Post-construction cleaning for riads in Marrakech

No estimate for a riad is confirmed without seeing the access, and the reason is not technical but logistical. Between the point where the vehicle has to stop and the riad's door there are often several hundred metres of derb — the narrow medina alley — sometimes a covered passage, sometimes steps.

What that means in practice, and what we check before fixing the date:

• carrying the equipment to the house: rotary machine, wet and dry vacuum, buckets, pole — we bring the equipment and the products
• a usable water point and power point on site — a riad at the end of works does not always have both, and without water and electricity we do not work
• rubble and anything to be thrown away, taken out before we arrive: we do not clear out, and the derb does not change that rule
• the hours, set against traffic in the derb and the immediate neighbours

That is why we ask for a photo of the access along with the photos of the riad: particular access arrangements are looked at before confirmation. A contractor who has not asked where the vehicle stops has not prepared your job. For an equivalent property outside the medina, see cleaning a modern villa or the case of an apartment in a managed building.

In a conventional house you work from the top down and the water leaves through the drains on each level. In a riad, everything converges on the patio: it is the low point, it is the light well, and it is where the dust from every floor comes down.

The order we apply is therefore the reverse of a villa's:

1. Roof terrace first: dust removal, drains and spouts cleared. It is only done if you add it, and only if it is flat, protected and reached by a staircase.
2. Galleries and upper-floor rooms, working down, doors closed behind the team.
3. Joinery, mashrabiya screens, painted ceilings and gallery balustrades, before any floor is washed.
4. Patio last, including the fountain, the pool and their drains.

A patio done first would have to be done three times over. It is the most common mistake, and it shows up immediately in the duration of a badly organised job.

Zellige is glazed on the face and porous on its cut edges. Its joints are fine, numerous and often lime-based. A stiff brush tears the joint out; badly dosed acid dulls the glaze and attacks the lime. It is treated with the right product, joint by joint, and rinsed thoroughly.

Bejmat, the small unglazed terracotta laid tight in herringbone or basketweave, holds cement in every gap. Its surface is matt and unglazed: it absorbs. Whatever is put on it stays in it, including a badly rinsed soap that comes back as a tide mark a few days later.

Tadelakt — floors, walls, hammam benches — takes neither alkaline detergent, nor a stiff brush, nor aggressive steam. We clean it; we do not restore it. Damaged tadelakt is put right by the craftsman, with black soap and a stone.

All three are charged at the same rate, 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT, like marble, stone and polished concrete: it is the treatment that adapts to the material, not the price. And not every floor can be crystallised — a marble staircase or bathroom floor is cleaned, not polished: we do no sanding and no repairs. Each protocol is developed on cleaning traditional floors.

A restored riad is not made of floors alone. The surfaces below do not change the price per m², but they take real time and each calls for its own technique. Show them on the photos: the scope is confirmed before the work.

• painted or waxed timber doors and shutters: dry dusting, then controlled damp work — timber saturated with water swells and lifts new paint
• painted timber ceilings and mashrabiya screens: vacuumed with a brush nozzle, never hosed
• gebs, the carved plaster, and its friezes: blown clean and brushed softly, no water at all
• ironwork: balustrades, grilles, light fittings, often repainted at the end of the job and covered in spatter
• fountain and pool: mortar deposits removed, drains cleared

A riad pays the same schedule as a villa, with the same minimum. What sets it apart is the share of its floors that are not tiles:

• zellige, bejmat or terracotta, tadelakt, marble, natural stone: 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT
• standard tiles: 20 MAD/m² incl. VAT; where several floors coexist, you declare the m² that are not standard tiles
• villa or riad minimum: 7,500 MAD incl. VAT, which covers up to 250 m² of traditional floors
• roof terrace: 10 MAD/m² incl. VAT on standard tiles, 30 MAD/m² incl. VAT for any other or unidentified surface
• supplements on the base price: many marks +20%, thick residue on almost every surface +40%, furnished riad +15%

Example. A 250 m² riad on three levels, with 150 m² of zellige and bejmat and 100 m² of tiles, a 60 m² roof terrace in a traditional surface and many marks left by the works: 100 m² × 20 MAD = 2,000 MAD; 150 m² × 30 MAD = 4,500 MAD; that is 6,500 MAD, raised to the 7,500 MAD minimum. Roof terrace: 60 m² × 30 MAD = 1,800 MAD.

Base: 9,300 MAD; +20%: 1,860 MAD. Total: 11,160 MAD incl. VAT. With 12 windows, 5 bathrooms and WCs and two floors above the ground floor, the indicative duration is 6 to 6.5 days for a team of 3. A small 180 m² riad entirely in bejmat, with no terrace: 180 × 30 = 5,400 MAD, raised to the minimum of 7,500 MAD incl. VAT.

The price is indicative and confirmed after photos or a visit; no supplement is committed without your agreement. For a riad run as a guest house, the zone-by-zone organisation described on the hotel page applies as well. The prices for the whole range are gathered on the post-construction schedule and the company's on our prices by service.

For a figure, describe the riad and its access: area per level, floor materials, distance from where a vehicle can park, target handover date. A small area in the medina is still a job in its own right, just as much as a studio outside the medina.