Rough clean
After the heavy trades are out and before finishes go in. Debris removed, floors swept and vacuumed, surfaces knocked down, everything that would otherwise get sealed under paint or flooring.
This is the least glamorous stage and the one that most affects the final result. Drywall dust that is still airborne when finishes go on will be in the finishes.
Final clean
After finishes, before handover. This is what people mean when they say post-construction cleaning: interior glass, fixtures, cabinetry inside and out, adhesive and label residue, paint specks, floors brought to their finished state.
It takes longer than anyone plans for. A final clean is closer to detailing than to cleaning, and the work is in the last ten percent — the underside of the cabinet, the track of the sliding door, the top edge of the door frame.
The touch-up pass, which is the one that gets cut
Between the final clean and the actual handover, trades come back. Punch-list work leaves fingerprints, dust from one drilled hole travels further than seems reasonable, and the space that was photo-ready on Tuesday is not on Friday.
The touch-up pass is short, cheap relative to the other two, and the difference between a walkthrough that goes well and one that generates a list. It is the first thing struck from a tight budget and the one most likely to be regretted.
Dust does not settle once
Construction dust is fine enough to stay airborne for hours and settles in waves. A space wiped down completely at 6pm has a visible film by morning, which is why a single clean the day before handover never works.
Running HVAC during the process moves it around, and running HVAC with unfiltered returns moves it into the ducts, where it becomes somebody's problem in month two. Worth asking the mechanical contractor before, not after.
What to agree before the first stage
Who is responsible for debris removal versus cleaning — those are different scopes and different skips. Whether protective film and floor protection removal is included. Who supplies water and power on site. Whether the final clean includes exterior glass, which needs different equipment above the ground floor.