely. It’s also the only thing that makes month five look like month one.

DBS Cleaning Services Group

Historic buildings need a checklist with judgment in it

Converted spaces near the Earl Smith Strand Theatre and in the Kennesaw Avenue historic district often have original terrazzo, brick or timber somewhere in the building. Aggressive chemistry there is a one-way mistake.

An inspection that only asks whether the floor is shiny will miss that. Add surface-specific notes so the person checking knows what right looks like on Powers Ferry as well as on Franklin Gateway.

Frequently asked questions