What high level cleaning covers
Inside a building it means anything above the reach of a person on the floor. Ceilings, exposed services, pipework, trunking, cable trays, beams and trusses, high shelves and racking, light fittings and diffusers, air handling grilles, high glazing, signage, the tops of partitions and cupboards, and the ledges of lift shafts and atriums. Outside it means cladding, canopies, soffits, gutters, external glazing above ground floor and high signage.
Why it is needed
Dust on high surfaces does three things. It falls, so it keeps landing on desks, stock and product below however often the floor is cleaned. It reduces light output from fittings and makes a space look tired. In warehouses, workshops and production areas it is a fire risk. A layer of combustible dust on beams and ducts can carry a fire across a building, and a small ignition can dislodge more dust from high surfaces and feed a larger event. A fire risk assessment for industrial premises can list dust accumulation at height as a hazard, and the control it names is a cleaning programme.
For offices and public buildings the driver is usually air quality, lighting, audit appearance and the requirement in the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 that the premises be kept sufficiently clean. Ledges and vents count.
What the law requires
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 apply to any work where a person could fall a distance liable to cause injury. There is no minimum height. The HSE says the regulations apply to employers and to anyone who controls work at height, and it gives facilities managers and building owners who contract others as examples. Work at height must be properly planned, supervised and carried out by competent people, with the right equipment for the task.
Regulation 6 sets the hierarchy that every method statement should follow.
Avoid work at height where it is reasonably practicable to do the work safely another way. Extending poles from the ground for dusting and vacuuming, water-fed poles for glass, and cameras for inspection are all ways of avoiding it.
Prevent falls where work at height cannot be avoided. Work from an existing safe place, or provide equipment that stops a fall. A mobile elevating work platform with guardrails, a mobile tower, or a fixed edge protection system.
Minimise the distance and consequences of a fall where the risk cannot be removed. Fall arrest harnesses and nets, with training and a rescue plan.
Equipment for work at height must be suitable, inspected and maintained. Weather is a factor for external work. Fragile surfaces such as rooflights must be identified and protected.
Methods and when to use them
Extending poles from the ground. Telescopic poles with dusting heads, vacuum attachments and brush heads reach ceilings, beams, ducts and fittings in most offices, retail spaces and halls without anyone leaving the floor. This sits at the top of the hierarchy and is the default for internal high level dusting where the pole can reach and the surface is accessible.
Water-fed poles for glass. Reach and wash systems pump purified water up a telescopic pole to a brush, scrub the glass and rinse it to dry spot free. They clean external glazing several storeys up from the ground, which removes the fall risk altogether, and they are widely used on commercial glazing in London where the building line allows the pole to reach.
Mobile towers. For work that needs a person at height for a period, in a fixed location, with a working platform and guardrails. Suitable for atriums, halls and warehouses with a clear floor. Erected and inspected by trained people.
Mobile elevating work platforms. Scissor lifts and boom lifts for warehouses, distribution centres, factories and large atriums where the surfaces are beyond pole reach or the task needs hands on the surface. Operators must be trained and hold a recognised card, and must be familiarised on the specific machine. A rescue plan for a stranded platform is part of the method statement. Floor loading, ground conditions and overhead services are checked before the machine goes in.
Rope access and cradles. For external facades, atrium glass and structures where nothing else reaches. Specialist teams with their own training regime.
Ladders. Not banned, but not the first choice. The HSE says ladders and stepladders can be a sensible option for low-risk, short-duration work. The Ladder Association's LA455 guidance, which replaced the HSE leaflet in 2021, keeps the rule of thumb that a job needing more than about thirty minutes on a ladder should use other equipment. Short duration on its own does not justify a ladder. The risk is assessed first.
What to check in a contractor
A site-specific risk assessment and method statement that names the method for each area and follows the avoid, prevent, minimise hierarchy. A generic document is a warning sign.
Training records for the people who will attend, matched to the equipment they will use. Platform operators with a recognised card for the machine class. Tower erectors with tower training. A rescue plan where platforms or harnesses are used.
Equipment records. Inspection dates for towers, harnesses and platforms, and hire documents for any machine brought in.
Insurance certificates for public and employer's liability at a level that suits your building.
A plan for the building. Out-of-hours working where the work is above occupied desks or public areas, exclusion zones and signage, protection of stock and equipment below, and what happens to the dust that comes down.
Reporting. Photographs before and after from the same positions, a list of areas cleaned and any left, with the reason, and a recommended interval for the next visit.
How Commercial Cleaning London delivers it
Commercial Cleaning London arranges high level cleaning for offices, warehouses, retail, schools and public buildings across London, using platform, tower and rope-access specialists where poles cannot reach. Each job starts with a site survey and a written method statement that follows the hierarchy in the Work at Height Regulations. Where poles reach, the work is done from the ground. Where they do not, the right access equipment is planned with trained operators and, where needed, a rescue plan. The area below is protected, the work is done out of hours where the building needs it, and a supervisor signs off the areas against the scope with before and after photographs.