Staircase and entrance cleaning in Bratislava

Staircase and entrance cleaning in Bratislava apartment buildings. The staircase is the most heavily used surface in any block: every resident and every visitor walks it daily and brings in whatever is outside — and in winter road salt, which wears a floor faster than years of footsteps.

What washing a staircase covers

Sweeping and washing stairs, landings and corridors; wiping the handrail along its whole length including the underside; cleaning sills and window frames in the common areas; washing the entrance door and the bell panel; wiping the outside of the letterboxes. By agreement, the lift car and entrance matting are added.

The entrance area collects most of the dirt from outside, so the ground floor and first floor are usually cleaned more often than the upper ones. That is cheaper than raising the frequency for the whole building.

Handrails and door handles

These are the only surfaces in a building that literally everyone touches, and the ones most often skipped when a staircase is "washed". We wipe them on every visit and disinfect them during flu season. It is a few extra minutes with more hygienic value than the floor itself.

How often stairs are washed

Once a week in a typical block. Twice weekly in buildings next to a tram stop, with a business on the ground floor, or with short-term lets. In small brick buildings with six to eight flats, once a fortnight is usually enough.

The interval is not the same all year: from November to March the ground and first floors normally double, and from April they go back. We propose the exact frequency after surveying the building.

Road salt and winter

From November to March the nature of the work changes. Salt and slush reach the upper floors and leave a white film that cannot be swept — it has to be dissolved. Left alone, salt gradually attacks terrazzo and polished concrete, the two most common floors in Bratislava blocks.

Ordinary detergent only spreads salt around. We use a product that neutralises it and wash the floor twice: the first pass dissolves, the second removes. That is why winter staircase cleaning takes longer than summer cleaning, and why more frequent sweeping is not a substitute.

What to use on stairs — and what not to

Terrazzo and polished concrete take a neutral product and a damp mop, not acid and not an abrasive, which dull the surface permanently. On stone and poured floors we use a product with no gloss that leaves no slippery film: a polished staircase looks good for half a day and is a slip risk after that. Wooden staircases in older brick buildings are cleaned almost dry, because water in the joints opens them up.

What it costs

The price comes from the number of floors, the area of the common parts and the frequency. For a typical block it runs to tens of euros per visit; the exact figure comes in writing after a free survey, itemised rather than as a single number.

Staircase cleaning is almost always part of a wider arrangement for the building — apartment building cleaning describes how the contract, invoicing and scope work for the whole property including cellars, garages and the bin store.

What causes disputes

Almost always the same three things. First, whether "washing the staircase" includes the windows and the handrail — which is why we list them by name in the contract. Second, the things owners leave in corridors: prams, bikes, old wardrobes. We neither remove nor move them, because they are someone else's property; we clean around them and tell the building's representative. Third, the winter frequency, when the same interval stops being enough.

We bring our own products, mops and vacuums. From the building we need access to water and a socket in the common areas. If there is no water supply in the common parts we agree an arrangement — it is solvable, it just has to be known in advance.