Post-construction cleaning for offices and retail units

On an office or retail fit-out, cleaning comes last and inherits every delay from the packages before it. The window available shrinks as the trades overrun, while the opening date does not move at all.

What follows from that, and what we write into the quotation:

• the slot is confirmed in writing the day before, together with the make-up of the team
• the work can be done in the evening or at the weekend if the shopping centre, the office building or the neighbouring units require it
• the job can be split into zones: open-plan floor first, cellular offices next, washrooms and common parts last
• the list of trades still on site is checked before a date is fixed: if the works are not finished on the chosen date, we do not come, because a decorator who comes back after us dirties a unit that has already been handed over

Other commercial environments are covered elsewhere: hotel opening or refurbishment for accommodation, and new-build homes for a residential scheme.

In a shop, the window is the product before the product. In an office, the glazed partitions are the first thing a visitor sees stepping out of the lift. They are also the surfaces that carry the most site marks.

• protective film applied when the joinery went in, often baked hard by the sun on a south-facing shopfront: the longer it stays, the more the adhesive resists
• plaster, filler and paint spatter: scraped off with a fresh blade at a constant angle, never on coated glass and never on screen-printed glazing
• manufacturer's labels and manifestation dots stuck to the glazed partitions
• frames, tracks and sliding-door thresholds: it is the track that holds the cutting dust, and it is the track that grinds the first time the door is opened
• the roller shutter and its box, where the unit has one

In a builders clean, accessible glazing is included in the price per square metre: there is no line per window. For offices, only the inside face of the glazing is cleaned.

We have neither a cherry picker nor ropes: a transom or a glass roof that would need one stays outside our scope, and unusual access is assessed from photographs before we confirm. A shopfront to be cleaned on its own, outside a fit-out, comes under shopfront window cleaning.

This is the invisible part of a new commercial space, and the part that keeps dropping dust for weeks if it is skipped.

• ceiling tiles: dust removed from the top of the accessible grid, offcuts left in the ceiling void taken out
• ventilation grilles and air-conditioning diffusers: accessible faces dusted, no equipment taken apart
• recessed light fittings: finger marks, plasterboard dust on the diffusers
• trunking, cable trays and service skirtings: the insides included, before the covers go back on
• distribution boards and comms cabinets: dusted on the outside only, never with water and never by opening live equipment

This item always comes before washing the floors. A suspended ceiling cleaned after the floor means the floor has to be done again.

Commercial premises rarely stop at ordinary tiling, and each covering calls for a different method — and a rate: 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT for standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT for everything else.

• Vinyl, linoleum and sheet resilient floors: gentle washing with a low-speed rotary machine and a non-abrasive pad. Too aggressive a pad leaves a matt bloom that cannot be recovered. Estimated at 30 MAD/m², adjusted from photographs.
• Polished concrete: 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT. Poorly rinsed polished concrete leaves a bloom that raking light picks up immediately.
• Porcelain and technical tiling: 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT where it is standard tiling. Cement haze removed with a rotary machine, rinse, dry.
• Marble in a reception hall: 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT. Measured mechanical action, a test patch every time; the treatment is matched to the material, not every floor can be crystallised, and we do no sanding. See traditional floors.
• Carpet: we do not clean it; it is not one of our services.

Several coverings on the same floor plate? You declare the square metres that are not standard tiling: 30 MAD/m² on those, 20 MAD/m² on the rest.

A commercial unit is priced like any other post-construction property, on its internal floor area, all storeys added together:

• standard tiles: 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT; any other floor: 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT
• shop or office minimum: 3,000 MAD incl. VAT — below that amount, a top-up is added
• terrace, courtyard or external frontage, only if you add it: 10 MAD/m² incl. VAT on standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT on another surface
• many marks: +20%; thick residue or marks on almost every surface: +40%; unit already furnished: +15%

Two examples. A 60 m² shop in standard tiles comes to 1,200 MAD of flooring: the minimum applies, so 3,000 MAD incl. VAT.

A 220 m² office floor with 40 m² of polished concrete in reception and many marks: 180 × 20 = 3,600 MAD, plus 40 × 30 = 1,200 MAD, so 4,800 MAD; +20% = 960 MAD; total 5,760 MAD incl. VAT, for 4 to 4.5 days with a team of 3. These amounts are estimates, confirmed after photographs or a visit.

Not included: clearing out — rubble must be removed before we arrive —, sanding, touching up paint or grout, which belongs to the trades, and a return visit after new works. Nor do we offer office cleaning contracts once you have opened. The final inspection is described on the final touch-up page.

A compliant invoice, with the ICE registration number and VAT at 20 %, is issued every time: that is what lets the cost go through your accounts without argument. For a figure, tell us the floor area and your opening date.

The prices for this range are gathered on post-construction cleaning prices, and the overall method on reinstatement after building work. A small fitted-out unit follows the logic set out on the small-volume page, and a company house or a villa-based head office that of the residential page.