Post-renovation cleaning in Marrakech

On a new build, everything is dirty and nothing is fragile: you clean, you rinse, you hand over. On a renovation, part of the property is new, part is old, and a third part — usually the largest — has not been touched by the works at all but has taken their dust.

The area to be treated is therefore never the area of the works. It takes in:

• the renovated zone: laying residues, cement haze, adhesive, silicone, paint spatter
• the circulation route used by the trades: corridor, stairs, entrance hall, landing
• the adjoining rooms, where fine dust has settled on every horizontal surface
• the air paths: ventilation grilles, air-conditioning units, accessible filters, which have been stirring the dust for the whole duration of the works

That is why the price is worked out on the internal floor area of the property, not on the area of the works alone. The sequence on a new build is described on what a builders clean actually covers.

This is the most underestimated material on a renovation. Sanding filler, a ceiling or a timber floor produces dust fine enough to stay airborne for hours, pass under a closed door and settle again slowly.

What follows from that in practice:

• vacuum before you wipe. A damp cloth dragged across fine dust turns it into a paste and fixes it in the micro-scratches.
• vacuum with fine filtration, using a site wet and dry machine. A domestic vacuum blows straight back into the room what it has just picked up.
• work top down, and from the room furthest from the exit towards the door, closing doors behind the team.
• go over the high surfaces twice, a few hours apart, where the sanding is recent: what was airborne on the first pass settles afterwards.
• clean the accessible ventilation grilles and filters at the end of the job, otherwise they redistribute the dust the moment the system is switched back on.

On nine renovations out of ten, not everything was taken out. Furniture has been pushed to the middle and sheeted over, cupboards have been left full, a bookcase has stayed where it was.

Our rule: anything properly sheeted is dealt with by rolling the sheet outwards, never by lifting it off. Anything left unprotected is vacuumed before any damp work. Working around the furniture has a clear price: a furnished property costs 15% more, worked out on the base price, for the protection and the time spent around the furniture.

Sofas, mattresses and rugs hold fine dust and cannot be dusted with a cloth. Cleaning them is a separate service, at home, with its own price list: see sofas, mattresses and rugs. Moving heavy furniture is not included: where it would be needed it is flagged before the date, rather than discovered on the day.

This is the finishing detail that separates a renovation that is finished from one that is "nearly" finished, and nobody looks at it before handover.

• Thresholds and floor junctions: between new tiling and an existing floor, the joining strip concentrates adhesive and cement haze.
• Paint cutting-in: a run on an old wall shows up all the more because the wall next to it is new.
• Retained joinery: old doors repainted or rehung, whose edges and hinges hold the sanding dust.
• Reused skirtings: they often carry two generations of paint and a fresh bead of silicone.
• Existing floors kept as they are: we clean them, we do not sand or repair them. An original zellige or bejmat — the glazed and unglazed terracotta tiles used across Moroccan houses — is charged at 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT, like every floor that is not standard tiling; the protocol is on traditional floors.

Post-renovation cleaning is planned, not urgent. It is booked after the last trade, never between two of them.

The sequence that works:

1. Every trade has finished, touch-up paint included. If the works are not finished on the chosen date, we do not come: a trade coming back after we leave puts the dust straight back.
2. Rubble and packaging have left the site. We do not clear out: they must be removed before we arrive.
3. Water and electricity are available in the zone: without them, no rotary machine, no vacuum, no rinsing, and no visit.
4. The visit is booked from the day after your request, once the price has been confirmed from photographs or a visit.
5. The checklist is signed at handover, item by item. Free return within 48 hours on any ticked item found not to be up to standard.

The pricing base is the post-construction schedule, applied to the internal floor area of the property, all storeys added together:

• standard tiles: 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT; any other floor: 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT
• studio minimum: 2,000 MAD incl. VAT; apartment or premises: 3,000 MAD incl. VAT; villa or riad: 7,500 MAD incl. VAT
• furnished property: +15%; many marks: +20%; thick residue or marks on almost every surface: +40%
• terraces, only if you add them: 10 MAD/m² incl. VAT on standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT on another surface

Example: a renovated 110 m² apartment, still furnished, with 70 m² of standard tiles and 40 m² of zellige. Floors: 70 × 20 = 1,400 MAD and 40 × 30 = 1,200 MAD, so 2,600 MAD; the 3,000 MAD minimum applies.

Furnished: +15% on 3,000 MAD = 450 MAD. Total 3,450 MAD incl. VAT, for 2 to 2.5 days with a team of 3. The price is an estimate, confirmed after photographs or a visit.

The property types are set out on villa renovation, apartment renovation and renovated studio. The prices for this range are gathered on post-construction cleaning prices and every service we sell on the full price list. For a figure, describe the renovated zone and the rooms affected.