Post-Construction Cleaning in Geneva

Why can the price not be quoted per square metre?

Because floor area is not what determines the workload. Two flats of identical size can take one day or three depending on what has been left on the floors and surfaces. The decisive factor is the nature and thickness of the residue, then the condition of the glazing, then the presence of delicate surfaces requiring a dedicated treatment.

A concrete example: a 90 m² unit whose floors were protected during the works, with only a fine plaster dust remaining, is handled in one day with two people. The same unit, if cement haze has dried on the tiling without being rinsed in the hours after grouting, needs a full descaling programme and can occupy the same team for three days.

Quoting per square metre would therefore mean calibrating the rate on the hardest case. Clean sites would pay a safety margin that has nothing to do with them, and difficult sites would see the figure revised upwards on the day. We prefer to look, then quote, then commit to a fixed figure.

What needs removing before we arrive?

The boundary between waste removal and cleaning is the first source of misunderstanding on a site, and it is better settled in writing on the quote. Rubble, offcuts, packaging, pallets and floor protection are removal. They can be included in our intervention, but they are priced by volume rather than by area, like a clearance.

What is strictly cleaning begins once the volume is out: residues bonded to the substrates, the fine dust that has settled everywhere including in trunking and on frames, protective tapes and their adhesive traces, labels on sanitary ware and glazing.

In practice the most efficient arrangement is to have removal and cleaning done by the same team, in sequence. Getting the volume out frees the surfaces, and cleaning immediately afterwards prevents a fresh layer of dust settling on floors already treated — which happens without exception when two contractors work two days apart.

How is cement haze treated?

Cement haze is the most common residue and the most frequently mishandled. It is a mineral film left by gauging water rising to the surface of the joints, whitening the tiling and resisting every household product. The temptation is to scrub harder; the solution is chemical, not mechanical.

The protocol has four stages and none can be shortened. First a test on an inconspicuous witness area, to check how the substrate and the grout react. Then application of a descaler diluted according to the porosity of the material, with a monitored dwell time — too short and it does not work, too long and it attacks the joints. Then gentle mechanical work, a rotary machine with a suitable pad, never an abrasive that would scratch polished porcelain. Finally neutralisation and a full rinse, without which the acidic residue stays active and leaves a matt film.

On natural stone, marble or travertine the protocol changes completely: common acids are excluded and a specific, slower treatment is required. This is precisely the kind of detail that makes an apparently identical site cost twice as much, and why a quote given over the telephone is an approximation.

Glazing and joinery after building work

This is the most visible item at handover and the one that triggers the most reservations, because it is examined standing up, against the light, without bending. Three problems accumulate there: protective films and their adhesive residue, splashes of plaster, paint or mortar, and micro-traces of cement bonded to the glass.

Films left too long on glazing exposed to the sun are the most delicate case: the adhesive polymerises and the film tears away in patches leaving hardened glue. Removal then needs a solvent compatible with the seals and the frame, followed by careful blade work — never dry-scraping glass carrying mineral grit, which is how a double-glazed unit gets permanently scratched.

The joinery matters as much as the glass. Rebates, drainage channels, sliding-door grooves and patio-door tracks accumulate a construction dust which, once damp, turns to paste and jams the mechanisms. A slider that binds at handover is almost always an uncleaned track rather than an installation fault.

How long before handover should we clean?

Post-construction cleaning belongs after the last trade, and as close to handover as possible. The reason is mechanical: every subsequent intervention, even a one-hour paint touch-up or adjusting a door, puts dust back into suspension and it settles on the treated surfaces.

In Geneva practice the difficulty is not the sequence but programme slippage. A handover rarely moves by three weeks; it moves by two days, usually in the direction that reduces your margin. That is why we work seven days a week on this type of job: a site handed over on a Monday morning is cleaned on the Sunday, and a forty-eight-hour shift should not cost you the delivery date.

So the useful schedule is: book as soon as the handover date is known even if provisional, confirm the slot once the last trade has a firm date, and plan a short touch-up on the morning of handover for marks that have appeared in between. That last step is frequently skipped and it is what separates a site accepted from a site accepted with reservations.

Rough clean or handover clean?

It is worth distinguishing two services that the phrase "post-construction cleaning" covers indiscriminately, because they have neither the same purpose nor the same cost.

The rough clean happens during the works, between trades. It clears the bulk residue, opens the circulation routes and makes surfaces workable for the next trade. It is not intended to produce a finished result: its job is to stop the tiler working on a floor strewn with plasterboard offcuts. It is often ordered once or twice on a site running several weeks.

The handover clean is the finishing service: it targets the condition in which the client takes possession. Everything counts there, including what will not get dirty again — the inside of cupboards, the tops of frames, ventilation grilles, labels on sanitary ware. Confusing the two leads to underestimating the budget: a well-executed rough clean does not remove the need for the second, it only makes it faster.

Which premises and which types of site do you handle?

The protocols differ noticeably with the intended use of the space, and the quote reflects that. On a new or renovated dwelling, attention goes to floors and glazing, and the finish has to be impeccable because the occupier moves in immediately. On offices, the main constraint is cabling and raised floors: fine dust lodges in trunking and reappears over the following weeks if it is not extracted with suitable equipment.

On retail space the question becomes the opening date: cleaning slots in between the fit-out and stocking the shelves, often in a night-time window. On technical or industrial premises, heavy residues and access govern the job, sometimes with site-specific safety requirements.

We also work on partial sites, which represent a substantial share of demand in Geneva: a bathroom redone in an occupied flat, a kitchen replaced, a wall taken out. The work there is different because the existing finishes have to be protected and the dust contained rather than a bare volume treated, and because the occupier is living on site throughout.

How do you check a post-construction cleaning quote?

An honest quote names the items; an approximate one announces a lump sum and recovers the difference in extras. Five points should appear in writing, and their absence is more telling than the figure at the bottom of the page.

First the exact scope: which rooms, which levels, annexes included or not. Then the floor treatment, with the type of residue expected and the protocol chosen, because that is where the cost differential sits. Then the glazing, stating whether the exterior and film removal are included, and whether height access is needed. Then waste removal: included, excluded, or priced separately by volume. Finally what happens if the handover is postponed, and what happens if a cleanliness reservation is raised.

On that last point our commitment is simple and deliberately limited to what depends on us: a handover check is carried out with you before we leave, and any cleanliness item within our scope raised at handover is put right at no charge. We do not promise acceptance of the site, which also depends on installation, finishes and adjustments — that is, on other trades' work.

Every construction residue has its treatment

Two rules we do not negotiate. Dust is vacuumed BEFORE it is wetted, otherwise it turns into slurry that works into the joints. And on paint less than a week old, no adhesive is pulled off abruptly: the paint has not finished curing and it lifts with the tape.