Window cleaning in Hivernage, Marrakech

Windows facing a pool deck build up, on the same surface, four kinds of dirt that none of them respond to in the same way:

• pool-water splashes, loaded with chlorine and salts, which dry within minutes in the sun and leave a mineral haze over the first metre;
• sun cream, transferred by hands, shoulders and towels: a greasy film that does not come off with water alone and spreads further if wiped dry;
• hand and forehead marks against the glazing, at seated and passing height;
• ordinary dust, which sticks to the grease instead of staying on the surface.

The wrong reflex is to treat this as an ordinary window: washing with pure water alone dissolves the salts but leaves the greasy film, giving a patio door that looks clean for fifteen minutes and then marbles in low sunlight.

The order that works is the reverse: we degrease the low zone first, rinse thoroughly, then finish the full height with pure water and a squeegee. It takes longer on the first metre, standard time above it.

The price, though, does not depend on which side the door faces: a patio door is a patio door. What moves it is the condition. A greasy door left for several weeks counts as very dirty glass, and the base takes 20%; a mineral haze that has become encrusted limescale, 40%.

The general principle of streak-free washing is explained on our Marrakech window-cleaning page, and the detail of treating large sliding surfaces on patio-door cleaning.

The most common budgeting mistake on this kind of site is to lump together two families of glazing that share neither the same movement, nor the same access conditions, nor the same timing.

Low-level surfaces in daily use — lobby patio doors, restaurant french doors, glazed bar partitions, panels overlooking the pool deck. They sit in guests' constant field of view and degrade within hours. Up to 3 metres, reachable from the ground, they are at the base price.

For a restaurant or bar, they are counted per m² like shop windows: 25 MAD incl. VAT, both sides included, and 15 MAD for glass inside the venue, with a 1,000 MAD minimum per visit. In a villa, they are counted per unit: 75 MAD per window, 150 MAD per patio door, 400 MAD minimum.

High glazing — double-height lobby returns, glazed gables. It does not change from one day to the next and does not call for the same access: between 3 and 5 metres, by pole from the ground, 25% on top of the base of the estimate, once the photos have been checked; above that, we do not take it on.

A worked example for a restaurant terrace: 32 m² of poolside patio doors and glazed doors at 25 MAD come to 800 MAD, and 6 m² of interior partitions at 15 MAD come to 90 MAD. The 890 MAD of line items are topped up to 1,000 MAD by the shop minimum.

If the doors arrive very dirty, that base takes 20%: 1,200 MAD incl. VAT. For a villa in the district, 3 patio doors and 5 windows come to 3 × 150 + 5 × 75 = 825 MAD incl. VAT.

How often to come is your call: there is no contract and no sliding scale, and every visit is worked out the same way. Closer visits do not lower the price of a pane; they stop the doors arriving very dirty, and the 20% that comes with it.

On a venue's terrace, the difficulty is not the glass: it is what sits at the foot of the glass. Oiled teak, polished marble, fabric sun loungers, cushions, a pool a few metres away. Poorly controlled washing turns a window clean into two hours of floor repair.

What we put in place, as standard:

1. Pure demineralised water, no detergent. What runs off is water: no foam on the teak, no slippery film on the marble, no product in the pool.
2. Recovery at the foot of the glazing: an absorbent sheet or immediate squeegeeing of the run-off, before it reaches the pool edging or the decking.
3. Reduced flow on low surfaces — a terrace french door is not washed the same way as a lobby gable.
4. Water points designated by the operator, respected without discussion, with equipment carried in through service routes. We bring the equipment and products; water, electricity and access to the glazing must be available.
5. Furniture moved back and then replaced exactly, before the end of the slot, with a layout plan followed where one is specified.

What we do not do: we do not work on the pool itself, full or emptied, and we carry out no pool-water treatment. We wash the glass that looks onto it, and nothing else around it.

Hivernage venues have tall volumes: double- or triple-height lobbies, fully glazed gables looking onto the gardens, covered-patio glass roofs. This is exactly where our limit is met, and we would rather write it down before confirming.

Up to 5 metres, from clear ground level, we work with a water-fed telescopic pole: at the base price up to 3 metres, with 25% on top of the base between 3 and 5 metres, no scaffolding, no product running down onto a lobby floor, and no climbing onto anything. Feasibility is confirmed on photos, and the supplement does not guarantee it.

Above 5 metres — the top of a triple height, often already that of a double —, or when the ground at the foot of the glazing is not clear — a planted bed, an ornamental pool, fixed furniture, a change of level —, we do not take that glazing on, neither as it stands nor in any other form.

EPUREVA has neither a cherry picker nor ropes, hires neither and does not subcontract this kind of access: this is not a stylistic reservation, it is a boundary, and it is stated before the engagement rather than discovered during the visit.

The same rule applies to glass roofs: we never walk on roof glazing, whatever resistance it is said to have, and we do not offer to clean it. How the pole works is described on high-level glass washing. The other services we provide in the district are presented on the Hivernage page.