Custodian interview questions for employers: 6 sets by level, a 20-minute building walkthrough work sample, and a weighted scorecard. Download as DOCX.
Six sets for the employer running the interview: a phone screen, entry-level, experienced, and head custodian questions, a 20-minute building walkthrough work sample, and a scorecard weighted by level. Download as DOCX.
The custodian interviews I have watched small employers run go wrong in the same way. The school secretary or the office manager sits a candidate down, asks whether they have cleaning experience, asks whether they can work evenings, and hires whoever seemed pleasant. Six weeks later the building is not clean, the route is improvised daily, and nobody can point to what was actually agreed.
The fix is not a longer question list. It is matching the interview to the level you are hiring, and getting out of the office. At FirstHR we build for the person running that interview alone, so these six sets are organized by level: a phone screen, entry-level, experienced, head custodian, a building walkthrough work sample, and a scorecard weighted differently for each level.
Every question below comes with the reason it is worth asking and what a good answer sounds like. If you have not written the posting yet, start with the custodian job description templates and come back here once applications land. More kits sit in the hiring templates library.
TL;DR
Interview a custodian at the level you are actually hiring. Entry level tests reliability, coachability, and safety instinct. Experienced tests floor care, dwell time, and repair judgment. Head custodian tests crew scheduling and budget. Screen schedule and transport by phone, run a 20-minute building walkthrough, then score on a weighted sheet. Federal median: $17.71 an hour.
What to Assess in a Custodian
Assess a custodian on five things: route discipline, technique depth, safety judgment, building awareness, and trust with keys to an empty building. Cleaning ability is only one of the five, and it is the one most easily trained. The other four are why a custodian who interviews well can still fail in month two.
Route discipline is the ability to work the same sequence every day and stay accurate on day 60. Building awareness is the care layer that separates a custodian from a general cleaner: noticing the slow drain, the propped door, the flickering ballast, and knowing which of those is theirs to fix.
Safety judgment deserves its own weight. A custodian handles concentrated chemicals every shift and cleans up things nobody else will. The question that reveals it is not whether they know a product name. It is what they do when they are not sure, and a candidate who guesses is a decline no matter how strong the rest of the interview was.
Three Levels, Three Different Interviews
A custodian opening is one of three jobs wearing the same title, and the interview should change completely between them. Decide the level before you write the posting, because it drives the questions, the walkthrough weighting, and the wage band you are hiring in.
Entry level
No experience required
You are hiring for reliability, coachability, and safe instincts. Interview for whether they will follow a written route and stop to ask before guessing with a chemical.
Experienced custodian
Solo from week one
You are hiring for floor programs, dwell time, work-order triage, minor repairs, and a real opening and closing sequence. Ask for nouns: the product, the machine, the step.
Head or lead custodian
Runs a crew and a budget
You are hiring a supervisor. Interview for scheduling, inspection routines, corrective conversations, vendor scope, and a year-long plan, on top of the technique above.
The mistake worth avoiding is interviewing a head custodian candidate on cleaning technique. Technique is table stakes at that level. What you actually need to know is whether they will build a schedule, inspect the work, and have the corrective conversation that most people avoid, and none of those come up if you only ask about floors.
What the interview must cover
Entry
Experienced
Head / Lead
Reliability, safety instinct, coachability
Floor programs, dilution, and dwell time
Work-order triage and minor repairs
Opening and securing the building
Crew scheduling and corrective feedback
Supply budget, vendor scope, annual plan
Which Set Fits the Opening You Have?
Start with the phone screen for every applicant, then add the one level set that matches the opening. Run the walkthrough for anyone who clears the interview, and score everyone on the same sheet. Most employers use three of the six for a given hire.
Phone Screen
10 minutes, before anything else
Schedule, transportation, route size, physical duties, background check, and pay, settled by phone. Most custodian applications fail here, not on cleaning skill.
Entry Level
No experience required
For the no-experience posting: following a written route, stopping to ask before guessing, the physical reality of the shift, and staying accurate inside repetition.
Experienced
Takes the building solo
Strip and refinish, dilution and dwell time, work-order triage, the line between a self-repair and a trade call, and how they open and secure a building.
Head / Lead
Runs a crew and a budget
The supervisory set: crew scheduling, coverage when two people call out, inspection routines, corrective feedback, supply budgets, vendor scope, and the annual plan.
Building Walkthrough
A 20-minute work sample
Six stations in your actual building, from a restroom to the supply closet to an exterior door, with a rating sheet. The asset most question lists leave out.
Scorecard by Level
Weighted 1 to 5 rubric
Ten scoring areas weighted differently for entry, experienced, and head custodian, plus red flags and a written decision rule you set before you interview.
