Custodial inspection checklist
A custodial department is judged by people who live in the building all day: teachers, staff, students, the public at a counter. They notice the washroom and the entrance, and they form an opinion of the whole operation from those two places. This checklist is written to find what they will notice, in a fixed order, with a score at the end of it.
In-house custodial work has a problem contract cleaning does not. There is no monthly invoice forcing a conversation about quality, so standards drift slowly and nobody has a dated record of when they started drifting. Then a complaint reaches an administrator, and the department has no evidence of anything either way. A scored inspection with photos, run on a schedule, is the record that closes that gap.
The areas below run in the order a building should be walked. Entrances first, because they set the impression and because grit tracked in from the vestibule is the cause of half the floor failures inside. Then classrooms and offices, washrooms, corridors and stairwells, the gymnasium and change rooms, the cafeteria, and the custodial closets last. The closets are on the form on purpose.
Entrances and Vestibules
- Entry glass and side lights clean on both faces, no hand marks at push-bar height
- Door push bars, pulls, kick plates and frames wiped
- Walk-off matting vacuumed and lifted, grit and water removed from underneath
- Hard floor inside the vestibule clean with no salt or scuff film
- Entry ceiling vents, light lenses and the top edge of signage dust-free
- Exterior approach swept to 10 feet, waste receptacle emptied and liner fitted
Classrooms and Offices
- Floor vacuumed or damp mopped to the baseboard, corners and under furniture included
- Desk and table tops wiped, chair seats, backs and leg glides clean
- Keyboard trays and under-desk footwells vacuumed, cable bundles free of dust
- Whiteboards wiped with board cleaner, tray emptied of marker dust and debris
- Window sills, ledges and horizontal blind slats dusted
- Light switches, door handles, push plates and thermostat covers wiped
- Waste and recycling emptied, bin bodies wiped, liners fitted straight
- Sink, counter and tap in the classroom clean, no paint or clay residue in the basin
- Floor vents and wall returns free of dust and paper
Washrooms
- Toilets and urinals clean inside and out, including the underside of the rim and the floor seam at each fixture
- Partitions wiped both faces, hinges and latches clean, no graffiti left
- Sinks, counters, taps and overflow holes clean, no water pooling at the counter edge
- Mirrors streak-free when checked at an angle, frame tops dust-free
- Soap, paper towel, toilet tissue and sanitary dispensers stocked and functioning
- Hand dryer body and nozzle clean, air intake free of lint
- Floor mopped to the wall and behind the door, grout free of film
- Floor drain clear and trap charged, no sewer odour in the room
- Exhaust grille free of lint, fan pulling when tested
- Waste receptacles emptied, bodies washed, liners fitted
Corridors and Stairwells
- Corridor floor clean with no traffic lane dulling, edges and corners detailed
- Lockers wiped on the fronts and tops, floor at the locker base clean
- Drinking fountains and bottle fillers descaled, basin and spout clean
- Wall surfaces free of scuff marks to shoulder height, corner guards clean
- Stair treads, risers and nosings clean, corners free of grit
- Handrails and balustrade wiped end to end
- Stairwell landings clear, nothing stored on a landing or under a stair
- Exit signs, wall sconces and ceiling vents dust-free
Gymnasium and Change Rooms
- Gym floor dust mopped full width, no grit left along the wall line
- Bleacher treads and the floor under the retracted bleachers clean
- Wall pads, backboard supports and the base of basketball standards wiped
- Change room benches, lockers and hooks wiped
- Shower floors, walls, grout and drains free of film, hair and mould in the corners
- Change room floor mopped with a dedicated mop head, floor dry or signed
- Equipment storage room floor clean, nothing blocking the door
- Dispensers stocked, waste emptied, bin bodies washed
Cafeteria and Kitchen Servery
- Table tops and seat surfaces wiped, table pedestals and folding mechanisms clean
- Floor swept and mopped, food debris removed from under tables and along the baseboard
- Servery counters, tray rails and sneeze guard glass clean on both faces
- Garbage, organics and recycling emptied, bin bodies and lids washed
- Floor drains clear, no grease film at the drain lip
- Vending machine fronts, drip trays and the floor beneath them clean
- Hand sink, soap and towel dispensers clean and stocked
Custodial Closets and Storage
- Floor clean and clear, nothing stored directly on the floor
- Service sink and faucet clean, no residue in the basin
- Mop heads and cloths hung to dry, not left in a bucket
- Chemicals labelled, dilution station working, safety data sheets on site
- Spray bottles labelled with the product inside, no unmarked bottles
- Equipment clean and charged, vacuum filters and brush rolls free of hair and string
- Paper and liner stock organised and within a week of need, not hoarded
General checks (site-wide)
