About Open Book Cleaning Co., and how to check every claim on this site.
We clean homes and workplaces across the Fraser Valley with plant-based, low-VOC products and no added fragrance. Before a first visit you get the full product list with safety data sheets. If a clean is not right, tell us within 24 hours and we redo it. Every trust claim here is one you can verify yourself.
Ten cleaning companies across Abbotsford, Langley, Surrey, Chilliwack, Mission and Maple Ridge describe themselves as eco-friendly, non-toxic or green. Not one of them names a product, links a safety data sheet, or cites a certification. That is the gap this company was built in.
Why does any of this need to be different?
Because cleaning is one of the few services where the product is invisible and the marketing is not. You come home, the house looks tidy, and there is no way to tell from looking whether what got used on your kitchen counter was a plant-derived surfactant or a quaternary ammonium compound. The smell people read as "clean" is usually glycol ether solvent and synthetic fragrance. So the industry gets to say anything it likes.
The people who care most about this are not hobbyists. They are households with asthma, which the Fraser Valley has more of than the BC average. They are cat owners, who find out too late that several essential oils sold as natural cleaners are toxic to cats. They are people in the first trimester reading an ingredient label properly for the first time. And they are the staff in a sealed office or clinic, who never got to choose the products at all.
For all of them, an adjective is worthless and a list is useful. So the whole design of this company is one decision repeated: publish the thing that can be checked. The products, the reasons, the prices, the jobs we turn down. When we cannot back something up, the page says so instead of dressing it up.
Read the full list of what comes into your house and what never does on the plant-based cleaning products page.
What does fragrance-free by default mean in practice?
It is the promise most often claimed and least often kept, so here is what it means operationally rather than in a tagline.
-
Nothing is added, rather than something gentle being added
There is no house scent, no lavender finish, no "fresh" anything. If a product exists in an unscented version, that is the one we buy. The default outcome is a house that smells of nothing at all, which for a lot of our customers is the entire point.
-
Essential oils are treated as chemicals, because they are
Natural is not a synonym for harmless. Tea tree, pine and citrus oils are genuinely toxic to cats, and several are respiratory irritants for people. We do not diffuse or spray them, and we do not use them as a substitute for cleaning.
-
You can ask for a scent, and then it is a choice
Some people genuinely like a lemon-smelling kitchen. Say so and we will bring it. The difference is that it is a decision you made rather than one made for you by whoever was buying supplies.
-
The sensitivity field is on the quote form, not in the small print
Asthma, allergies, pregnancy, a baby, cats, dogs, a room to skip. It is a question we ask before you have to remember to volunteer it, because it is the field that changes what actually goes in the van.
The seven things we never bring into a house are listed in full on the homepage ledger, including chlorine bleach, ammonia, quaternary ammonium compounds, each with the reason.
What we send you, and what happens if we get it wrong.
-
Before you book: the list
The full product list arrives with the quote, safety data sheets included. Not a summary, not a category, the actual products. Anyone in the house can take it to their doctor, their allergist or their veterinarian and get a real answer before we open a bottle.
-
Before the first visit: the paperwork
Ask and we email the liability insurance certificate and the WorkSafeBC clearance letter number. You can check the WorkSafeBC one yourself at worksafebc.com without going through us, which is the whole reason that number is worth quoting.
-
After the clean: 24 hours to tell us
If something is not right, tell us within 24 hours and we come back and redo those areas at no charge. A guarantee with no window attached is marketing rather than a promise, so ours has one, and it is long enough for you to look at the place properly in daylight.
How do you verify what a cleaning company tells you?
These are the four things BC buyers are told to ask for. Each one below is either checkable by you or it is not on this page.
-
The product list itself
Emailed on request with safety data sheets before a first visit. It is the claim we would most like you to check, because it is the one no competitor in this region can match.
The one worth understanding is WorkSafeBC. If you hire people to work in or around your home and they are not registered, you can be liable for compensation costs if one of them is injured on your property. That is not a cleaning company's problem, it is yours, and it is why WorkSafeBC's clearance letter system lets you verify any contractor's status yourself in about two minutes. Ask every company you are considering, not just us.
Four commitments and one long list of refusals.
Fragrance-free by default · Same cleaner each visit · Full product list before we start · No lock-in contracts
Those four need no external proof, because they are ours to keep or break. The harder document is the other one: the list of jobs we turn down, with the honest reason for each and the trade to call instead. Heavy mould remediation, roof moss, hoarding, biohazard, chimneys and seven more. No competitor in this region publishes anything like it, and it is the page we would read first if we were hiring a cleaner.
Six cities, and the water in each one behaves differently.
Which sounds like trivia and is not: it changes which product clears a shower screen and how long it takes.
Also Aldergrove, Cloverdale, South Surrey, White Rock, Delta and Pitt Meadows. All service areas.
What people ask before booking.
What does fragrance-free by default actually mean?
That we add no fragrance to anything unless you ask us to. Not "lightly scented", not "natural essential oil blend", not "fresh linen". The products we carry are chosen unscented where an unscented version exists, and where it does not we look for one that is. If you want a scent, say so on the form and we will bring one. The default is nothing, because a house that smells of nothing is the actual evidence that it is clean.
What will you send me before the first visit?
The full product list, with safety data sheets, so anyone in the house with asthma, allergies, a pregnancy or a chemical sensitivity can check it against their own medical advice rather than ours. On request we also send the liability insurance certificate and the WorkSafeBC clearance letter number so you can verify coverage yourself at worksafebc.com. You get all of that before you have committed to anything.
What happens if the clean is not right?
Tell us within 24 hours and we come back and redo the areas you are not happy with, at no charge. A guarantee without a window is marketing, so ours has one. Twenty four hours is long enough for you to properly look at the place in daylight, and short enough that we can tell what we did from what happened afterwards.
Are you certified as a green or eco cleaning company?
Not yet, and we will say so until it is true. There is one BC operator with genuine third-party certification behind its natural claim, and it does not serve the eastern Fraser Valley. Ten companies in this region use the words "eco-friendly" or "non-toxic" without naming a single product. Our answer in the meantime is the harder one to fake: we publish the actual list, ingredient by ingredient, on the non-toxic products we use page.
Will I get the same cleaner every time?
That is the commitment on recurring work, and it is the one that makes the rest of it possible. Someone who has cleaned your house eight times knows which tap leaks, which room the cat hides in, and which shelf you do not want touched. When the usual person is away we tell you in advance rather than sending a stranger and hoping.
Do you work in my city?
Abbotsford, Langley, Surrey, Chilliwack, Mission and Maple Ridge are the six with their own pages, and we also cover Aldergrove, Cloverdale, South Surrey, White Rock, Delta and Pitt Meadows. See areas we serve for the detail, including why water hardness changes how a bathroom gets cleaned from one city to the next.
Ask us for the list before you ask us for a price.
We will email the full product list with safety data sheets, and the insurance and WorkSafeBC details if you want them, before you have committed to anything at all.
Reach us on (819) 743-5953 or [email protected].