Match the Set to the Level
Every applicant: Phone Screen. A no-experience posting at a school, church, or clinic: Entry Level. Someone who must take the building solo from week one: Experienced. A crew, a schedule, or a supply budget: Head / Lead. Everyone who clears the interview: the Building Walkthrough. Everyone, without exception: the Scorecard by Level. If you are hiring a contract or commercial cleaning shift rather than a building custodian, the janitor question sets fit better.
6 Free Custodian Question Sets to Download
Download all six as one Word document or copy the sets you need. Each follows the same structure: when to use it, the questions with notes on what a good answer sounds like, what to listen for, and space for notes. Fill in the bracketed details for your building before the first interview.
Download All 6 Custodian Question Sets
Phone screen, entry level, experienced, head and lead, a building walkthrough work sample, and a scorecard weighted by level. All in one DOCX.
Set 1: Custodian Phone Screen
Ten minutes by phone on schedule, transportation, route size, physical duties, the background check, and pay. Most custodian applications fail on logistics, and a phone screen finds that out before you book a visit.
Custodian Phone Screen (10 Minutes)
CUSTODIAN PHONE SCREEN (10 MINUTES)
Candidate: __
Facility: __
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO USE THIS SET
A custodian opening draws a large stack of applications, and most of them fail on
schedule or transportation rather than on cleaning skill. Run this screen by phone
before you book anyone for an on-site interview. Ten minutes here saves an hour of
interviews that were never going to work. Ask every question in order, in the same
words, for every applicant, and write the answers down.
SCHEDULE AND LOGISTICS
1. This role runs [shift, days, hours]. Does that schedule work for you long term?
(Good answer: a plain yes, or a specific constraint named early. A candidate who
hedges about a 5 a.m. or 10 p.m. start is telling you something now rather than
in week three.)
2. How would you get to [address] for a [start time] start?
(Good answer: a concrete plan. Transportation to an early or late shift is the
most common reason a custodian hire falls apart in the first month.)
3. We occasionally need coverage for a sick call or an evening event. How much
notice do you need to pick up an extra shift?
4. Are you looking for full-time hours, part-time hours, or either?
EXPERIENCE, IN ONE MINUTE
5. Tell me about the last building you cleaned. How big was it, and how many people
cleaned it?
(Good answer: names square footage, floor count, or room count, and says whether
the work was solo or on a crew. Solo experience matters most at a small site.)
6. What was your route, from clock-in to clock-out?
(Good answer: an actual sequence. Vagueness here, after years on the job, is a
real signal.)
7. Which floor machines have you run yourself: auto scrubber, burnisher, carpet
extractor, or none of them yet?
SAY THESE OUT LOUD NOW, NOT LATER
8. The job involves [lifting 50 pounds, ladder work, standing a full shift]. With or
without a reasonable accommodation, can you perform those duties?
(Ask about the duties of the job. Never ask about a medical condition, an injury
history, or a disability.)
9. This role requires a background check before the first solo shift with keys. Are
you comfortable moving forward on that basis?
10. The posted range is [rate] per hour. Does that work for you?
(Good answer: a straight yes or a specific counter. Settle pay now, not after
two rounds of interviews.)
DECISION
[ ] Invite to on-site interview and building walkthrough
[ ] Hold
[ ] Decline
NOTES
__
__
Set 2: Entry-Level Custodian Questions
For the no-experience posting: following a written route, what they do when unsure about a chemical, finishing early, being interrupted mid-route, and staying accurate inside repetition. Coachability over credentials.
Entry-Level Custodian Questions (No Experience)
ENTRY-LEVEL CUSTODIAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Facility: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when the posting says no experience required, which is the honest
description of most custodian openings at a school, a church, a clinic, or a small
property. You are not testing what the candidate already knows about floor finish.
You are testing whether they will follow a written route, ask before improvising,
show up on the days you need them, and be safe around chemicals while they learn.
Do not penalize a candidate for saying they have not done something. Penalize the
candidate who claims they have.
QUESTIONS
1. Tell me about a job where you had to follow the same routine every day. What kept
you accurate on day 60?
(Good answer: a real system. Custodial work is repetition, and the candidate who
has stayed sharp inside repetition before will do it again.)
2. If I hand you a written cleaning route with 14 rooms on it, how do you work
through it?
(Good answer: top to bottom, dry work before wet work, a check at the end. Even a
beginner should describe an order rather than wandering.)
3. You finish the route 40 minutes early. What do you do?
(Good answer: reports in, then picks up detail work like vents, baseboards, or
glass. A weak answer is sitting in the break room or leaving early.)
