Table of Contents
The short answer
Wait until the air has cleared, then work in one direction: dry before wet, top before bottom, and the doorways before the yard. Lift the dust off with a vacuum cleaner first. Only then wipe with a damp cloth, mop the floors and wash the glass. Sand is hard mineral grit, and a wet cloth dragged across it scratches glass and marble and makes mud of everything else. Clean the AC grilles and filters on the same day, because whatever they are holding goes back into the rooms the next time the units run. Leave the washing of the driveway, walls and courtyard to the end, and keep the hose away from the drains.
That order holds for any home. It matters most in the villa communities on the desert side of the city, where our teams' notes say the same thing in several ways: villas that sit close to open sand, fine dust that settles quickly on floors, sills and vents, and deep cleans booked after sandstorms and dusty weeks.
If you would like a team to do the work, our villa cleaning is booked by the hour and sized to the house. Our hours guide puts a regular clean of a four- or five-bedroom villa at 2 cleaners for 4 hours each, which is AED 280 with our materials. The communities we cover on the eastern and northern mainland are listed under areas we serve.
Why the desert edge is different
Every home in Abu Dhabi gets dust. On the edge of the city the difference is the quantity and the kind. A villa in Shakhbout City, Al Shamkha, Al Shawamekh, Al Falah, Madinat Al Riyadh, Al Wathba or Baniyas, or to the north in Al Rahba, Al Bahia, Al Shahama or Al Samha, has open sand close to its boundary wall. When the wind gets up, two things arrive: fine dust that hangs in the air and gets in everywhere, and heavier sand that travels along the ground and banks up against walls, doors and gates.
A villa also gives the dust more ways in than a flat does: several outside doors, wide sliding doors onto a terrace, perhaps a majlis with its own entrance, a roof door and outbuildings, each with a seal that leaks a little. Then there is the plot itself, with its paved yard, driveway, boundary wall, garden and often a pool. One windy afternoon makes work in three places at once: inside the house, on the glass and tracks, and outdoors.
Our notes for these communities record what follows from that. Window tracks, sills, door seals and the floors near entrances take the most time. AC filters and ducts load up faster than they do in the city. And sand works deep into carpet and sofa fibres, where it has to be vacuumed out dry before any wet cleaning is done.
Two kinds of dirt, two jobs
It helps to treat them separately. The sand on the doorstep and along the foot of the wall is heavy. It does not float back up, and a brush and a dustpan deal with it. The fine dust is the hard part. It is light enough to stay in the air for hours after the wind has dropped. It settles as an even film on every level surface, including the tops of doors and the blades of fans, and it lifts again the moment it is disturbed. Most of the method below exists to capture that fine dust instead of moving it from one surface to the next.
While it is blowing, and when to start
Cleaning during a storm is wasted work. What you can do is limit how much gets in.
- Shut every window and outside door, including the roof door, the maid's room and any outbuilding.
- Lay a rolled towel along the foot of any door you know lets dust through, and close the inside doors of rooms that face the wind.
- Bring cushions, rugs and washing indoors, and cover the outdoor furniture or turn it over.
- Put the pool cover on if you have one.
- Leave the AC running if you need it. Most home air conditioners recirculate the air already in the room. Their filters will catch part of what is floating indoors and will need cleaning sooner. If your system has a fresh-air intake, ask your AC technician whether it should be closed in dusty weather.
- Keep the kitchen extractor and the bathroom fans off unless you need them. A fan that pushes air out of the house pulls replacement air in through every gap.
When to start
Start when the air outside is clear and the dust indoors has had time to come down. Fine dust goes on settling for hours after the wind stops, so a house cleaned the same evening often shows a new film the next morning. If the storm ended in the afternoon, the following morning is the practical time to begin. Two things should not wait: the kitchen worktops, before any food is prepared, and the sand lying on the thresholds, which every pair of feet carries further into the house.
Fine dust irritates the eyes and the airways, and the first dry pass is the dustiest part of the job. Anyone with asthma or a dust allergy is better off leaving that stage to someone else and staying out of the room while it is done. Whoever does it should empty the vacuum cleaner outdoors.
