OC · StrataCommon property cleaning for Melbourne owners corporations and body corporates
S05Basements
Strata carpark cleaning takes a basement back from grey dust and oil spots to a floor you would happily walk across in good shoes. We sweep and machine scrub aisles and ramps, treat oil stains, clear grates and silt traps, and stop the grime at the lift lobby door, one section at a time so residents can still park.
B1Single-level basementsB4Multi-level carparksUCUndercroft parking
This page is for committees and managers of apartment buildings with a basement or undercroft carpark, and for commercial schemes where tenants park below the offices. It explains what a proper carpark clean involves, the equipment and method, how water is handled underground, how we plan around residents' cars, and how often the work is worth doing. Carpark cleaning sits alongside our other strata cleaning services and is usually booked together with the weekly clean of the building.
01What builds up
Strata carpark cleaning involves removing loose dust and litter with a mechanical sweeper, machine scrubbing the floor to lift the ground-in layer, treating oil stains, clearing grates and silt traps, and wiping signage and lobby doors. Each basement level is done in sections so cars can move.
Basements get dirty in ways a foyer never does. Every car brings in grit on its tyres and leaves a little rubber behind every time it turns. Leaves and litter blow down the ramp and gather in corners. Concrete itself sheds a fine dust. Nobody notices for months, then someone walks from their car to the lift in the rain and leaves grey footprints across the lobby.
Black, fine and oily. It spreads along the driving line and sticks when damp.
Drips under parked cars that darken the bay and track into the aisle.
Leaves, receipts and wrappers blown down the ramp into corners and grates.
Silt and grit settling in grates and traps until water stops draining.
Melbourne basements have their own habits. Ramps from the street collect autumn leaves from plane trees in older suburbs, and winter rain carries grit down onto the first level. Deep CBD and Southbank basements stay dry but gather more dust, because nothing ever rinses them.
02Method
Sweeping removes the loose layer, scrubbing lifts what is ground into the concrete, and degreasing breaks down oil before the scrubber collects it. Doing them in that order means the scrubber is not just pushing grit around, and oil is removed instead of spread.
A sweeper picks up dust, leaves and litter along aisles and ramps, with corners and bay edges done by hand where the machine cannot reach. On most routine visits, this is all the carpark needs.
A degreaser goes onto oil stains and is left to work before agitation. Fresh drips lift well; stains that have soaked in for years usually fade rather than vanish, and we say so on the walk-through.
A scrubber with brushes and water recovery washes the floor and collects the dirty water in the same pass, so nothing runs across the slab or into drains.
Line markings, bay numbers, wheel stops and wall signage are wiped as part of the scrub, because a clean floor next to grimy signs still looks neglected. Column corners, where cars scrape and dust gathers, get a hand clean on the same visit.
One practice we do not follow is painting over oil stains with floor paint to make a carpark look clean. It hides the problem for a few months, costs more to strip later, and can make the surface slippery when wet.
03Water underground
Grates and silt traps are cleared by hand so rainwater from the ramp can drain, and wash water is collected by the scrubber rather than hosed into pits. Basement drainage usually leads to pump-out sumps and stormwater, so oil and detergent have to stay out of it.
Many Melbourne basements sit below street level, so water that reaches the lowest point is pumped out through a sump. If grates at the bottom of the ramp are full of leaves and silt, water pools across the first bays in heavy rain. Lifting the grates and scooping out the build-up is a simple job that saves a lot of trouble.
EPA Victoria expects everyone to keep waste out of stormwater drains as far as reasonably practicable, and a carpark wash is exactly the kind of activity that can put oil into a creek. That is why we use recovery scrubbers underground and keep the hose for surfaces with a proper drain to sewer.
Sump pumps, pit pump-outs and blocked pipes are plumbing work. If we see a pit that will not drain or hear a pump running constantly, we report it to the manager with a photo.
Source: EPA Victoria, stormwater.
Where carpark water goes
04Around residents' cars
Section by section. We split each level into zones, give residents a week's written notice of the day each zone is scrubbed, and clean the aisles and empty bays first. Cars left in place are cleaned around, never moved, and the bay is noted so it can be done next time.
Example: B1 split into four zonesHighlighted zone scrubbed first
Ramp and lift lobby: done last, after every zone is dry
Weekday mornings after peak hour work best in residential buildings, when most cars have gone. Commercial basements are the opposite: they empty at night and on weekends. The notice goes up in the lift and by the entry, and the manager can send it by email too.
Bike cages, storage cages and motorbike bays need the same care. Storage cages are usually accessory lots owned by individual residents, so we clean the aisle in front of them and leave the inside alone. Bikes locked to rails are cleaned around, and anything that looks abandoned is photographed for the manager rather than removed.
We never move a vehicle, lean equipment against one or spray near one. If a car is dripping oil heavily, we tell the manager so the owner can be asked to fix it, rather than cleaning the same stain every quarter.
05Frequency
A light sweep of aisles, ramps and lift lobbies every month keeps dust under control, and a full machine scrub every three to six months resets the floor. Busy commercial basements and carparks shared with loading docks may need the scrub every quarter without fail.
| Basement | Sweep | Machine scrub |
|---|---|---|
| Small residential, one level | Monthly | Twice a year |
| Mid-rise, two or three levels | Monthly | Every four to six months |
| Tower, four or more levels | Fortnightly | Quarterly |
| Commercial or mixed-use with dock | Weekly | Quarterly |
The lift lobbies on each basement level are the exception. They are the doorway between the dirtiest and the cleanest parts of the building, so they are cleaned on every routine visit regardless of the carpark cycle. That stops dust being walked into the lift and up to every floor.
Bin rooms usually sit in the basement too, and the floor between the bins and the chute is best cleaned on the same visit. That routine is set out under bin room and waste area cleaning.
06Pricing
Carpark cleaning is priced by floor area, the number of levels, how many cars are usually parked during the day, and whether the job is a sweep or a full scrub. A monthly sweep is a small line on the routine invoice; each machine scrub is priced separately and booked into its month.
Full basements take longer than empty ones, because working around cars is slower than running a scrubber down an open aisle. Ramps take longer than flat floors. Heavily stained basements may need a first deep clean at a higher price, after which the regular scrubs keep them at that standard for less.
Ground-level driveways, visitor parking outside and the approach to the ramp are open to the weather, so they are usually cleaned with a pressure washer rather than a scrubber. Those surfaces are covered by our strata pressure cleaning service, often on the same day. Our page on strata cleaning cost shows how carpark work fits into a whole-building price.
07Booking
Send the number of basement levels, roughly how many bays, and whether the building is residential or commercial. We inspect the basement, agree the zones and notice process with the manager, and quote either a one-off deep clean or a regular sweep and scrub cycle.
If the carpark has not been scrubbed in years, a photo of a typical aisle and the lift lobby floor helps us judge how long the first clean will take. You can get a quote with those photos through the full form. Our homepage, strata cleaning Melbourne, shows the other scopes a basement contract can be combined with.
08Questions
Three questions that come up whenever a scrub notice goes up in the lift.
