It is a straightforward question with an answer that varies by contractor, by contract, and sometimes by facility. Getting it wrong costs money — either in cost-plus markups you did not expect, or in restrooms running out of paper because nobody was clearly responsible for restocking.
The Three Models
| Model | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor-supplied | Contractor purchases and restocks paper, soap, and liners. Billed as a line item or rolled into the monthly rate. | Facilities where procurement is a burden or where restocking accountability needs to be with the cleaning crew. |
| Owner-supplied | You purchase from your own supplier and maintain stock in a designated storage room. Contractor crew restocks from your supply on each visit. | Facilities with existing supply contracts, GPO memberships, or buying cooperatives where your unit cost is lower than the contractor's markup. |
| Hybrid | Contractor supplies specific items (often liners and hand soap); facility supplies paper products where volume pricing makes it advantageous. | Larger facilities with diverse consumption patterns across different areas. |
What the Contract Should Say
Regardless of which model you choose, the scope document should explicitly state:
- Who is responsible for each category of consumable (paper towels, toilet tissue, hand soap, trash liners, urinal cakes)
- Who absorbs cost increases — contractor-supplied costs can rise with supply chain fluctuations, and a contract that does not address this will generate a price renegotiation at the worst time
- What the restock protocol is — does the crew restock from the storage room on every visit, or only when a dispenser is below a threshold?
- What happens when the facility runs out because the contractor failed to restock — is there a credit mechanism or a next-visit correction protocol?
The restroom running out of paper on a Tuesday afternoon when the cleaning crew does not return until Thursday night is not a theoretical problem. It is the most common maintenance complaint in multi-tenant buildings and medical offices, and it almost always traces to an ambiguous supply responsibility in the original contract.
Cost-Plus Markup: Read This Carefully
When a contractor supplies consumables, they typically charge cost-plus — their wholesale price plus a markup for purchasing, storage, and delivery. That markup ranges from 10% to 30% depending on the contractor. In a building that goes through $400/month in paper and soap, a 20% markup adds $80/month — nearly $1,000 a year on consumables alone.
This is not hidden or unethical; it is a legitimate cost of the contractor managing the supply chain for you. But it should be visible in the contract, not buried in a "supplies included" monthly rate that leaves you unable to verify what you are paying for supplies versus labor.
Ask contractors to break out consumable costs as a separate line item, even if it is estimated. A contractor unwilling to itemize this is one you should look at carefully.
What We Do
We discuss consumable responsibility at the scope walkthrough and document the arrangement in the written scope. If we supply consumables, we itemize them separately in your monthly invoice. If you supply them, we note the storage location and the restocking protocol in the scope so there is no ambiguity when a crew member is in the building at midnight.