What to expect
| Typical duration | House 2–5 days · hotel by programme |
|---|---|
| Cost band | Figures live in the cost index |
| Permit required | No |
| Seasonal constraint | Pre-season demand peaks March–April |
The dust does not leave after one clean
Construction dust here is exceptionally fine and it gets everywhere — into tracks, seals, light fittings, the tops of doors, and the inside of every cupboard. It also settles for days after the work stops, which means a single clean immediately after the trades leave produces a building that looks clean and then does not.
A proper post-construction clean is staged: a rough clean once the messy trades are done, protection while finishing work continues, then a full clean, then a final detail clean shortly before handover. Compressing that into one visit is why so many handovers happen into a dusty building.
Cement haze on stone
Porous stone absorbs cement from grout and adhesive. The residue clouds the surface, and the instinctive response — a strong acid cleaner — damages the stone itself, particularly marble and other calcareous material.
- Identify the stone before choosing any product. What is safe on granite is not safe on marble.
- Remove residue as early as possible. Fresh haze is far more tractable than haze that has been in place for weeks.
- Use the mildest effective method, test in an inconspicuous area, and never let an acidic product sit.
- Where haze is already established, honing may be the only genuine remedy, and that is a stone-restoration job rather than a cleaning job. See marble and granite.
The real answer is prevention during tiling — sealing porous material before grouting and cleaning as the work proceeds. See tiling.
The pre-season hotel clean
A separate service with a hard deadline. Between the end of refurbishment and the opening date, a property has to go from a building site to something guests will photograph.
- Full deep clean including everything the season will not allow time for — behind and under fixed furniture, inside cupboards, light fittings, tracks and seals.
- Glass and balustrades, which show salt film immediately and are the most visible surfaces in a caldera-view property.
- Terraces, pool surrounds and external areas, where winter has left dust, salt and organic staining.
- Air conditioning grilles and filters, coordinated with the pre-season service. See air conditioning.
- Scheduled to finish before the dressing and final snagging, not competing with it.
This sits inside the closed-season programme rather than being arranged separately at the last minute. See hotel construction and refurbishment.
What this trade covers
- Staged post-construction cleaning through the finishing phase and at handover.
- Cement, grout and adhesive residue removal, with the method chosen for the actual material.
- Protection of finished surfaces while other trades are still working — cheaper than cleaning them twice.
- Pre-season deep cleans for hotels, rentals and villas.
- Post-winter cleans for properties that have been closed, including terraces and external areas.
- Waste and packaging removal, which on an access-restricted site is a haulage job in its own right.
Questions people actually ask
Why is there still dust a week after the builders left?
Fine dust stays airborne and in voids and settles for days. This is why a proper clean is staged rather than done once — a single pass at the end always leaves a building that looks clean for about two days.
Can you remove cement haze from my stone floor?
Usually, if it is caught reasonably early and treated with the right method for that stone. Established haze sometimes needs honing, which is stone restoration rather than cleaning.
Do you do pre-season cleaning for rentals?
Yes, and it is worth booking rather than assuming availability — March and April are the busiest weeks of the year for this across the whole island.
Can you clean up after another contractor?
Yes. We will tell you what can and cannot be recovered before starting — some damage from incorrect cleaning is not reversible by cleaning.
Does this include waste removal?
It can, and on a site with no vehicle access that is a substantial part of the cost, because packaging and offcuts leave by hand the same way material arrived.