4. You are not sure whether a cleaner is safe to use on a surface. What do you do?
(Good answer: stops and checks the label or asks. This is the single most
important answer in the entry-level interview.)
5. This shift is mostly alone in the building. How do you feel about that?
(Good answer: comfortable, and can say why. Some strong candidates prefer it.)
6. Describe the most physical job you have held. What did a full shift look like?
7. A teacher stops you mid-route and asks you to clean something that is not yours
to do right now. How do you handle it?
(Good answer: polite, helpful, and honest about the route, then reports it. This
question predicts more day-to-day friction than any technique question.)
8. Tell me about a time you were shown how to do something new at work. How did you
learn it?
9. What would make you stay in this job for two years?
(Good answer: schedule stability, a decent building, being left alone to work.
Listen for what you can actually offer.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Stops and asks instead of guessing with chemicals
•Describes an order of operations, even without the vocabulary
•Realistic about the physical demands rather than dismissive
•Steady work history, or an honest account of the gaps
NOTES
__
__
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
Strip and refinish, dilution and dwell time, triaging three failures in one hour, the line between a self-repair and a trade call, and how they open and secure a building. Ask for nouns.
Experienced Custodian Questions
EXPERIENCED CUSTODIAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Facility: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when you need someone who can take the building on their own from week
one, with no ramp and no one to shadow. That is the common case for a single-site
custodian. The questions go past cleaning into the care layer that separates a
custodian from a general cleaner: floor programs, work-order triage, minor repairs,
and opening and securing the building.
Ask for the specific product, the specific machine, or the specific step. An
experienced custodian answers with nouns.
TECHNIQUE AND FLOOR CARE
1. Walk me through a strip and refinish on a vinyl tile floor. How many coats, and
how long before the room reopens?
(Good answer: strip, neutralize, rinse, dry, then 4 or 5 thin coats with cure
time between them. Knows the floor stays closed overnight.)
2. How do you decide between burnishing, buffing, and a full recoat?
(Good answer: ties it to gloss, traffic, and how much finish is left, not to a
calendar alone.)
3. How do you dilute a concentrate correctly, and what do you do when the dispenser
is broken?
(Good answer: reads the label ratio, uses the measuring cap, does not eyeball it.
More product is not more clean.)
4. Restroom disinfection: how long does the product stay wet on the surface?
(Good answer: knows the concept of dwell time and that wiping too early makes the
disinfectant claim meaningless. This one question sorts the field fast.)
5. How do you handle a carpet stain you cannot identify?
THE CARE LAYER
6. What repairs do you handle yourself, and where do you stop and call a trade?
(Good answer: a clear line. Changes a filter, a ceiling tile, a flush valve, a
door closer. Does not touch a live panel or a gas appliance.)
7. Three things break in the same hour: a clogged toilet in the main restroom, a
burned-out light in a back hallway, and a leaking drinking fountain. What order?
(Good answer: contains the water, then the restroom, then the light. Explains the
reasoning rather than reciting a rule.)
8. Walk me through how you open and secure this kind of building.
(Good answer: a real sequence. Doors, lights, alarm, mechanical checks, and a
walk of the perimeter, in an order they can name.)
9. What do you check on a floor machine before and after you run it?
(Good answer: pads, brushes, cords, tanks, and rinsing the recovery tank so the
machine does not smell in a week.)
10. How do you keep supplies from running out without over-ordering?
11. Tell me about a time you found a building problem before anyone reported it.
(Good answer: a real find. A custodian who walks the building with their eyes
open is worth more than one who only cleans.)
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Names products, machines, and steps instead of speaking in general terms
•Understands dwell time, dilution, and cure time as concepts
•Draws a clear line between a self-repair and a trade call
•Talks about the building, not just the cleaning
NOTES
__
__
Set 4: Head / Lead Custodian Questions
The supervisory set: crew scheduling, coverage when two people call out, inspection routines, the corrective conversation, supply budgets, vendor scope, and the annual plan. A different job from the one below it.
Head / Lead Custodian Questions (Supervisory)
HEAD / LEAD CUSTODIAN INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
Candidate: __
Facility: __
Interviewer: __
WHEN TO USE THIS SET
Use this set when the hire runs a crew, a schedule, or a supply budget: a head
custodian at a school, a lead custodian on a night crew, or the person who becomes
your single point of contact for the building. This is a different job from the one
below it, and it is where most custodian interviews go wrong, because the employer
interviews a supervisor as though they were hiring a cleaner and then wonders why
the crew is unmanaged.
