Day Porters vs. Janitors: What You Need To Know

Many commercial businesses use day porters and janitors interchangeably, and you may find yourself asking, “are they the same thing?”

Simply put, the answer is no. There are several key differences between these roles. Continue reading for a brief overview of the two and comparisons between each service.

Day Porters vs. Janitors: Your Complete Overview

While commercial businesses sometimes use the terms porters and janitors interchangeably, there’s a vast discrepancy in daily duties for each service. Let’s explore the expectations for each job:

Janitorial Duties

Janitorial work tends to focus on sanitation and cleaning duties. Your janitorial staff is usually part of a custodial team that conducts large-scale cleaning work.

To service your facility, janitors often use a variety of cleaning products, including:

Professional-grade vacuum cleaners
Mops and push brooms
Floor buffers
Sidewalk sweepers
Squeegees
Carpet cleaners
Microfiber cleaning cloths

Additionally, janitors take care of simple operational tasks, such as:

Refilling soap and hand sanitizer dispensers
Restocking paper towels, toilet paper, and tissues
Removing trash bins, replacing trash bags

Depending on the size of your facility, most janitors are only onsite for a few hours and can cover multiple buildings and clients during their shift. The skills required for janitorial work makes it an easier role to fill compared to day porter services.

Day Porter Duties

When comparing day porter vs janitorial services, the main difference lies within job expectations. While day porters can conduct cleaning procedures, their daily duties encompass several other services. They spend some, or all, of their day assisting with your building operations.

Essentially, day porters can perform cleaning tasks but will also assist in other maintenance activities, including:

Keeping lobbies and bathrooms clean during the day
Perform minor maintenance, such as replacing burned-out light bulbs and spackling holes
Daytime cleaning in common areas like kitchens, cafeterias, and patios
Conference rooms prep for VIP visitors or meetings
Cleaning high-touch areas like door handles and kitchen appliances
Responding to daytime spills and cleaning emergencies
Creating signage to highlight safety hazards, such as wet floors
Event setup and teardown

In addition to maintenance tasks, day porters take care of housekeeping duties, such as:

Minor Landscaping

In addition to the physical upkeep, day porter services can also assist with landscaping work. If your commercial property has exterior flower beds or plants, day porters ensure your vegetation is properly landscaped, by:

Watering flowers
Clearing flower beds
Placing mulch around plants
Fertilizing grass and front lawns

Day porters are an effective way to keep your facility’s outside appearance in good condition.

Maintaining the Premises

Maintaining a clean commercial property requires a lot of outdoor maintenance. That’s why property managers often rely on day porters to handle minor cosmetic and structural issues on the property.

Day porters regularly clean the exterior of your building, including power washing and removing graffiti. Porters may also paint the building and repair damaged trim work every now and then.

Clearing Parking Lots and Sidewalks

The parking lots and sidewalks surrounding your commercial building are known to accumulate trash and debris. Keeping these areas clean is critical to maintaining a positive exterior appearance. Luckily, day porters remove trash from your dumpster areas and sweep your lots daily to clear debris.

They’ll also powerwash your sidewalks to remove stains or dirt, clean ashtrays, and replace the sand as needed. Daily porter duties also include sanitizing company property, such as newspaper dispensers and benches. During the winter months, day porters will conduct tasks to keep your walkways safe, such as shoveling sidewalks and salting the parking lot.

With the summer months passing, it’s time for a seasonal deep clean. Luckily, Brenner’s commercial businesses janitorial services help your facility fall into autumn. Discover a few areas that need extra attention these next few months.

Fall Into Autumn With Proper Facility Cleaning

The Advantages of Day Porter Services

For commercial businesses looking for a holistic way to cover both cleaning and maintenance duties, porters are an effective avenue. By performing several essential facility functions, day porter services deliver the following benefits:

1. Keeping Your Facility Clean

You never get a second chance to make a first impression, and the cleanliness of your office space is the first thing visitors notice. Nightly janitorial services are no help for daytime cleaning emergencies—but porters are. Day porters help maintain a clean workplace during operating hours, ensuring every visitor is welcomed into a comfortable space.

2. Maintaining a Safe Facility

Maintaining a safe facility means quickly responding to messes that pose hazards to building occupants. Whether it’s a wet floor, icy sidewalk, or tripping hazard; you can rest assured knowing day porter services have it covered.

3. Supplementing Customer Service

Throughout the work day, vendors are constantly dropping by to deliver products. These deliveries cause disruptions to your office staff. Luckily, day porters help coordinate and direct deliveries, giving your employees more time to focus on their work.

4. Customized Service Plans

No commercial facilities are alike, which means different buildings have different needs. Fortunately, you can hand-pick your day porters’ duties to provide customized services specific to your facilities.

Your property isn’t a cookie-cutter copy of other buildings, and your cleaning procedures shouldn’t be either. Brenner understands flexibility is essential for a quality cleaning operation. That’s why we offer customized packages for all commercial businesses.

BFS: High-Quality Day Porter Services for North Shore Businesses

At Brenner, our day porter service is just one of the many commercial cleaning solutions we deliver. As a full-service provider, we offer everything from standard janitorial work to disinfection and deep cleaning.

No matter the specifics behind your cleaning needs, BFS has you covered. Start a conversation with our expert team and discover the Brenner difference.