- Commercial Cleaning
- Nicolae Crisan
Table of Contents
Carla Facility Services has been delivering post-construction cleans for 10 years now, and the Queen Street student accommodation in Galway is a project we’re especially proud of. Built by Monami Construction for Elkstone Partners, the €45 million scheme brings 345 student bedrooms to the heart of the city, and our team was brought in to deliver the final clean.
After 24 months of construction, our job was simple to describe and hard to do: turn a finished building site into a home students could move straight into.
About the Project
On paper, it was two new buildings, one seven floors and the other eight, replacing a 506 sqm structure. In practice, that’s around 10,747 sqm of floor space, with roof terraces, plant areas, ground-floor administration and amenity space, and a 161 sqm start-up and incubator unit. Every square metre of it had to be right.
Sustainability shaped the design. The scheme includes 175 cycle parking spaces and no car parking, with servicing handled through off-street access at the rear.
| Project detail | |
| Client | Elkstone Partners |
| Main contractor | Monami Construction |
| Location | Queen Street, Galway |
| Value | €45,000,000 |
| Architect | Coady Architects |
| Project manager | KSN |
| Post-construction cleaning | Carla Facility Services |
What Our Clean Covered
We cleaned every space across both buildings, from the ground-floor commercial unit to the roof terraces. On a student scheme, consistency is everything: room 1 and room 345 have to look exactly the same.
Team | Time on site | Buildings | Bedrooms |
12 cleaners + 1 supervisor | 2 weeks | 2 (7 and 8 floors) | 345 |
Room by room
- Dust removal: Walls, ceilings, skirting, ledges, vents and light fittings
- Windows and glazing: Frames and sills cleaned, with stickers, paint and plaster marks removed
- Kitchens and bathrooms: Sanitaryware, tiles, worktops, units and appliances detailed
- Floors: Every bedroom, corridor and common area cleaned and treated
- Touch points: Doors, handles, switches, sockets and ironmongery
- Shared spaces: Stairwells, lift cars, entrances, amenity and commercial areas
- Outdoors: Roof terraces and external areas
Safe, Compliant and On Schedule
Carla Facility Services worked floor by floor across both buildings, and our supervisor checked every area before it was signed off. After 10 years in this trade, we know the contractor’s snag list is the real test, and we’d rather catch a problem before they do.
Every member of our team held Safe Pass certification, and before we started we provided full RAMS and completed Monami’s site induction.
We used M-class dust extraction throughout. Construction dust isn’t just a cleaning problem, it’s a health problem, and an ordinary vacuum only pushes the fine stuff back into the air. Scrubber-dryers and water-fed pole systems did the rest, and all waste was segregated for recycling.
Working on a City-centre Site
Queen Street is a busy city-centre site with servicing only from the rear of the building. Every movement of people, kit and waste had to be planned, so we stayed out of the way of the trades finishing up and of the street outside.
We stayed in close contact with the Monami site team so we cleaned in step with snagging and sign-off. That timing matters more than people think. Clean a room too early and it’s dusty again by handover; clean it too late and you hold everyone up.
Two weeks to clean two buildings is a tight window, but a well-organised team gets it done. We finished by the handover deadline, and the building was ready for students on time.
Why the Final Clean Matters
In our experience, the final clean is the part of a project people remember. It’s the last step before handover and the first thing new occupants see. For the students arriving at Queen Street, it’s the difference between a building site and a place that feels like home.
It also protects the client’s investment. Fine dust left behind works its way into new finishes, fittings and ventilation. Getting it out properly means the building opens to the standard it was designed for.
Ready for Move-in
We want to thank Monami Construction and Elkstone Partners for having us on this project, and our team for the work they put in. This building will serve Galway’s students for years, and we’re proud to have been part of it.
If you have a handover coming up, Carla Facility Services provides post-construction cleaning for residential, student, commercial and public projects. Let’s talk about your next project.
