Athlone on both sides of the Shannon
Athlone straddles the Shannon, and we cover all of it: the town centre and the older streets near the castle and the river, the estates on the east side, and the estates and apartments spreading west of the bridge. It's one of the biggest towns we travel to in the midlands, and much of the work here is apartments and rentals.
We're based in Dublin, and Athlone is a run out the M4 and M6. We don't keep a van in the midlands, so Athlone visits are scheduled in advance, often on the same day as jobs in Mullingar, Moate or Longford.
Apartments by the river
Athlone has a lot of apartment blocks, particularly near the centre and along the river, and many are rented. Inside an apartment, carpet is usually in the bedrooms and sometimes the hall, with timber or laminate in the living space. Outside the apartment, the communal stairs and corridors are often carpeted too.
Those communal carpets get more traffic than anything in a house. Residents, visitors, deliveries and removals all use the same route, and the carpet goes dark at the bottom of each flight, outside the lift and at the front door. We clean them in sections, a floor at a time, so the building stays open. The shared stairs pictured above was photographed straight after one of those cleans.
For an individual apartment, a few details help:
- The lift. Some buildings want it booked or padded for contractors.
- Parking. Visitor spaces, a loading bay or the nearest public car park.
- Access hours. Some management companies limit contractor hours.
- Water and power. A tap and a socket inside the apartment; we bring everything else.
For larger communal areas, see commercial carpet cleaning.
Condensation and drying in an apartment
Modern apartments are well sealed, which keeps them warm but also keeps moisture in. In bedrooms where windows run with condensation every winter morning, the carpet along the window wall can feel damp, and sometimes shows dark spots of mould at the edge. Cleaning removes the surface marks, but they come back unless the room gets more air.
The same airtightness affects drying after a clean. To help the carpet dry within a few hours:
- open the trickle vents on the windows, or a window slightly if the day is dry
- run the bathroom and kitchen extractor fans
- keep bedroom doors open so air moves through the apartment
- leave the heating on low rather than off
Air movers do the first stretch while we're still there.
Family homes in the estates
Away from the apartments and student lets, Athlone has plenty of estates of semis and detached houses on both sides of the river, most of them family homes. There the work is the familiar list: the stairs and landing, the bedrooms and a carpeted sitting room, with the marks children and pets leave behind. Stairs are cleaned by hand, tread by tread, and finished last. Synthetic carpet in a warm family house is usually dry by the afternoon.
Student lets near TUS
With the Technological University of the Shannon in the town, Athlone has plenty of student houses and apartments. They wear fast. More people means more coming and going, more food in bedrooms, and a living-room carpet that sees several groups of tenants.
Summer, between one academic year and the next, is the natural window. Nothing is in the way, nobody needs the rooms that night, and whoever arrives in September walks into a place that feels looked after. A landlord with several units can send photos of each one and get a single fixed price.
spotless.ieMattresses in student lets are worth doing at the same time. Surface marks lift and the mattress freshens up, though stains that have soaked right through may only fade. See mattress cleaning for what to expect. The shared sofa is usually due a clean as well; see upholstery cleaning.
Apartment, student let or family home in Athlone? Send photos of each carpet, the stairs and any communal areas, with your Eircode. We'll reply with a fixed price and the dates we'll be in the midlands.
Fitting Athlone into the diary
Our reply to your photos carries two things: the fixed price, and a short list of days when a midlands run is already pencilled in. Choose whichever suits. Athlone is too far out for us to promise a callout tomorrow, and we'd rather be straight about that than let you down; the wider your choice of days, the earlier we can usually come.
Working to a lease end or a tenant's arrival date? Mention it in your first message and we'll plan backwards from it. Carpets in a heated apartment are usually dry a few hours after we finish. Every visit is fully insured, and Ciprian, who runs the carpet side of Spotless, is Prochem-trained (2018).
Moate, Glasson and around Lough Ree
We cover Athlone and the area around it, including Moate, Glasson, Ballykeeran, Kiltoom and the houses around Lough Ree. Mullingar has its own page, carpet cleaning in Mullingar. When a flat or house still has furniture and belongings in it, house clearance in Athlone can empty it before we clean. The other towns we serve beyond Dublin are listed on our Leinster carpet cleaning page.