The order of work, and the reason for each step
This is the sequence a careful team follows after a dust storm. Each step sits where it does so that nothing already cleaned gets dirty again. Parts of it are our own teams' standing practice on every job: rooms worked from the top down, floors vacuumed before they are mopped, tracks and sills vacuumed before any water goes near them, and fabric vacuumed dry before it is washed.
- Clear the thresholds. Brush up the drifted sand at each outside door, on the doorstep and on the strip of terrace in front of the sliding doors, and carry it away in a dustpan. Shake the door mats out well away from the house. This is the one outdoor job that comes first, because until it is done every trip in and out tracks sand across the floor.
- Start high in each room. Vacuum or wipe the AC grilles, the tops of wardrobes and door frames, curtain rails, light fittings and fan blades. Dust knocked off a high surface falls, so it has to fall before the furniture and the floor are done.
- Deal with the AC filters. Switch the unit off, slide out the washable filters of split units and rinse them if the maker's instructions allow it, and let them dry completely before they go back. A loaded filter left in place sheds dust into the room you are about to clean.
- Vacuum the soft furnishings dry. Curtains from the top down with a brush head, then sofas, majlis seating, cushions and mattresses, then carpets and rugs, slowly and in two directions. Nothing wet touches fabric until the sand is out.
- Vacuum the hard surfaces, then wipe them. Run a soft brush head over shelves, sills, table tops and skirting. Follow with a damp microfibre cloth, folded so there is always a clean face and rinsed often. A dry cloth or a feather duster only puts the dust back into the air.
- Empty the tracks. Vacuum the sand out of the sliding-door tracks and the window channels, loosen the corners with a brush, vacuum again and only then wipe. Wet dust left in a track dries into a hard cake that has to be scraped out.
- Clean the kitchen and bathrooms. Worktops, hob, sink, open shelves and whatever was left out on them. Crockery and glasses kept on open shelves need a rinse. What was inside closed cupboards is usually fine.
- Floors last, and vacuum first. Vacuum every hard floor, edges and corners included, then mop with clean water and a neutral cleaner, changing the water as soon as it clouds.
- Glass, then outdoors. Wash the inside of the windows once the room is finished. Then move outside: the outer glass, the terrace, the yard and the driveway, in that order.
Why dry comes before wet
Desert sand contains quartz, which is harder than window glass and far harder than marble. Push a cloth across a dusty pane or a polished stone floor and the grains are dragged along under it, leaving fine scratches that show as a haze when the sun is low. Lifted off first by suction, or floated off by plenty of running water, the same grains do no harm. That one fact is behind most of the order above.
Water has a second effect. A film of fine dust that gets damp turns to paste. On a wall it leaves drip marks, in a carpet it binds to the fibres, and on a floor it dries as a grey smear. Dry removal takes most of the dust away while it is still loose, so the damp cloth that follows has very little left to pick up.
The tools that make the difference
A team booked with materials brings its own vacuum cleaner, mop and bucket, broom, cloths, cleaning liquids and step ladder. Without materials the equipment is yours to supply, and after a sandstorm the vacuum cleaner does most of the work, so check that it runs properly and that its filter is clean. If you are doing the job yourself, this is what to have ready.
- A vacuum cleaner with a soft brush head. Fine dust clogs the filter quickly, so clean it before you start and again halfway through a large house.
- Plenty of microfibre cloths. Change to a fresh one when the cloth turns grey, because a loaded cloth scratches.
- Two buckets for mopping, one for the cleaning solution and one for rinsing the mop, and a neutral floor cleaner if the floors are marble or other stone.
- A soft hand brush and a dustpan for thresholds and tracks.
- A step ladder for the high surfaces. Anything it does not reach safely is left alone.
AC grilles, filters and ducts
The AC is where a dust storm carries on after the weather has cleared. Air is drawn in through the return grille and the filter, and whatever the filter cannot hold is blown back out through the supply vents. That is how a house can be cleaned thoroughly and still show a film on the dark furniture two days later.
Grilles and filters are housekeeping. Wipe or vacuum every supply and return grille as part of the high-level dusting. The filters of a ducted system sit behind the return grille or at the unit above the ceiling, and if you are not sure how yours come out, leave them for the technician at the next service. Do not turn a pressure washer on the outdoor units. The thin metal fins on the coil bend easily, and a flattened coil cools badly.