Federal wage data tracks this level as its own occupation, first-line supervisors of
housekeeping and janitorial workers, with its own pay band. Interview for it and pay
for it accordingly.
RUNNING THE CREW
1. Walk me through how you build a weekly schedule for a crew of [N] across
[building size].
(Good answer: zones or routes with named owners, not a vague rotation.)
2. Two custodians call out on the same evening. What gets dropped and what gets
done?
(Good answer: protects restrooms, entrances, and trash, defers detail work, and
tells someone. Triage plus communication.)
3. How do you inspect work without standing over people?
(Good answer: a written checklist, a walk on a rotation, and specific feedback.
Watch for someone who only inspects when there is a complaint.)
4. Tell me about a time you had to correct a custodian who was cutting corners. What
did you say?
(Good answer: a direct, private, specific conversation, then follow-up. Not a
group email about how someone is not pulling their weight.)
5. How do you train a brand-new custodian in their first week?
(Good answer: shadow, then supervised solo, then solo, with safety training
before the first chemical is ever used.)
BUDGET, VENDORS, AND THE BUILDING
6. How do you manage a supply budget across a year?
(Good answer: par levels, a consumption rate per month, and buying seasonally
rather than reacting when a closet empties.)
7. We use an outside contractor for [floors, windows, snow]. How do you hold a
vendor to the scope?
(Good answer: a written scope, a walk before sign-off, and a record of what was
actually done.)
8. What does your annual plan look like: summer floor work, deep cleans, seasonal
changeovers?
(Good answer: a real calendar. A head custodian who plans only week to week will
never get ahead of the building.)
9. Your principal or office manager tells you a room has to be ready in an hour, in
the middle of your crew rotation. How do you handle it?
10. How do you report up? What does the person you report to hear from you weekly?
(Good answer: short, factual, and unprompted. Problems arrive early.)
11. Tell me about a hire you made or recommended that did not work out. What did you
miss?
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR
•Owns the schedule and the standard, not just their own route
•Gives specific feedback in person rather than avoiding the conversation
•Plans a year, not a week
•Talks about the crew as people they develop, not bodies they assign
NOTES
__
__
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Six stations in your actual building with a rating sheet, from a restroom to the supply closet to an exterior door. Twenty minutes, no unpaid work, and the same route for every candidate.
Building Walkthrough Work Sample and Rating Sheet
CUSTODIAN BUILDING WALKTHROUGH: WORK SAMPLE AND RATING SHEET
Candidate: __
Facility: __
Interviewer: __
Time required: 20 to 25 minutes
WHY RUN THIS
A custodian interview held entirely in an office tells you how well someone talks
about cleaning. Twenty minutes walking your actual building tells you how they
think in it. Nothing here requires the candidate to clean anything or to lift
anything, so it stays a conversation, not unpaid work. Run the identical route,
with the identical questions, for every candidate for the same opening.
Walk the route once yourself first and fill in the bracketed details.
STATION 1: A RESTROOM
Ask: If this were yours tonight, what order would you work in, and how long would
it take you?
Rate 1 to 5:
[ ] Names an order (dry to wet, top to bottom, fixtures before floor)
[ ] Gives a realistic time rather than an impressive one
[ ] Notices something you already know is a problem (grout, a slow drain, an odor)
STATION 2: THE SUPPLY CLOSET
Ask: Look at what is on these shelves. What would you change?
Rate 1 to 5:
[ ] Comments on labeling, secondary containers, or a missing Safety Data Sheet
[ ] Spots a chemical stored where it should not be
[ ] Talks about par levels and reordering rather than only tidiness
RED FLAG: a candidate who says they would mix two of the products together.
STATION 3: A HARD FLOOR CORRIDOR
Ask: What condition is this floor in, and what would you do with it over the next
[ ] Understands the door as security, not only as a surface to clean
[ ] Mentions reporting what they cannot fix
STATION 6: THE MECHANICAL OR EQUIPMENT ROOM
Ask: what in here is yours, and what is not?
Rate 1 to 5:
[ ] Draws a clear line at the limits of the role
[ ] Recognizes common equipment and basic upkeep
[ ] Does not overclaim on anything electrical, gas, or pressurized
TOTAL AND DECISION
Total (out of 30):
Overall impression on the walk:
__
__
[ ] Advance [ ] Hold [ ] Decline
Set 6: Custodian Scorecard by Level
Ten scoring areas weighted differently for entry, experienced, and head custodian, plus red flags and a written decision rule you set before you interview anyone. Use it with every set above.
