High-level window cleaning in Marrakech

Five metres is not a sales figure. It is the limit we set for a carbon pole held by an operative standing on the ground, brush at the top, so that the brush angle stays under control and the result stays reliable. Translated into Marrakech buildings:

• up to 3 metres: ground-floor windows and patio doors, French doors and ordinary transom lights included — base price
• between 3 and 5 metres: the high transom of a double-height living room, a tall stairwell window, the upper part of a large shop window — by pole, +25%, if the photos show the pole can work safely from the ground
• above 5 metres: the upper floors of an apartment block, and any glass that can only be reached with a cherry picker or ropes — we do not do it

We would rather name that limit than have you discover it with us, ladder in hand, on the morning of the job.

The usual reasoning in this trade runs backwards: first work out how to get up there, then work out how to make the climb safe. A water-fed pole removes the question, because nobody is up there any more.

What that changes on site:

• no load on the building — nothing is hooked on, nothing leans on a balustrade, a gutter or a frame that was never designed to carry it
• nothing is shut down — traffic keeps moving, the shop stays open, occupants do not have to vacate a room
• no product running down the wall — pure water is neither acidic nor detergent, so it marks no render, no planting and no parked car
• a coned-off area of a few square metres at ground level, for the length of the pass

Working from the ground is what makes the whole method defensible on a site where the public keeps walking past.

Feasibility at height is not promised over the phone. It is checked on the 3 to 5 photos you send after the estimate — general views, close-ups, access — or at a visit. Five points decide it:

1. The true height of the highest pane, measured from the ground the operative will actually stand on — not from street level if the building overhangs. That is what puts the glass in one of the three bands: up to 3 m, 3 to 5 m, above.
2. The nature of the ground at the foot of the glass: paving, soil, planting, slope, swimming pool. A pole needs stable footing.
3. The horizontal clearance: you have to be able to step back. A wall facing another wall across a narrow lane cannot be poled.
4. Fixed obstructions: canopy, signage, air-conditioning unit, cabling, corbelling, solid balustrade, brise-soleil. Each creates a shadow the brush cannot reach, and that area is pointed out before the date rather than quietly forgotten.
5. The number of windows and patio doors — or the area in m² for a shop or an office — since that is the base on which the 25% supplement is worked out.

Not sure of the height? Say so: we check it on the photo, and any supplement is announced to you before anything is confirmed.

The best-documented complaint in this market is neither price nor technique: it is the contractor who agrees to everything on the phone and then does not turn up, does not finish, or stops answering. Our answer is to refuse early, in writing.

We do not take on:

• glass situated above 5 metres from the ground
• any glass that would require a cherry picker, ropes or dangerous access: EPUREVA owns neither, hires neither, and does not quietly subcontract that access
• glass with no footing or clearance at ground level: a medina lane too narrow to step back in, a cluttered courtyard, permanent parking at the foot of the wall — unusual access is studied before confirmation
• bars that stop us reaching the glass: the surfaces have to be made accessible before we come
• the outside face of office glazing: for offices, only the inside face is offered

That is not an admission, it is a scope. A contractor with no limit has no method. And the 25% supplement does not guarantee feasibility: if the photos show that the pole cannot work safely, we say so before the date, with no face-saving estimate.

For a managing agent, a developer or an asset manager who answers to an owner, the question is not only whether the glass will be clean. It is what happens if something breaks.

EPUREVA carries professional public liability insurance. Work only starts once the scope, the price and the date have been confirmed, from photos or after a visit, and no supplement is committed without your agreement.

At the end of the visit the checklist is walked through and signed on site, opening by opening. If a ticked item is not up to standard, that item is put right free of charge within 48 hours.

This is the level of formality expected by commercial and institutional clients, and it is exactly what an informal offer cannot produce.

High glazing gets dirty faster than ground-floor glazing, for a simple mechanical reason: sand carried by the chergui, the hot desert wind, rises, and nothing stops it higher up. The transoms and high panes of a villa go hazy before its lower windows do.

What that changes to the price, plainly: every visit is priced per unit, at the same price each time. What a regular rhythm avoids is the supplement: an old sand deposit bedded into the pollution film puts the glass in the "very dirty" category, +20% on the base price, on top of the 25% for the pole.

At height the unit does not change: we still count windows and patio doors — or square metres for a shop or an office — and the height adds a supplement, or a refusal.

• Up to 3 metres, reachable from the ground: base price — 75 MAD incl. VAT per window up to 2 m², 150 MAD incl. VAT per patio door up to 4 m², 400 MAD minimum call-out charge; for shops, shop windows at 25 MAD per m², 1,000 MAD minimum; for offices, 15 MAD per m² on the inside, 500 MAD minimum.
• Between 3 and 5 metres, by pole from the ground: +25% on the base price, minimum top-up included.
• Above 5 metres: refused.
• Reachable frames, tracks and roller shutters stay included, at no extra cost.

Two examples, worked out the way the online estimate does it. Four windows and two patio doors by pole: 4 × 75 + 2 × 150 = 600 MAD, plus a 150 MAD supplement, making 750 MAD incl. VAT.

Two high windows on their own: 150 MAD, raised to the 400 MAD minimum, plus 25% of that 400, making 500 MAD incl. VAT. The full grid sits on the window cleaning price list. An estimate can be requested from the quote page, with the estimated height and a photograph taken square-on, from a distance.