Cleaning in Sidi Ghanem, Marrakech

Sidi Ghanem occupies the north-west of Marrakech, on the route de Safi, on an orthogonal grid of numbered streets serving business plots of fairly uniform size. This is commercial building stock, not housing: nobody sleeps here, and that changes the way a cleaning job is ordered.

Three uses share the district. Workshops and warehouses, with their own particular dust — timber, textile or plaster depending on the neighbour. Small-company head offices and workspaces. And above all the interiors, furniture and design showrooms that made the area's reputation, often housed in former workshops, with generous ceiling heights, mezzanines and light taken from above — glass roofs, glazed north-lights, rooflights.

The floors follow from that history:

• polished concrete, the district's signature, in showrooms as much as in converted workshops: sealed in appearance, but sensitive to acids and aggressive detergents;
• bare or power-floated concrete in storage areas;
• tiling in offices and washrooms, the odd timber floor on a mezzanine.

What we do here comes down to three lines of our offer: windows and shopfronts, the post-construction clean of a unit that has just been fitted out, and sofas, mattresses and rugs. Daily housekeeping is designed for apartments and villas; it has no place in a district without homes. And we do not sell workshop or warehouse maintenance: it is not part of our offer.

We would rather put it in black and white, because in Sidi Ghanem the question comes up on almost every request: a showroom glass roof often peaks well above what we can reach.

What we do. Glazing reached from the ground, up to 3 metres, carries no surcharge. From 3 to 5 metres, the pole takes over, still from the ground, at +25% on the base price, and only if your photos show that the pole can be set down and handled safely: the surcharge does not guarantee feasibility.

Pole work is described on our high-level glazing, cleaned from the ground, and the district's own window work on the glazing of the area's showrooms.

What "from the ground" means here. The pole is handled from a stable, unobstructed footing. Under a glass roof, a showroom full of furniture or a cluttered storage area does not offer that footing: four metres above a display table is more constraining than four metres above an empty floor. We check it on your photos, not on the morning of the visit.

What we do not do. Beyond 5 metres, the answer is no: no cherry picker and no ropes in our kit, no machine hire, nobody sent onto a roof under our name.

The glazing concerned is taken out of the request, the rest of the building is priced normally, and you know before the date. The rules for working at height are covered in our blog article on high-level window safety.

The district's other limit concerns the floor, and it is dealt with below: polished concrete is not treated like tiling.

Three items, in the order the district asks for them. The amounts are the same as everywhere in Marrakech, in dirhams incl. VAT.

1. The showroom window and interior glass. For the price list, a showroom is a shop. The shop window counts 25 MAD incl. VAT per m², inside and outside faces together; mezzanine partition, glazed door or lobby, 15 MAD per m²; and the visit never goes below the 1,000 MAD shop minimum. Example: 30 m² of shop window and 10 m² of interior glass come to 900 MAD of items, raised to 1,000 MAD; a 6-metre flat fascia sign, no more than 1 metre high, adds 600 MAD (100 MAD per metre of length, 200 MAD minimum), making 1,600 MAD. Upstairs offices get their glass cleaned inside only: 15 MAD per m² of glass faces, with a 500 MAD minimum. See what a shopfront clean includes.
2. The post-construction clean of a newly fitted-out unit. New showroom, refitted office, converted workshop: 30 MAD incl. VAT per m² on polished concrete, 20 MAD per m² on standard tiles, 3,000 MAD minimum for premises. A 200 m² polished-concrete showroom comes to 6,000 MAD; on floor area alone, the indicative duration is 3.5 to 4 days for a team of 3, and washrooms, openings and upper floors lengthen it. We come in once every tradesman has finished and the rubble has been removed: we do not clear out. The general framework is on post-construction cleaning for offices and shops, the local version on bringing a new showroom into service, and the particular case of display space is covered in our blog article on Sidi Ghanem showrooms.
3. Display furniture. Handled, sat on and dusty, it has to leave for a customer with no sign of use. Our price list covers L-shaped sofas — 550 MAD small, 600 MAD large — and U-shaped sofas — 650 MAD and 750 MAD —, mattresses (300 and 400 MAD) and rugs (30 MAD per m²), with a 400 MAD textile minimum. Armchairs, chairs and straight sofas are not on it. The detail is on upholstery on the showroom floor.

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

At ground level, Sidi Ghanem is the easiest area in the city: HGV access, turning space, free parking, no carrying and no gatehouse to talk round. The difficulties are vertical and to do with timing.

Vertical. A glass roof or a north-light almost always overhangs something that can neither be fully sheeted nor moved: display furniture, stock, a machine. Three decisions are taken before the date, on your photos:

• what gets moved, what gets protected, and what is left aside;
• the direction of travel, so we never work above an area already done or put back;
• access to the glazing: a pane behind a loaded shelving unit is not accessible, and we dismantle nothing.

Timing. A showroom is preferably done outside opening hours, a workshop outside working hours, because glazing being washed above a customer or a running machine is a risk, not a demonstration of professionalism. The day is set, at the earliest, for the day after the request, then our team agrees it with you.

Two conditions, finally, that apply to all our services: a usable tap and socket on site that day, and surfaces within reach. And one fact specific to the district: dust from the neighbouring workshop — timber, textile, plaster — settles back quickly. We point it out so you can time the visit well, just before an opening or an event, not to sell you a schedule.

This is the district's second limit, and it is as little open to debate as the first.

Polished concrete is a mineral substrate that is sealed at the surface but sensitive: an acid product stains it permanently, an over-concentrated alkaline detergent dulls it, and mechanical action that is too firm opens the surface and makes it dirt-catching for good. Under the raking light of a glass roof, the slightest variation in sheen shows — and it cannot be put right by cleaning.

Our rule here comes down to three points:

1. No acid, ever, whatever the residue. The treatment is adapted to the material: not every floor can be crystallised, and we do no sanding and no repairs.
2. A trial on an inconspicuous area, dried and then checked with you before rolling out: a difference in sheen cannot be judged on a wet floor.
3. Marks are declared beforehand. Plenty of paint, adhesive or cement marks means +20% on the base price; thick residue over almost every surface, +40%, after a diagnosis on photos.

To get started, send us on WhatsApp the floor area, the floor type, the height of the glazing and the site's activity, with 3 to 5 photos: overall views, close-ups of the marks, access.

We reply seven days a week The end-of-visit checklist is signed on site; if a ticked point does not hold, we come back and redo it free of charge within 48 hours. On guarantees: certified products, professional liability insurance, and over 195 clients served. Request a quotation; the other districts are on the map of the areas we serve.