Custodian Scorecard by Level (1 to 5)
CUSTODIAN INTERVIEW SCORECARD BY LEVEL
Candidate: __
Level interviewed: [ ] Entry [ ] Experienced [ ] Head / Lead
Interviewer: __
Date: _
HOW TO SCORE
Score right after the interview, while it is fresh. Rate each area from 1 to 5 and
write one line of evidence next to every score, quoting something the candidate
actually said. A score with no evidence next to it is an impression, and impressions
are what you are trying to get away from.
The weights change by level. That is the whole point of this sheet: the same answer
that makes an entry-level candidate a strong hire tells you very little about a head
custodian.
1 = no evidence 3 = adequate 5 = strong, with a specific example
SCORING AREAS
AREA ENTRY EXPERIENCED HEAD/LEAD SCORE EVIDENCE
Reliability and schedule fit High High High ___ ___
Safety judgment High High High ___ ___
Coachability High Medium Medium ___ ___
Technique and floor care Low High Medium ___ ___
Building and repair judgment Low High High ___ ___
Route discipline and pace Medium High Medium ___ ___
Trust with keys and access High High High ___ ___
Crew leadership n/a n/a High ___ ___
Budget and planning n/a Low High ___ ___
Communication and reporting Medium Medium High ___ ___
Walkthrough total (out of 30):
RED FLAGS
[ ] Would mix chemicals, or guesses at dilution
[ ] Cannot describe a route after years of experience
[ ] Claims experience with a machine, then cannot describe the upkeep
[ ] Overclaims on electrical, gas, or pressurized equipment
[ ] Vague or evasive about the schedule or transportation
[ ] Uneasy about a background check with no reason offered
[ ] For a lead role: has never given anyone corrective feedback
DECISION RULE
Set the bar before you interview anyone, in writing. A sensible default:
•Entry level: 3 or better on reliability, safety judgment, coachability, and trust.
Anything below a 3 on safety judgment is a decline regardless of the total.
•Experienced: 4 or better on technique and building judgment, 3 or better
everywhere else, and a walkthrough total of 20 or more.
•Head / lead: 4 or better on crew leadership, planning, and communication, plus the
experienced bar above.
If two people interview, each scores independently before you compare.
FINAL: [ ] Offer [ ] Second interview [ ] Hold [ ] Decline
NOTES
__
__
A single custodian posting at a school or a property can pull dozens of applications in a week, and the phone screen is what keeps that stack manageable. Track who you screened and what they said, even in a spreadsheet, so no candidate goes cold while you decide. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
The Building Walkthrough Work Sample
Take every serious candidate on a 20-minute walk through the building before you decide. An interview held in an office tells you how well someone talks about cleaning. A walk tells you how they think inside the actual space, and it is the part of the process almost every custodian question list leaves out.
Nothing on the walk asks the candidate to clean or lift anything, so it stays a conversation rather than unpaid work. Walk the route once yourself first, fill in the details, then run it identically for everyone applying to the same opening.
Station 1: a restroom
Ask what order they would work in
Listen for dry work before wet work
Watch whether they spot the problem you already know about
Station 2: the supply closet
Ask what they would change on the shelves
Listen for labeling and secondary containers
Decline anyone who offers to mix two products
Station 3: a hard floor corridor
Ask them to read the floor and plan six months
Listen for finish left, traffic lanes, and edges
A season-long plan beats a heroic weekend
Stations 4 to 6: spill, door, equipment room
Containment and signs before cleaning
Doors as security, not just a surface
A clear line at the limits of the role
Rate each station 1 to 5 as you go rather than from memory afterward. The stations that predict the most are the supply closet and the spill scenario: the first exposes chemical judgment, and the second shows whether containment comes before cleaning. These are situational questions asked while standing in the situation.
Station
The question
What a 5 sounds like
A restroom
What order would you work in, and how long?
Dry before wet, top to bottom, a realistic time
Supply closet
What would you change on these shelves?
Labeling, secondary containers, par levels
Corridor floor
What would you do with this over six months?
Reads finish and traffic lanes, plans a season
Spill scenario
Walk me through the next five minutes
Signs and containment before cleaning
Exterior door
What would you check at end of shift?
Latches, closers, propped doors, lighting
Equipment room
What in here is yours, and what is not?
A clear line, no overclaiming
If You Run a Paid Trial Shift Instead
A walkthrough is a conversation. A trial shift is work, and work has to be paid. If you want a candidate to actually clean a zone before you decide, treat the time as compensable hours at your posted rate, keep it short, and give the same trial to every finalist. Custodial roles are non-exempt, so the trial hours count toward the week like any others.
Interviewing a Head or Lead Custodian
Interview a head custodian as a supervisor, not as a senior cleaner. This is the level the generic question lists skip entirely, and it is where a bad hire costs the most, because the head custodian sets the standard that everyone else on the crew works to.
