Costing a Robotic Scrubber

Measure the floor work you pay for now

Every robot business case starts with a baseline, so record what scrubbing costs you before any machine arrives. For each building, list the hard-floor areas, how often each is scrubbed, the shift it happens on and the staff hours it takes, using timesheets rather than estimates. Add the full hourly cost of those hours, including employer on-costs, supervision and cover for absence. Then split the work into open floor a robot could run, and the edges, washrooms, stairs and spills that will stay manual. HM Treasury's Green Book (2026) frames appraisal as weighing the costs, benefits and risks of different options, and carrying on as you are is one of those options. Write it down in the same detail as the others.

Count every cost across the machine's life

ISO 15686-5:2017 sets out life-cycle costing for buildings and constructed assets, following costs from acquisition through operation to disposal, and the same three stages keep a robot appraisal honest. Under acquisition, enter purchase or lease payments, delivery, mapping, commissioning and the first round of staff training. Under operation, enter pad and brush replacements, squeegee rubbers, chemicals, water, power, battery packs as they age, software licences, insurance cover and maintenance visits. Under disposal, allow for resale or recycling and for wiping stored building maps. Listed prices in October 2026 give a starting figure for the first stage, from the Pudu SH1 Scrubber at about $3,800 to the Gausium Phantas 2 at about $28,000. Ask each maker for its consumables schedule too.

Turn a trial into hours you can bank

A maker's productivity figure tells you little about your own corridors, so run a trial and log what actually happens. Record the area the robot finishes per run, how many runs fit into a night, every stoppage and who cleared it, and the minutes staff spend filling, emptying and moving it. The saving is the manual hours the robot genuinely replaces minus the hours it creates, priced at the same hourly cost you used for the baseline. Decide in advance whether freed hours will be redeployed to detail cleaning or removed from the rota, since only removed hours lower the bill. If the robot raises standards rather than cutting hours, record that as a separate benefit instead of pricing it as a saving.

Stress-test the case before signing

With a baseline, lifetime costs and trial savings in hand, payback is the net upfront cost divided by the net yearly saving. Because costs and savings land in different years, discount them using the rate your finance team already applies to equipment. Then change one assumption at a time: lower utilisation, a shorter working life, a dearer service contract, a client contract that ends early. If the case only works when every input is at its most hopeful, it is weak. Put the assumptions, trial data and sensitivity results in one short paper so the decision can be checked later.

Sources and further reading

• ISO 15686-5:2017 Buildings and constructed assets: service life planning, Part 5: Life-cycle costing — International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
  Standard method for costing a building asset over its life, from acquisition and operation through to disposal.
• The Green Book (2026): appraisal in central government — HM Treasury (GOV.UK).
  UK government guidance on appraising options by weighing their costs, benefits and risks; 2026 edition.

Common questions

How long does a robotic floor scrubber take to pay for itself?

There is no standard answer, because it depends on wage rates, floor area, shift patterns and how many manual hours the robot really replaces. Ask makers for a reference site similar to yours and visit it, then rely on figures from your own trial rather than a brochure's estimate.

Is it better to lease or buy a cleaning robot?

Compare both over the same period. Add every lease payment, end-of-term charge and included service, and set that total against the purchase price, a separate service contract and the expected resale value. Leasing tends to suit short contracts or uncertain sites, while buying suits a robot you can keep busy for years.