- Building inspected during occupancy hours at least once a month, not only after the shift
- Disinfectant left wet for the contact time printed on the product label
- Colour-coded cloths and mops in use, washroom tools never reaching a food or desk surface
- Odour checked on entry to every washroom and change room and recorded as pass or fail
- Life-safety items clear: no storage blocking a panel, exit, extinguisher or eyewash
- Maintenance faults photographed and reported rather than cleaned around
- Deficiencies dated, assigned and re-checked at the next inspection
How often to inspect
| Daily | Washrooms, entrances, corridors, cafeteria, waste, touchpoints, occupied classrooms |
| Weekly | Detail vacuuming of edges and corners, stairwell mopping, locker fronts, fountain descale |
| Monthly | High dusting, vents, light lenses, blind slats, wall spot washing, gym floor scrub |
| Quarterly | Carpet extraction, hard floor strip and refinish, upholstery cleaning, window interiors |
What inspectors actually check
The keyboard tray and the footwell
Pass: the keyboard tray under the desk is vacuumed and the footwell has no debris or dust drifts. Fail: a clean desktop with crumbs and paper scraps in the tray below it. It is out of sight from standing height, which is the only reason it gets missed.
The seam where the fixture meets the floor
Pass: the caulk line and floor at the base of every toilet and urinal is clean and odour-free. Fail: a bright bowl with a dark seam at the base. This single line accounts for most persistent washroom odour, and mopping around a fixture never reaches it.
Behind the retracted bleachers
Pass: the gym floor under the closed bleachers has been cleaned on its rotation, not only the open floor. Fail: a gleaming gym floor with a wall of debris behind the stack. Put a date against it on the monthly list, because it takes opening the bleachers and nobody will do that spontaneously.
The locker base line
Pass: the floor along the bottom of the lockers is clean and the locker tops are dust-free. Fail: a clean corridor with a grit line at the locker kick and a grey film on top of the bank. Both are visible from a standing position if you look, which is the point of walking with a form.
Life safety before cleanliness
Pass: nothing stored against a panel, an exit, an extinguisher or an eyewash station, and no boxes on a stairwell landing. Fail: a spotless closet with a case of liners stacked in front of the electrical panel. This fails the inspection regardless of how clean the building is.
Using the inspection for workload, not just for scoring
Custodial scores are most useful when they are read next to assignments. A custodian who scores 78 on a building with two washroom banks and a cafeteria is not the same problem as one who scores 78 on an office floor. If the same areas fail across several custodians, the workload is wrong or the training never happened, and no amount of scoring fixes either.
Run one inspection a month during occupancy hours. Restrooms and entrances look completely different at 1pm than they do at 6am, and the midday state is the one the building's occupants are judging. That inspection often reads worse, and it is the more honest number.
For the scoring mechanics, including N/A handling and critical items, read the janitorial inspection scoring system. The school cleaning checklist covers the school year rhythm, and the commercial cleaning quality standards give you the surface-by-surface definition of Pass to calibrate against.
Common questions
What is a custodial inspection?
A scored walk through a building against written standards, area by area, marking every line Pass, Fail or N/A with a photo on anything that fails. In a custodial department it usually covers a sample of rooms plus every washroom, entrance and corridor, and it produces a dated record the supervisor and the custodian both work from.
How often should a custodial inspection be done?
Monthly per building as a floor, weekly in high traffic buildings, and at least one inspection per custodian per month so the record follows the person as well as the place. Run one of them during occupancy hours. A building inspected only at 6am after the shift looks different from the same building at 1pm.
What is the difference between a custodial inspection and a janitorial inspection?
The work and the standards are the same. The word changes with who employs the cleaner. Custodial departments are in-house teams in schools, campuses and public buildings, and janitorial usually means a contracted company. A custodial inspection is more often used for coaching and workload balancing than for contract compliance, so the notes matter as much as the score.
How do you score a custodial inspection fairly across different buildings?
Score by area and report area scores, not just a building total, and use N/A honestly so a building without a gym is not penalised for it. Then calibrate: twice a year, send two inspectors through the same building separately and compare line by line. Where they disagree, the standard is written badly, not the inspector.
Do I need to give an email address to download the PDF?
No. The download is a direct link with no form. Print it, write the building name at the top, and use it on the walk.