Four questions do most of the work. How do you build a weekly schedule across this building? What gets dropped when two people call out? How do you inspect without standing over people? And tell me about a time you corrected someone cutting corners, in the words you actually used.
Ask
Why it is worth asking
What a good answer sounds like
Build me a weekly crew schedule
Separates a planner from a doer
Zones with named owners, not a vague rotation
Two call out on the same evening
Tests triage under real constraint
Restrooms, entrances, trash. Detail work waits. Tells someone
How do you inspect the work?
Most leads only inspect after a complaint
A written checklist and a walk on a rotation
A time you corrected someone
The conversation most leads avoid
Direct, private, specific, with follow-up
How do you manage the supply budget?
The budget is real money you hand over
Par levels and a monthly consumption rate
What does your annual plan look like?
Buildings are seasonal, weeks are not
Summer floor work, deep cleans, changeovers
Listen for how the candidate talks about the crew. A strong lead describes people they develop and cover for. A weaker one describes bodies they assign. That distinction predicts your turnover more reliably than anything on the resume, and a reference check with their last direct report is worth the phone call.
Fair, Legal, and Structured Interviewing
Keep every question tied to the job, ask the same ones of everyone, and write the answers down. Those three habits are what make an interview both fair and useful, and for a custodian hire there are a few specific traps worth knowing before you start.
Ask about the duties, never about the body
Custodial work is physical, so you are entitled to ask whether a candidate can perform the actual duties, with or without a reasonable accommodation: lifting a stated weight, ladder work, standing a full shift. What you cannot do is ask about a medical condition, a prior injury, a workers compensation claim, or a disability, or route the conversation there through small talk. Put the physical requirements in the posting in plain numbers, then ask the duty question the same way for every candidate. This is general information, not legal advice.
Background checks: timing and consent
Trust is a genuine qualification for a role that holds keys to an empty building, and schools and youth-serving organizations often face state requirements for checks before a worker starts. Two practical rules apply. Get written consent on a standalone form before you run anything, and know that many states and cities restrict when you may ask about criminal history, often pushing it past the initial application. Decide your process once, apply it to every candidate at the same stage, and state the requirement in the posting so nobody is surprised. This is general information, not legal advice.
Language, origin, and the I-9
Ask about language only where it is genuinely required by the job, such as reading a chemical label or a safety instruction, and ask about the ability itself rather than where it came from. Questions about national origin, citizenship, accent, or how long someone has lived here do not belong in an interview. Work authorization is confirmed after the offer, through the I-9, using documents the employee chooses to present, on the same timeline for every new hire. This is general information, not legal advice.
Same questions, same order, written down
The strongest protection available to a small employer is also the thing that makes the hire better: ask every candidate for the same opening the same core questions, run the same walkthrough, and score on the same sheet. When a hiring decision is ever questioned, a stack of scored sheets showing job-related criteria applied consistently is a far better record than a memory of who seemed like a good fit. Keep the sheets. Store them with the rest of the hiring file rather than in a drawer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Structure Is the Protection and the Improvement
Asking every candidate the same job-related questions, scored against the same rubric, predicts on-the-job performance better than an unstructured conversation, and it also keeps decisions off the protected characteristics the EEOC puts out of bounds. The same discipline that makes the hire better is the record that defends it.
One custodian-specific point: because this role cleans up body fluids in schools, clinics, and public buildings, the work can fall under the OSHA bloodborne pathogens standard, which requires an exposure control plan, training, and an offered hepatitis B vaccination for covered employees. Say so in the interview rather than after the offer. This is general information, not legal advice.
Scoring Candidates by Level
Score right after each interview, while it is fresh, and write one line of evidence next to every rating. A score with nothing quoted next to it is an impression, and impressions are exactly what the sheet exists to replace.
The weights change by level, which is the point of a level-based scorecard. Technique carries little weight for an entry-level hire and a lot for an experienced one. Crew leadership does not apply below the lead role and outranks technique above it.
Scoring area
Entry
Experienced
Head / Lead
Reliability and schedule fit
High
High
High
Safety judgment
High
High
High
Coachability
High
Medium
Medium
Technique and floor care
Low
High
Medium
Building and repair judgment
Low
High
High
Crew leadership
Not scored
Not scored
High
Budget and planning
Not scored
Low
High
Set the decision bar in writing before you interview anyone, so you are not negotiating with yourself at 5 p.m. on a Friday. A sensible default sits in the scorecard set above, and anything below a 3 on safety judgment is a decline regardless of the total. If two people interview, each scores independently before comparing, then run a short feedback conversation. The interview evaluation form works as a generic backup sheet.
