Cleaning Tips · Real Project · Case Study
Orchid was the cleaning subcontractor to Whitehead Construction on Polk County Fire Rescue's new $15.6 million, 29,000 sq ft training facility. Across roughly 2 years our crews made about 51 visits and logged ~534 crew-hours, from mid-construction cleans through the final construction clean before the facility opened in spring 2026.
By Beverly Hughes, Commercial Operations Lead, Orchid Cleaning Service; landed Orchid's first commercial office building and built its commercial division.
Representative photo from another Polk County project. We don't have photos preserved from this build.
Polk County Fire Rescue (about a $65 million annual budget, 50 stations) opened the campus in spring 2026: a five-story burn building, a driving pad, vehicle and propane fire props, and EMS simulation rooms. The Board of County Commissioners awarded the $15.6 million contract to Whitehead Construction (Everett Whitehead & Son, Inc.) of Winter Haven, funded by $13.5 million in federal ARPA dollars plus $2.1 million in other funding.
| Measure | From our job records |
|---|---|
| Engagement span | ~2 years (April 2024 → April 2026) |
| Completed crew visits | ~51 |
| Total crew-hours on site | ~534 |
| Peak crew size | 7 cleaners |
| Cleaners who worked the project | 25+ |
| Final construction clean | April 25, 2026 (5-cleaner day, ~47 crew-hours), touch-up April 26 |
The building is made to be set on fire, but the classrooms, EMS rooms, offices and burn tower still had to hand over spotless, with dust, concrete residue and trade debris gone from all five stories. Our crews stayed OSHA-compliant and scaled visit by visit around Whitehead's trade sequence.
ARPA funding brings documented compliance requirements, background checks included, down to every subcontractor, as on the Winter Haven Recreation & Cultural Center.
Background-checked, OSHA-compliant crews from progress cleans to punch list. See post-construction cleaning or more of our commercial work.
Talk to us about your project →Methodology & sources. Visits, crew-hours, crew sizes and dates come from our completed-job records in our field-management software (crew-hours are each cleaner's own clocked on-site time, added up per visit). Project facts: Polk County Fire Rescue department page (~$65M budget, 50 stations) and its announcement of the $15.6M contract award with $13.5M ARPA funding; FOX 13 and Tampa Bay 28 coverage of the opening (29,000 sq ft, five-story burn building); Whitehead Construction's projects page.
Free to cite with attribution to Orchid Cleaning Service (orchidcleaningservice.com). Published July 2026.
More from our data & guides
→ Daily Post-Construction Cleaning on a Large Commercial Build
→ Cleaning a $21M Public Building: the Winter Haven Rec Center
→ Post-Construction Cleaning Checklist
→ Our Commercial Work
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