Tomorrow, when newly inaugurated President Joe Biden arrives at the White House, he’ll be greeted by a sparklingly clean building, the result of a massive $500,000 deep cleaning project. The White House transition is a carefully orchestrated series of events that, according to CNN, this year also involves this taxpayer-funded deep cleaning.
The cleaning between administrations is nothing new — it happens every time there’s a presidential transition. Normally, cleaning takes place in a period of about six hours between when the former president leaves and the new president arrives after being inaugurated. What is new this year, though, is the scope of the project. In pre-COVID times, it'd be the White House staff performing cleaning and other tasks, like moving the new president into the Residence. This year, however, several additional cleaning companies and other contractors are under contract to help with COVID cleaning and other measures, as the White House has had three separate COVID outbreaks in recent months. One of the contracts is for a $127,000 “2021 Inaugural Cleaning,” which includes many of the tenets of a COVID deep clean.
The contracts also include $115,000 to replace carpeting, nearly $30,000 for curtain cleaning, $53,000 for repainting, and $38,000 for trash removal and recycling, according to Yahoo.
While the price tag seems expensive, it’s important to remember that the White House is a huge building. The 55,000-square-foot, six-story, 132-room building includes 35 bathrooms, 412 doors, and 28 fireplaces.
This post was submitted by Greg Zimmerman, editor, Building Operating Management and FacilitiesNet.com.