Custodian Pay: Two Wage Bands, Not One
Custodians and head custodians sit in two different federal occupations with a gap of roughly six dollars an hour between the medians. Deciding the level before you post is therefore a budget decision as much as a hiring one, and posting the wrong band is the fastest way to lose a strong lead candidate.
Custodian Median $17.71 an Hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
Head Custodian Median $23.61 an Hour (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
First-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers, the occupation covering head and lead custodians, had a median wage of $23.61 an hour, about $49,100 a year, with the lowest 10 percent under $17.08 and the highest 10 percent above $36.75 (Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025).
Both levels are hourly and non-exempt, so overtime applies past 40 hours in a week, including summer floor weeks when hours spike. If the role runs evenings or overnight, decide whether you are paying a shift differential before the interview, because a candidate will ask.
Interviewing a Custodian Without an HR Department
A district hires custodians through a personnel office with a standing question bank. A single school, a church, a clinic, or a small property hires through whoever has time, usually the office manager, between everything else. That is the situation these sets are built for, and the good news is that a small site has real advantages.
What you actually control
The schedule you offer and how firm it is
How well the building is already run
Whether the route is written down anywhere
How fast you get back to a candidate
Move faster than the big employer
Phone screen within a day of applying
Interview and walkthrough in one visit
Decision within 48 hours of the walk
Offer in writing the same week
Make one interviewer rigorous
Write the questions before the first call
Use the same six walkthrough stations
Score on the sheet before the next candidate
Set the decision bar in advance, in writing
Where small sites lose the hire
A vague shift that shifts again in month two
No written route, so every day is improvised
Pay decided after two interviews
No safety training before the first chemical
Speed is the one you control completely. Custodian candidates are typically applying to several places at once and taking the first firm offer, so a decision inside 48 hours of the walkthrough beats a larger employer running a three-week process. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, and until then a simple shared sheet of who was screened, walked, and scored is enough to keep the pipeline from going cold.
The other advantage is honesty about the building. A candidate who sees the actual supply closet and the actual floors during the walkthrough and still wants the job is a candidate who will not quit in week three over a surprise. Show the building as it is, including the parts you are not proud of.
From Interview to First Solo Shift
The interview ends with a decision, and then a custodian hire needs three things before their first solo shift: a written offer, a cleared background check, and safety training that is done rather than promised. Skip any of the three and you have handed keys and chemicals to someone on trust alone.
Put the offer in writing
Confirm the rate, the shift, the start date, and the probationary training period. The role is hourly and non-exempt, so be explicit about overtime and any differential.
Clear the check before the keys
Collect written consent, run the check your setting requires, and hold key issue and alarm codes until it clears. Log which keys were issued to whom.
Train on chemicals and cleanup first
Hazard communication before the first chemical, and a bloodborne pathogens plan before any body-fluid cleanup, each with a signed acknowledgment on file.
Hand over a written route
The single highest-return onboarding step for this role. A printed route with times per zone ends the improvised first month and gives you something to inspect against.
Walk the building together
Shut-offs, panels, the alarm, the mechanical room, and who to call at 6 a.m. Twenty minutes here prevents the call you do not want at 2 a.m.
Store the records where you can find them
The signed offer, the background-check consent, the I-9, the training acknowledgments, and the key log, all on one employee profile rather than in five places.
The step most employers skip is the written route. A printed sequence with times per zone turns an improvised first month into a job the new custodian can actually succeed at, and it gives you something concrete to inspect against. If you have written procedures elsewhere in the building, the same standard operating procedure habit applies here.
FirstHR connects the offer, the background-check consent, e-signatures, the safety training modules, and the new-hire paperwork in one place, so a school or a small property can run the whole path from interview to a trained custodian without a separate spreadsheet for each step. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a facilities or work-order system, and it does not run payroll or administer benefits, so connect those separately. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
Key Takeaways
Decide the level first: entry, experienced, or head custodian. It changes the questions, the scoring weights, and the wage band.
Run a 10-minute phone screen on schedule, transportation, and pay. Most custodian applications fail on logistics, not on cleaning skill.
For an entry-level hire, the decisive question is what they do when unsure whether a chemical is safe. A guesser is a decline.
Take every serious candidate on the same 20-minute building walkthrough and rate six stations as you go.
Interview a head custodian as a supervisor: crew scheduling, inspection routines, corrective conversations, and a supply budget.
Benchmark against BLS May 2025 data: $17.71 an hour for custodians and $23.61 for first-line supervisors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What questions should I ask a custodian in an interview?
