Summer Deep-Clean Planning for Montreal Commercial Buildings
Why summer is actually the right time to do this properly
Most facility managers think about deep cleaning in the spring or after the holidays. But summer, specifically the stretch from late June through August, is when a commercial building in Montreal gives you the best window to get real work done. Occupancy drops. Floors sit idle. You can run noisy equipment at 7 a.m. without complaints. If you haven’t built a summer deep-clean schedule, you’re leaving that window on the table.
We’ve worked through more Montreal summers than most firms have been in business, and every year we see the same thing: buildings that take advantage of reduced occupancy come out of summer in significantly better shape than those that just coast through it.
What areas should actually be deep cleaned during summer?
The short answer is the ones that never get a proper turn during the regular school year or high-occupancy season. That means different things depending on your building, but here’s what comes up most consistently.
Restrooms. During peak season, restroom maintenance is mostly reactive. Summer is when you can go back and really clean, behind fixtures, grout lines, ventilation covers, the areas a nightly porter doesn’t have time to address.
Kitchens and break rooms. Grease builds up in ways you don’t notice week to week. A thorough summer clean of range hood surrounds, refrigerator coils, and all the seams behind equipment is something many buildings only do once a year at most.
Floors. This is the obvious one, but it deserves a direct answer. Summer is a genuinely good time for periodic floor maintenance, including strip and wax on VCT, refinishing on hardwood or composite surfaces, and hot water extraction on carpet. You need dry conditions and some airflow for floor work to cure properly, and Montreal summers, especially indoors with the AC running, give you that. The catch is scheduling: book your floor refinishing during a period when that section of the building genuinely won’t be walked on for six to eight hours, which is much easier to find in July than in October.
High and hard-to-reach surfaces. Ceiling tiles, light fixture housings, the tops of tall partitions, HVAC diffusers. These accumulate dust all year and almost never get touched during regular cleaning rotations. A building running at half-staff in July is the right time to bring in a crew and do it without disrupting anyone.
Carpet in lower-traffic areas. Second-floor meeting rooms, unused collaboration spaces, storage corridors. Hot water extraction takes time to dry and can disrupt foot traffic. Summer gives you the schedule flexibility to do it right.
How do you build a schedule when parts of the building are empty?
Start by actually mapping it out. Which floors or wings are running reduced during the construction holiday? Which are still at full occupancy? That split tells you where your cleaning crew can do extended work without disrupting tenants, and where the regular nightly routine still needs to run.
A common approach in multi-tenant buildings is to sequence the deep-clean work zone by zone, moving through the low-occupancy areas first while keeping full service in the occupied sections. Don’t assume a mostly-empty floor means zero people. Someone’s always in there on a random Tuesday.
The construction holiday in Quebec, which runs in late July, is the most reliable low-occupancy window most commercial buildings in our market get. If your building has any industrial or trades-related tenants, that two-week stretch is when to schedule the heavy floor work, carpet cleaning, or any job that involves equipment and noise. We’d rather tell you that plainly now than have you discover the timing too late.
Summer heat and humidity: what it actually does to your building’s air quality
Montreal summers get humid, and that humidity does real things inside a building. Carpets that aren’t cleaned hold more particulate matter in humid conditions. HVAC filters load up faster. Restroom odors are harder to control. High-touch surfaces in common areas carry more bacteria during summer simply because people sweat more and touch their faces more.
The practical response is to look at your cleaning frequencies for a few specific things: HVAC return air grilles, entrance matting, and restrooms in high-traffic zones. Many buildings find it makes sense to increase the attention on those during summer months. How much to adjust depends on your building’s layout, your HVAC system, and what your current scope of work covers, but it’s worth a conversation with whoever manages your janitorial contract.
One thing that doesn’t get enough attention: entrance matting. Montreal summers bring in tracked sand, pollen, and debris from construction activity in the city. Matting that isn’t being laundered or swapped out regularly stops doing its job pretty quickly. A mat that’s saturated with debris just spreads it onto your floor surface instead of capturing it.
Is summer a good time for window washing in an office building?
Yes, with one qualifier. Exterior window washing works well in summer because you don’t have to fight ice, wind, or wet facades. But avoid scheduling it during a heat wave when the glass is hot. Cleaning solution dries before it can be properly wiped, and you end up with streaks that look worse than what you started with. Early morning or overcast days are better.
Interior window and partition glass cleaning can be done any time, but it’s particularly worth doing in summer if your building gets heavy direct sun. Interior glass accumulates film from HVAC output, and it’s much more visible in bright light.
What should be on a summer cleaning checklist for a multi-tenant property?
Here’s how we’d frame the list for a property manager handling a mid-size Montreal commercial building.
Before the season: confirm which floors and zones will have reduced occupancy and when. Block those windows in the schedule. Review your floor maintenance plan and get carpet cleaning booked before July if you want the good time slots.
During the season: maintain full nightly service in occupied zones without interruption. Run deep-clean crews through the low-occupancy areas on a zone-by-zone sequence. Check entrance matting every two weeks at minimum. Make sure HVAC diffusers and return grilles are included in a cleaning pass, even just once during the summer.
End of season, meaning late August or early September: lobby and common area floors should be refinished or at least buffed before the full occupancy season returns. Restrooms should get a full reset. Any carpeted area that had reduced traffic all summer is actually a good candidate for hot water extraction now, before the fall foot traffic picks up.
The specifics depend on your building’s size, your tenant mix, and what’s already covered in your cleaning contract. But the sequence above is a reasonable framework for most commercial properties in Greater Montreal.
At Can-Jan Inc., we have kept Montreal buildings clean since 1961. Reach out to talk about your property.
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