Sat · 4 to 12 weeks

Work that falls due, rather than work that recurs

Periodic work is the part of a contract that has no nightly rhythm to carry it. Nothing about a Tuesday reminds anyone that the hard floor was last buffed five weeks ago, so the interval has to be written down and then counted out in weeks.

Each periodic task carries its interval as part of its definition, and the interval is the task’s whole timing: a four-weekly task falls in weeks 4, 8 and 12 because those are the weeks the number four divides into. Nothing is brought forward to fill a quiet Saturday and nothing is pushed back to make room. Where a week carries three tasks at once, it carries three, and the write-up says so.

The slot itself is Saturday, because wet work and machine work want an empty building. A twelve-week run laid out against the weeks looks like this.

Weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10 and 11 carry no periodic task at all. Week 12 carries four, which is why the machine and the ladder go on the van together that week and the Saturday slot is written up as a long one.

Six-weekly and longer

Hard-floor work, and how far down it goes

Hard floor has three depths of work, and each one costs a different amount of the building’s time. Knowing which depth a floor needs is most of the job.

A buff is the shallowest. The machine passes over a floor that has already been damp-mopped, lifts the scuffing out of the finish and puts the shine back without touching the seal beneath. It runs on a six-week interval and takes one Saturday slot on a normal floor plate.

A scrub goes into the finish rather than over it. It is used where traffic has dulled a floor faster than the buff can answer, and it leaves the floor ready for a fresh coat rather than ready to walk on.

A strip and seal takes the finish off to the tile and lays it again. It is the longest job on the list, it needs the building genuinely empty for a full day, and it sits outside the twelve-week cycle entirely — it is arranged as a dated visit rather than counted out in weeks.

Carpet has its own two depths. The spot-clean on the four-week interval takes marks out of the traffic lanes and around the kitchen doorway. A full extraction is arranged separately, for the same reason a strip and seal is: the floor has to be out of use while it dries.

Eight and twelve-weekly

High level, glazing and the matting lift

High-level dusting runs on eight weeks and covers ledges, door frames, the tops of partitions and vent grilles. It is worked from a platform with the floor below it cleared, so it is a Saturday job in an empty building and never a nightly one.

Internal partition glazing is cleaned on both faces every twelve weeks. Entrance doors, side panels and the reception screen are taken in full on a four-week interval, which is shorter because that glass carries hands rather than dust.

The matting lift sits on six weeks. The mat is rolled back, the floor beneath it is cleaned, and the mat itself is worked before it goes down again. Grit that works under matting grinds the floor it sits on, which is why the lift is an interval task rather than something done when the mat looks tired.

Written in advance

Where a periodic task goes when the building will not be empty

Some buildings cannot give up a Saturday. Where that is the case the task is split by floor rather than dropped: one floor takes the machine one week, the next floor the week after, and the interval is counted per floor so that each floor keeps its own cycle intact.

Where a building shuts down for a period, the cycle is held rather than reset. A four-weekly task that had reached week 3 resumes at week 3, because the point of an interval is the gap and not the calendar.

Every periodic visit is written up on its own sheet: the task, the areas it covered, the machine used, and anything found underneath — a lifted tile, a failed seal, a damp patch at a skirting. That sheet is filed with the week and is the record the next interval is counted from. The order the tasks fall in can be worked out on the front page, and the frequency each one carries is printed beside it in the register there.