Ask questions at the level you are actually hiring, because the right question changes completely between an entry-level opening and a head custodian. For an entry-level hire, ask how they would work through a written 14-room route, what they do when they are not sure a cleaner is safe for a surface, and how they stayed accurate on day 60 of a repetitive job. For an experienced custodian, ask them to walk you through a strip and refinish, how long a disinfectant stays wet on the surface, what repairs they handle themselves and where they stop and call a trade, and how they open and secure a building. For a head or lead custodian, ask how they build a weekly crew schedule, what gets dropped when two people call out, and how they correct someone cutting corners. Then run the same building walkthrough for every candidate and score on the same sheet.
Is a custodian interview different from a janitor interview?
The cleaning questions overlap almost entirely, and federal wage data groups both titles in one occupation. The interviews differ in what sits around the cleaning. A custodian is usually attached to one building, most often a school, church, clinic, or municipal site, and the role carries a care layer that a contract cleaning shift often does not: minor repairs, work-order triage, opening and securing the building, event setups, and seasonal work. Custodian postings also carry a defined career ladder into head or lead custodian, which is a supervisory job with its own federal wage band. So interview a custodian on the building, not only on the cleaning, and pick your question set by level rather than by setting. If your opening is a contract or commercial cleaning shift, the janitor question sets are the better starting point.
How do I interview a custodian with no experience?
Interview for four things that experience cannot replace: reliability, coachability, safety instinct, and comfort working alone. The single most important answer in an entry-level custodian interview is what the candidate does when they are unsure whether a cleaner is safe for a surface. A strong candidate stops and checks the label or asks someone. A candidate who says they would try it and see is a decline regardless of anything else they say. Beyond that, ask about a past job with a daily routine and what kept them accurate two months in, what they would do if they finished the route 40 minutes early, and how they would handle being interrupted mid-route by someone asking for a favor. Do not penalize a candidate for saying they have not done something. Penalize the one who claims they have.
What should I ask a head custodian or lead custodian candidate?
Interview a head custodian as a supervisor who happens to know cleaning, not as a cleaner with seniority. Ask how they build a weekly schedule for a crew across your building size, what gets dropped and what gets done when two custodians call out on the same evening, and how they inspect work without standing over people. Ask for a specific time they corrected someone who was cutting corners and what they actually said, since avoidance of that conversation is the most common failure in the role. Then cover the business side: managing a supply budget across a year with par levels rather than reacting to an empty closet, holding an outside contractor to a written scope, and what the annual plan looks like for summer floor work and seasonal changeovers. Federal data treats this as a separate occupation with a higher wage band, so budget for the level you are interviewing.
Should I give a custodian candidate a practical test?
Run a building walkthrough rather than a cleaning test. Twenty minutes walking your actual building tells you far more than an interview held in an office, and unlike a cleaning trial it does not ask a candidate to perform unpaid work. Take every candidate on the identical route with the identical questions: a restroom, the supply closet, a hard floor corridor, a spill scenario in a busy hallway, an exterior door, and the mechanical or equipment room. At each stop you are listening for how they read the space, not for a right answer. Rate each station 1 to 5 on a sheet as you go, and add the total to the interview scorecard. If you do want hands-on work beyond a walk, pay for the time as a short paid trial shift, and be aware that the shift is compensable working time under wage and hour rules.
How much does a custodian make?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), janitors and cleaners, the federal occupation that covers custodians, had a median wage of $17.71 an hour, about $36,840 a year, with the lowest 10 percent under $13.77 an hour and the highest 10 percent above $24.17. Head and lead custodians fall under a different occupation, first-line supervisors of housekeeping and janitorial workers, with a median of $23.61 an hour, about $49,100 a year, and a top decile above $36.75 an hour. That gap of roughly six dollars an hour is the practical reason to decide the level before you write the posting. School and municipal roles often pay near the middle of the band while carrying benefits that private commercial work does not, and evening or overnight shifts sometimes add a differential. Benchmark to your local market.
What can I not ask a custodian candidate?
Keep every question tied to the job. Because custodial work is physical, you may ask whether a candidate can perform the stated duties, such as lifting a specified weight or standing a full shift, with or without a reasonable accommodation. You may not ask about a medical condition, a prior injury, a workers compensation claim, or a disability, and you should not drift there through casual conversation. Avoid questions about age, national origin, citizenship, accent, religion, family status, or childcare arrangements, including the friendly version asked while walking the building. Work authorization is confirmed after the offer through the I-9, on the same timeline for every hire. Many states and cities also restrict when you may ask about criminal history. Ask every candidate the same questions in the same order and keep the scored sheets. This is general information, not legal advice.
