Cleaning in Agdal, Marrakech

Agdal, in Marrakech, is not an old district being maintained: it is a district being handed over. Between avenue Mohammed VI and the historic gardens, the dominant building type is the recent gated residence — sets of four- to six-storey blocks arranged around a garden and a shared pool, with a professional managing agent, a gatehouse and underground parking.

To that, add the blocks fronting the avenue, with shops at street level and professional floors above — practices, agencies — and, behind them, a ring of older estate villas.

What governs our work here is the floor:

• marble in living rooms, halls and landings: it is the signature of the district, and it is also the material that forgives least
• large-format porcelain in the bedrooms and kitchens of recent schemes
• timber flooring in the bedrooms of the better-finished schemes
• tiled terraces on the top floors

What you will not find in Agdal: zellige, bejmat or tadelakt. It is one of the few districts of Marrakech where the question of traditional floors does not arise — and where, as a result, a quotation that mentions them gives away a contractor who never looked at the property. For pricing, that list is enough: marble and timber count at 30 MAD/m², whatever is standard tiling at 20 MAD/m².

One last point of building type, and it changes everything: a great many properties here are bought off plan and handed over as bare finishes. First occupation is not a rare event in Agdal, it is a constant flow. A block fills up phase by phase, with buyers moving in while the units next door are still being worked on.

Here is the scene behind half of the calls we take in Agdal. The buyer collects the keys to an apartment declared clean.

They open the shutters, the sun comes in — and the marble in the living room is whitish, evenly, as though it were dirty under a layer of fog. Plaster spots in the corners. Overrun silicone beads along the patio doors. Manufacturer's labels still stuck to the glass.

That veil has a name: cement haze, the fine film of cement left by grouting, which works its way into the micro-porosity of the stone. Washing with water does not remove it. An acid product does remove it — and takes the polish with it. In Agdal, then, the question is not "is it dirty?" but "what can cleaning still put right?".

Your photos, then a visit if it helps, settle between three cases:

1. Cement haze and building residues, floor intact. The most common case: it is exactly what post-construction cleaning covers. A few small marks stay at the base price; many marks add 20%; thick residue on almost every surface adds 40%, after a diagnosis from photos. The method is set out in our article on cement haze.
2. Marble already attacked. Somebody went in before us with a product that was too strong. The polish has been eaten away and the surface catches the light unevenly. Cleaning does not bring back lost polish: our treatments include neither sanding nor repair, and not every floor can be crystallised. That is a job for a marble specialist, and we say so before pricing, not afterwards.
3. A laying defect or a deep scratch. Neither our trade nor our invoice: that falls under the developer's warranty, and we would rather help you put it in writing than have you pay for it.

We put it in writing: part of what you find on the day you collect the keys should not cost you a single dirham. A handover clean botched by a third party who has already been paid is not a cleaning problem, it is a handover problem. We are happy to redo the work, but we will not let you believe there was nothing there before us.

In the order in which they actually turn up in Agdal:

1. Post-construction cleaning of the apartment. We count the interior floor area, floors added together, terraces excluded: 20 MAD incl. VAT per m² of standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² for marble, timber and every other floor. On a mixed floor, you declare the m² that are not standard tiling. Example: 90 m² including 40 m² of marble gives 1,200 MAD + 1,000 MAD = 2,200 MAD of items, brought up to the 3,000 MAD apartment minimum (2,000 MAD for a studio). The top-floor terrace is added afterwards: 10 MAD/m² on standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² for any other surface. Floors and skirting, reachable windows, bathrooms and WCs, stairs and a finishing check are included — the detail is on the apartment post-construction page.
2. Windows on their own, when the rest has been done. A window counts as the whole frame, 75 MAD up to 2 m²; a sliding door onto the terrace is a patio door, 150 MAD up to 4 m²; 400 MAD minimum call-out charge. Labels, silicone, adhesive or cement on the glass: 40% more on the base, and some marks may remain depending on the surface. See windows after building work.
3. Standard housekeeping, once you have moved in. 800 MAD per day for an apartment, one person included, 250 MAD per extra person per day. It covers routine upkeep, not building dust: an "after works" request is sent back to post-construction cleaning. See apartment housekeeping.

One more item is often added, and deserves to be priced rather than discovered: the rugs brought into a new home, at 30 MAD/m² — a 2 × 3 m rug comes to 180 MAD, within the 400 MAD textile minimum — and the L-shaped sofa in the living room, from 550 MAD. The detail is on rug cleaning.

These prices include VAT and are indicative: scope and amount are confirmed after photos or a visit, and no surcharge is committed without your agreement.

Road access to Agdal is the easiest in Marrakech: a dual carriageway, on-street parking available, often paid or attended. The real constraints are inside the building, and they cannot be improvised.

• A gatehouse at the entrance: the contractor signs a register. We send the names and the vehicle registration in advance, not at the barrier.
• The lift is often barred to heavy equipment. Some sets of rules exclude it outright, others require the car to be protected. Both cases are prepared for: service stairs, equipment that comes apart, protection supplied by us.
• Time slots fixed by the managing agent, with noise banned before 8 a.m. and sometimes during rest hours. A rotary machine is not started at 7.30 a.m. in an inhabited stairwell.
• Protecting the hall and the landings: the marble in the common areas is not yours, and a scratch made carrying equipment upstairs is paid for twice.
• Water and power inside the home: essential on the day. In a phase that has only just been handed over, check that the meters are switched on; without water or electricity we cannot work.

Two more conditions, specific to blocks that are still filling up: your apartment must be finished — we come in once every tradesman has left — and rubble and packaging must be out before we arrive, because we do not clear out.

The district is planted and irrigated, so outdoor dust is low. What you see on your windows in Agdal almost always comes from the building work, rarely from the street.

The base is the same everywhere EPUREVA works, and it comes down to three lines you can check before confirming.

1. The protocol appears on the quotation: equipment, product and method chosen for your floor. A quotation that gives a price without giving a method binds nobody.
2. A test patch on the marble, treated, dried and approved with you before anything is rolled out. On polished stone that is not negotiable.
3. A checklist signed on site, item by item and room by room, with a free return on the point raised if it is not up to standard.

EPUREVA answers on WhatsApp seven days a week, covers more than 195 clients, works with certified products and holds professional liability insurance. Describe your property — floor, area, floor type, key handover date — attach 3 to 5 photos and get a no-obligation figure; the full list of areas covered is on the areas we cover.