Commercial · Government · Strata — Gold Coast, Brisbane & South East Queensland
Commercial · Government · Strata — Gold Coast, Brisbane & South East Queensland
On a conventional exterior clean, the cleaning itself is often the smaller part of the bill. The larger part is getting people to the surface: hiring, delivering and erecting scaffold, bringing in an elevated work platform, rigging a swing stage, or inspecting and certifying roof anchors for a rope access crew. Each carries its own mobilisation cost, lead time and time on site.
Access also brings costs that never appear as a cleaning line item: road occupancy permits and traffic control when equipment stands on a footpath or lane, lost car parking or trading frontage, and the hours building managers spend coordinating it all.
Drone delivery removes most of that. The crew works from the ground, so the price is driven by the building and the job rather than by the equipment needed to reach it.
The total area to be treated is the starting point. A building with four exposed elevations costs more than one with two exposed and two built against its neighbours. We measure areas from aerial imagery and drawings, so the scope reflects the actual building rather than an estimate from the street.
Render, painted concrete and cladding are soft washed; glass and frames are cleaned with purified water. Light organic growth and salt film clear readily, while heavy, long-established growth takes more treatment. Heavy mechanical staining, graffiti and coating removal are not suited to the method at all, and we say so at scoping.
Deep balconies, setbacks, awnings and overhangs take more flying time than a flat curtain wall, because the aircraft has to work around them. Simple, repetitive elevations are the most efficient to clean.
Sites inside controlled airspace, such as parts of the southern Gold Coast near Gold Coast Airport, or inner Brisbane near Brisbane Airport and Archerfield, can need a CASA approval before works. Sites near hospital helipads need their own coordination. Approvals add lead time and occasionally rule the method out, so we check airspace for every site at scoping. Our CASA guide explains what is involved.
CASA rules keep a drone a set distance from people who are not part of the operation, so the crew needs a ground exclusion zone below the work. On a quiet site that is simple. Beside a busy footpath, a pool deck or a car park it can mean starting early, sequencing elevations around foot traffic, or arranging notice through building management.
A one-off clean is priced on its own. A scheduled program over several cycles, or across several buildings in a portfolio, is priced as a fixed amount per cycle so it can be budgeted rather than approved each time.
Not every site loses every item. A site on a busy road may still need traffic control around the exclusion zone, and some work has to be scheduled outside trading hours. A proper scope tells you which costs remain.
Exterior cleaning quotes vary widely in what they include. Before comparing prices, check that each one covers:
A low price that leaves out approvals, insurance or documentation stops being low once those are added back.
Send the site address and tell us what needs cleaning: facades, glass, roof, solar or a combination. Drawings, recent photos and any constraints, such as trading hours, a pool deck or a shared driveway, all help. In most cases we can scope and price the site remotely from aerial imagery and drawings, with no attendance fee. You receive a fixed-price proposal with the methodology, SWMS, insurance certificates and program.
It depends on the area to be cleaned, the surfaces, the shape of the building and its airspace, so every site is priced individually. On most multi-storey buildings the saving comes from removing scaffold, EWP or rope access from the job, which is usually the largest cost in a conventional clean.
No. On low buildings with easy ground access, or for small areas, conventional methods can be competitive. The gap widens with height, area and the cost of access equipment, and a scope will show which applies to your building.
Most sites are quoted without an attendance fee, because the scope can be measured from aerial imagery and drawings. If a visit is genuinely needed, we tell you before arranging it.
Send the address and what needs cleaning, and we will come back with a fixed-scope proposal.