Ducts are a separate job. Our notes for the desert-edge communities say that dust loads filters and ducts faster here than in the city, so units usually need cleaning every six months and not once a year. These are the signs that the ducts themselves are holding dust.
- Dust or dark marks around the vents that come back within days of being wiped.
- A puff of dust or a stale, musty smell when the AC first starts.
- Weaker airflow in some rooms than in others.
- A film on the furniture again a day or two after a thorough clean.
What duct cleaning involves, and when to have it done
AC duct cleaning is a technician's job. Accessible grilles are taken off, dust is cleared from the grilles, the vent housings and the accessible duct sections, and the grilles are cleaned and refitted. It is quoted by system type, vent count and access once you have sent the details and photos, with villa duct cleaning starting from AED 750; a split-unit clean is AED 99 a unit. If you plan both duct cleaning and a deep clean, have the ducts done first, so that whatever the work shakes loose is removed by the clean and not left on fresh surfaces. How to judge the interval for your own house is covered in how often AC ducts should be cleaned.
Glass, sliding doors and tracks
Glass is where the most expensive mistake is made. A dusty window looks as if it needs a wipe, and a wipe is exactly what scratches it.
- Vacuum the sills and tracks dry before any water is used. Our window-cleaning teams do this on every job.
- Clear the small drain slots at the outer edge of the sliding-door track. When sand blocks them, the next rain or the next wash fills the track and the water runs indoors.
- Take the loose dust off the outer glass with a soft brush, or flood the pane from the top with plenty of clean water, so that the grit floats off before anything rubs against the surface.
- Wash with a clean applicator or cloth and a little washing-up liquid in water, and take the water off with a squeegee.
- Wipe the frames, handles and seals last, and dry the track.
Three cautions
Avoid washing glass in direct midday sun. It dries too fast and streaks, which is why our teams keep away from those hours where they can. Do not use a blade or an abrasive pad on tinted or coated glass. And do not let the garden sprinklers play on dusty windows: hard water drying on dust leaves mineral spots that are far harder to shift than the dust was. What professionals use on each kind of glass is covered in streak-free window cleaning.
Our window cleaning covers the inside of all the glass, and the outside where it can be reached safely from the ground, a balcony or a step ladder. Higher glass on a villa is outside that service and is quoted separately after photos. The service page allows three to five hours for a villa with many windows, with one or two cleaners, and longer after a sandstorm because the sand has to come out of the tracks before the glass can be cleaned.
Outdoors: why most of it comes last
Apart from the thresholds, the outside is done after the inside, for two reasons. Sweeping and washing a yard throws dust and spray at the house, so the doors and windows should be shut and the indoor work finished. And an outdoor wash is the one part of the job that can wait a day without the family living in grit. If more wind is forecast, let it wait: there is no sense in washing a yard that will be covered again tomorrow. On a villa clean our teams sweep and wipe terraces and balconies where access is safe; heavy sand after a storm takes extra time, so mention it when you book.
The same two rules apply outdoors as indoors. Work from high to low: awnings, pergolas, the tops of walls and the window ledges, then the outdoor furniture, then the paving. And dry before wet: sweep the sand into piles, shovel it into bags and put it in the bin. Only then does water come into it.
Keep sand out of the drains
Hosing a sandy yard feels quick, and it sends the sand to the lowest point, which is the drain. Sand does not dissolve. It settles in the gully, in the trap and in the pipe beyond, and each storm adds a layer until the yard floods the next time it rains or the car is washed. Sweep and collect first, lift the drain covers and scoop out what has gathered in the gully, and wash only what the broom could not move.
When pressure washing is worth it
A broom removes loose sand. It does not remove the grey film that dust leaves on paving once it has been wetted and dried a few times, or the marks where it has run down a boundary wall. That is the work of pressure washing: driveways, parking areas, walkways, pool surrounds and outdoor tiles, washed at a pressure suited to the surface. It is quoted by surface area, staining and access. Loose tiles, damaged surfaces and paint need a lower pressure, so mention them when you ask for the quote.
