Three specs, and you have to pick one
| Spec | What happens | Relative effort |
|---|---|---|
| Swept | Push broom or sweeper, debris and trash removed, absorbent on fresh spills | Baseline |
| Scrubbed | Autoscrubber with recovery, general soil lifted, slab visibly cleaner | Roughly two to four times |
| Degreased | Chemistry dwelled on the slab and recovered, embedded oil attacked | Several times, and it is a periodic, not a nightly |
A bid that says "service bays" without naming one of those is not comparable to any other bid. Ask every contractor which one they priced. The cheap quote is almost always the first row.
Frequency is a separate decision
Bays rarely need the same frequency as the showroom. A common shape is sweep three times a week, scrub monthly, degrease quarterly — and each of those should appear on its own line with its own interval, so nobody is surprised in March.
The constraint most contractors do not know about
You cannot simply hose a bay floor. Federal rules on motor vehicle waste disposal wells name car dealerships in the regulatory text, and where a bay drain reaches the ground rather than a permitted sewer connection, washing into it is an injection of waste — with the regulatory obligations landing on you, the dealer, rather than on the crew holding the hose.
This is why our bay spec starts dry: absorbent and sweep first, recovery scrubbing where the drain situation allows it, drain covers during the work, and a written record of method and product. The rule, quoted and cited.
What we need to know before quoting bays
- Bay count, and how many are lift bays versus flat
- Slab condition and whether it is sealed, coated or bare concrete
- Where the floor drains discharge — sewer, holding tank, or the ground
- Whether the shop runs a parts washer and where its waste goes
- Who is responsible for moving tool carts and jacks before the crew arrives
That last one causes more friction than any other. If the crew has to move a technician's cart, either the time is in the price or the job does not get done — and the technician has an opinion about it in the morning.