High-level cleaning is the cleaning of surfaces above safe hand reach, planned around the Work at Height Regulations 2005. Optus Glean UK cleans high-level structures, cladding, atrium glass, pipework and warehouse racking nationwide, choosing access equipment by the avoid-prevent-mitigate hierarchy and using DBS-checked (Disclosure Scotland / AccessNI in Scotland and Northern Ireland), PAYE-employed operatives.
The Work at Height hierarchy, applied
The Work at Height Regulations 2005 exist to prevent death and injury from falls, and they require duty-holders to work down a fixed hierarchy: avoid work at height where reasonably practicable; prevent falls with a safe place of work or suitable equipment; then mitigate the distance and consequences of a fall, choosing collective protection over personal. It is not acceptable to reach first for a harness and lanyard. We build every high-level job around that order, as set out in our working at height guide, and apply the same discipline to window cleaning and gutter and solar panel cleaning.
What high-level cleaning covers
Typical high-level work includes structural steelwork and roof voids, internal cladding and ceiling panels, high glazing and atria, pipework, ductwork exteriors, lighting and signage, and warehouse racking and mezzanines. It is a natural companion to our industrial cleaning and warehouse cleaning lines, where dust on high structures is both a housekeeping and a fire-load issue, and to facade cleaning on the building exterior.
Access, method statements and rescue plans
Access is selected per job: ground-based reach-and-wash and telescopic tools where they suffice, then mobile elevating work platforms, scaffold towers, cradles or rope access where height demands it. Every job carries a task-specific method statement and risk assessment, a rescue plan, and (where products are used at height) a COSHH assessment, because the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 2002 require the hazards of every cleaning product to be assessed and controlled.
Directly-employed, trained and vetted
Work at height and lone working raise the stakes on competence and supervision. Every operative is PAYE-employed, trained to our documented standard, and background-checked (DBS, or Disclosure Scotland / AccessNI) before their first shift, with the lone-working controls the HSE expects applied through our lone-working procedures.
One national provider for work at height
High-level cleaning is periodic and specialist, so pairing it with your routine clean under one contract removes the hassle of sourcing a separate access contractor per site. Optus Glean UK delivers it nationwide within a single commercial cleaning agreement, alongside industrial cleaning and window cleaning, to the same documented standard everywhere.