The walls of the house are a matter for facade cleaning, which covers what can be reached safely at ground level and low height. The two are often booked together. Which surfaces should not be blasted at all is explained in our guide to pressure washing a driveway or yard.
The pool and the garden
The pool
A storm puts two things into a pool: debris that floats, and fine dust that sinks or hangs in the water and turns it cloudy. Skim the surface as soon as the wind drops, before leaves and litter go under, and empty the skimmer and pump baskets. Leave the brushing and vacuuming of the pool floor until the paving around the pool has been swept, or the next breeze puts the dust straight back in. Then let the filter run. It will load up quickly with the fine material, so it needs cleaning or backwashing sooner than usual, and the water balance should be checked once the dust has been filtered out. If the water stays cloudy or begins to turn green, the causes and the cure are in green or cloudy pool water.
Our pool cleaning and maintenance visit covers that same list: debris removal and skimming, the tile and waterline band, filter cleaning and backwash, and a water-balance check with dosing. It is quoted by pool size, condition and how often it is booked. Pool chemicals are best left to whoever looks after the pool regularly. Never mix two products, and never dose by guesswork after a storm.
The garden
Plants cope with dust better than their appearance suggests. A gentle rinse of the leaves in the early morning or the evening is enough for most shrubs and hedges; do it before the windows are washed, not after. Check the irrigation, because drifted sand can bury drip lines and clog sprinkler heads, and a plant that misses its water in this climate suffers quickly. Clear the sand that has banked against the foot of walls and hedges, and pick up fallen leaves and broken branches before they blow into the pool. A gardening and landscaping visit includes trimming, bed tidying and an irrigation check, and is quoted by garden size and scope.
Regular visit or deep clean?
Not every dusty day calls for a deep clean. The question is how far the dust has got.
| What you find | What to book |
|---|---|
| A film on floors, sills and furniture in a villa that is cleaned every week | A regular visit with extra time |
| Sand packed into door and window tracks, dusty terraces and balconies | A regular visit with extra time; say so when booking |
| Dust inside wardrobes and cupboards, behind furniture and on high surfaces | A deep clean |
| Windows were left open, or the house was closed up for weeks when the storm came | A deep clean |
| Curtains, carpets and majlis seating that give off dust when touched | A deep clean with fabric care added |
| Dust back on the furniture within days, or blowing from the vents | Duct cleaning first, then the clean |
What each one costs for a villa
Our hours guide puts a regular clean of a four- or five-bedroom villa at 2 cleaners for 4 hours each: AED 280 with our materials. After a storm the tracks, sills and entrance floors take longer than usual. Allowing one more hour per cleaner is a sensible starting point, which makes the visit AED 340; that extra hour is our suggestion for this example, not a published rule. A deep clean of the same villa is 4 cleaners for 5 hours each, AED 680 with our materials. A larger house, a separate majlis or outbuildings add hours, and we size the team from what you tell us.
If the job needs longer on the day, the team leader asks you first and the visit is extended in 30-minute steps, never without your approval. If the team finishes early, the remaining time is yours to use on windows, a terrace or anything else. Sofas are AED 30 a seat and carpets AED 10 a square metre, with 10% off when they are booked with a deep clean. In Al Wathba, Al Shahama, Al Rahba and Al Samha a travel fee of AED 20 is added to each visit, whatever the size of the team. Planning a long visit there is covered in cleaning in the four far areas.
How often a deep clean is needed out here
Our note for Al Rahba describes the usual pattern. Most families there book a deep clean two to four times a year, typically after summer, before Ramadan or Eid and after heavy dust, with regular cleaning in between. A villa on a weekly plan rarely needs a deep clean after every storm, because the weekly visit catches the dust before it works its way into cupboards and fabric. What separates the two kinds of visit is set out in regular cleaning compared with deep cleaning.
What not to do
Most of the lasting damage after a sandstorm is done by the clean-up, not by the storm. Wet-wiping gritty surfaces and hosing sand into the drains are the two costliest mistakes, and both are explained above. These are the others.
- Wiping before lifting. Glass and marble are not the only surfaces that scratch: mirrors, lacquered furniture, glossy black trim and television and computer screens mark just as easily.
