Straight answers on process, safety, pricing, and scheduling — pulled from the questions South Florida property managers actually ask.
How much does parking garage cleaning cost in Miami?+
On garages of 100,000 sq ft and up, the deck and drive surface is a flat $0.06 per square foot — not a range, and not adjusted for condition. A 100,000 sq ft garage deck is $6,000, a 150,000 sq ft deck is $9,000, and a 250,000 sq ft deck is $15,000. Walls, columns, ceilings, and stairwells are a separate line item at $0.06–$0.08 per square foot of surface. Below 100,000 sq ft we quote a fixed price after a free site survey instead of publishing a rate, because mobilization is a much larger share of a small garage and a published number would mislead.
Why is the garage rate so much lower than your building cleaning rate?+
Because almost everything that makes facade work expensive is absent. A garage deck is flat, open, drive-on, and reachable at grade — there is no access equipment, no rigging, no working at height, and no elevation-by-elevation sequencing. Our surface cleaners cover ground per hour at a rate no vertical surface can match, so at garage scale the economics are genuinely different from a building envelope. That is also why the rate is only published at scale: the saving comes from volume, not from cutting the process.
Does a drone clean the parking deck?+
No, and any company telling you otherwise is overselling. A garage deck is a covered structure with low clearance and no reliable GPS — the wrong environment for a cleaning drone. Decks, columns, ceilings, and stairwells are cleaned by our ground crew with heated water and rotary surface cleaners. Where the drone does earn its place on a garage is the exterior facade and the open top deck, which we fly in the same mobilization rather than sending a second contractor and a lift.
Do you use hot water, and does it actually lift oil and tire marks?+
Yes. Our truck carries a BE hot box heating 8–10 gallons per minute, so chemistry is applied hot rather than cold, which is what makes the difference on embedded automotive residue. Heated surface cleaners plus a degreaser lift drip stains, tire rubber, and traffic film that cold water and chemistry alone leave behind. Deep, long-standing oil shadows in a numbered stall will lighten substantially but do not always disappear entirely — concrete is porous, and we will tell you that at the survey rather than after the invoice.
How many levels do you have to close at a time?+
One section at a time, and usually not a whole level. We work in coned sections and move as we finish, so tenants and visitors keep using the structure throughout. Most garages are cleaned overnight or across a weekend, when occupancy is at its lowest and drying time is uninterrupted. Full closures are the traditional model because lifts and long hose runs need the space — our footprint is a crew and a truck, not a staging area.
How long does a large garage take?+
A 100,000 sq ft deck is typically two to three overnight shifts. A 250,000 sq ft structure runs closer to a week, sequenced level by level so no part of the garage is out of service for more than a shift. Walls, columns, and ceilings add time, because they are hand-worked rather than covered by a surface cleaner. The survey gives you a shift-by-shift schedule before you sign anything.
What happens to the wash water and the storm drains?+
It is planned before we arrive, not improvised. Garage drains route to the sanitary or storm system depending on the structure, and the survey identifies which. We recover and filter runoff where the discharge point requires it, use biodegradable degreasers, and keep the solids out of the drain with inlet protection. On structures with a documented oil-water separator, we confirm its condition with the property before the first shift rather than assuming it can take the load.
Is the concrete or the traffic coating at risk?+
Not with a correctly matched process, which is exactly why the survey matters on a garage. Bare and sealed concrete take heated surface cleaning without difficulty. Elastomeric traffic coatings and waterproofing membranes are different: they need reduced pressure and a neutral-pH degreaser, because an aggressive nozzle will chalk or lift a coating and turn a cleaning bill into a recoating bill. We identify the coating and its condition first and adjust the process to it.
Do you clean garage facades, spandrel panels, and the exterior screen?+
Yes, and this is where the drone works. Garage exteriors collect exhaust soot, salt drift, and biological growth on precast panel, painted concrete, and metal screen — the surfaces the public actually judges the property on. We fly them with low-pressure soft-wash from grade, with no lift blocking a lane and no deck taken out of service. Bundling the facade with the deck in one mobilization is materially cheaper than contracting the two separately.
Do you clean the stairwells and elevator lobbies?+
Yes, as part of the wall and ceiling scope at the same per-square-foot rate. Stairwells are usually the worst-smelling and worst-reviewed part of a garage and the part a property manager hears about most, so they are rarely worth leaving out. They are hand-worked with hot water and chemistry, and we treat them as an occupied interior — controlled water volume, contained runoff, and dry before the space reopens.
What if my garage is smaller than 100,000 sq ft?+
We still clean it — we just quote it rather than publish a rate. On a smaller structure, mobilizing the truck, the hot box, and the crew is a much larger share of the job, so a single per-square-foot number would either overcharge some properties or misquote others. The site survey is free and the resulting price is fixed, so a smaller garage costs you a walkthrough to find out. Portfolios of several small garages often price close to the $0.06 rate, because they share one mobilization.
How often should a South Florida parking garage be cleaned?+
Most structures land on an annual deck wash, with the ground level and entry ramp done twice a year because that is where traffic film and public perception concentrate. Coastal garages within a few miles of the water need the exterior facade more often than the deck, since salt drift drives that surface rather than tire traffic. Garages attached to a retail or restaurant tenant usually move to a semi-annual cycle on the deck.
Are you insured and licensed for work inside an occupied structure?+
Yes. $2M commercial general liability plus dedicated UAS aviation liability for the drone portion, with certificates naming the owner, operator, and property manager issued before we mobilize. Drone flights run under 14 CFR Part 107 with an FAA-licensed commercial pilot, and LAANC airspace authorization is filed where a garage sits in controlled airspace near MIA, FLL, OPF, TMB, or PBI.