- Sweeping indoors with a stiff broom. It throws the fine dust back into the air and drags grit across the floor.
- Using vinegar, descaler or any acid cleaner on marble to cut through the film. The film goes, and the polish goes with it.
- Beating rugs or shaking cushions indoors, or beside an open door.
- Running the AC at full fan on dirty filters to clear the air. It only moves the dust round the house.
- Pressure-washing window seals, door seals or flaking paint.
- Using a leaf blower near the pool, or near the house while doors and windows are open.
Marble and carpets
Two surfaces suffer most from sand over the years. On marble, a dull track along the routes people walk is wear from grit underfoot, not dirt, and cleaning will not bring the shine back; what will is explained in marble floors: cleaning, polishing or crystallising. In carpets, sand sinks to the base of the pile and cuts the fibres as they are walked on, which is why slow, regular vacuuming matters more here than anywhere. The routine is in keeping a carpet clean between professional washes.
Keeping the next storm out
None of this stops the wind. Each of these makes the next clean-up shorter.
- Check the seals. If daylight shows under an outside door or the brush strip on a sliding door has worn flat, the dust has a way in. Replacing a seal is a small repair: describe it and send a photo to our handyman service, which quotes before any visit.
- Keep a mat outside and a mat inside every door that is in use, and leave shoes at the door.
- Vacuum the sliding-door tracks every week or two in the dusty months.
- Shut the windows when the wind picks up, and do not leave them open when you go out on a breezy day.
- On a weekly plan, tell the team after a windy week, so the hours go to tracks, sills and floors first.
Common questions
Can I book a team for the day the storm ends?
You can, when a slot is free. A same-day visit needs about 2 hours' notice and costs no more than any other. Our advice is still to book for the following morning. Dust goes on settling overnight, and a team that cleans too early leaves you with a fresh film by breakfast. In the far areas a morning start also leaves room for a long visit to finish within our working day, 8 AM – 8 PM.
Do the majlis carpets and sofas need washing after every storm?
No. They need vacuuming after every storm, thoroughly and dry. Washing is for fabric that is stained, smells stale or still looks grey once it has been vacuumed. When it is done, our technicians dry-vacuum first for the same reason you do: sand left in the fibres turns to mud when it gets wet. Floor seating and bukhoor residue are dealt with in our guide to cleaning a majlis.
Our villa faces the sea as well as the sand. Does that change anything?
It changes the glass. Our note for Al Bahia puts it simply: sea air leaves a salt film, and the desert wind lays fine dust on top of it. Salt holds moisture, so the dust sticks instead of blowing off, and a dry brush will not shift it. Plenty of water first is even more important on that kind of glass, and many villas there have the windows cleaned every month or two. The reasons are explained in why sea-facing glass gets dirty so fast.
The villa is new and still has builders' dust. Is this the same job?
It is a different one. Builders' dust keeps coming out of AC ducts, cupboards and light fittings for weeks after handover, and it often arrives with paint and cement splashes. That is a post-construction clean, which we do with our own materials only. Several of the newer communities also get construction dust blown in from neighbouring plots, and the method in this guide deals with that well enough between proper cleans. The first clean of a new house is described in after-builders cleaning.
Can one visit cover the house, the majlis and the outbuildings?
Yes, if they are listed when you book, with how each is furnished, so that the team and the hours are sized for all of it. A single visit can have up to 4 cleaners for up to 8 hours each. Say which gate to use and who will meet the team, and send a map pin with the plot number: in several of these communities the pin is a more reliable address than the street name.
Booking a clean after a storm
When you book after a storm, tell us three things: whether any windows or doors were open while it blew, which rooms and outbuildings are included, and whether the terrace, the tracks and the ground-floor glass are to be done on the same visit. Those three answers set the hours.
We cover the villa communities of the eastern and northern mainland every day, 8 AM – 8 PM, at the same price on Fridays and public holidays, and each community has its own page under areas we serve. Choose the number of cleaners and the hours, say whether we bring the materials, and the price is shown before you confirm. Payment is by card online once we confirm your booking. You can book a visit online on the website or in the IHR Dream app.
