Curtain Care Ireland is a specialist in-situ curtain cleaning service for nursing homes, care facilities and hotels nationwide. We clean curtains where they hang — on the rail, in the room — using a low-moisture, controlled-heat method, and they are dry within about 20 minutes. Below are the questions facilities managers, Directors of Nursing, hotel general managers and heads of housekeeping ask us most often. If your question is not answered here, call 01 254 8000 or request a free consultation.
Curtain cleaning — the basics
What is in-situ curtain cleaning?
In-situ curtain cleaning means your curtains are cleaned where they hang — on the rail, in the room — without taking them down. Our mobile teams bring specialist equipment to your building, clean the curtains in place using a low-moisture, controlled-heat method, and they are dry within about 20 minutes. There is no taking curtains down, bagging them, sending them to an off-site laundry and rehanging them days later.
Do you have to take the curtains down to clean them?
No. With in-situ cleaning the curtains stay on the rail. Drops, pleating, hooks and headings are left exactly as hung, so there are no rehang errors, and the manual-handling task is taken off your staff entirely.
How long do the curtains take to dry?
About 20 minutes. The method is deliberately low-moisture, so the room is back in normal use almost immediately and never has to be taken out of service to dry.
How does the cleaning process actually work?
Our teams use a low-moisture, controlled-heat cleaning method with biodegradable, low-odour solutions, applied to the curtains on the rail. Because very little water is used, the fabric is not saturated, there is minimal mess, and it dries in around 20 minutes. The process lifts dust, body oils, airborne grease and odours from the fabric rather than masking them.
Will the cleaning disrupt our residents or guests?
Very little. Because the work is done on the rail and scheduled around your housekeeping or care routine, teams move through rooms or floors in a planned sequence. Curtains are never absent, and each room is usable again within about 20 minutes.
Cleaning method, fabrics & safety
Do you disinfect the curtains, or just clean them?
Both. Our cleaning approach contains a virucide and bactericide, so it does not just lift dirt, dust and body oils — it sanitises the fabric in place, on the rail. In a care setting that is the point that matters: the curtains are disinfected where they hang, which is why in-situ cleaning supports your infection-control regime.
What types of curtain fabric can you clean?
A wide range — cotton and cotton blends, polyester, blackout and thermal linings, voiles and sheers, heavy lined drapes, and fire-retardant (FR) contract fabrics. At the assessment we check fabric type and condition and confirm what we can clean in situ.
Can you clean fire-retardant curtains without affecting the fire rating?
Yes. Aggressive off-site laundering and dry-cleaning solvents can strip a topical fire-retardant treatment, leaving fabric that no longer performs to the standard it was certified to. Our low-moisture, controlled-heat method is chosen to clean the fabric while preserving its fire-retardant treatment, and we can provide written confirmation of the method used for your fire-safety records.
Will cleaning shrink, fade or damage our curtains?
The method is specifically low-moisture and controlled-heat to avoid the shrinkage and fabric stress that hot, wet laundering can cause, and curtains are not removed or wrung. Existing sun-fade cannot be reversed by any cleaning — that is UV damage to the fibre — and we flag any fabric that is too degraded to clean safely before we start.
Can you remove stains, smoke and odours from curtains?
In most cases, yes — the method targets the dust, body oils, airborne grease, smoke residue and odours that build up in hanging fabric. Some stains (set-in dye transfer, bleach damage, sun-rot) are permanent in any fabric; we tell you honestly at the assessment what will clean up and what will not.
Is there any mess, dripping or wet floors?
Minimal. Because very little moisture is used, there is no saturation, no significant drip and no soaked carpets — which is exactly why the curtains are dry again in about 20 minutes and the room can be used straight away.
Are the cleaning products safe and eco-friendly?
Yes. The solutions used are biodegradable and low-odour, chosen so rooms can go back into use quickly without a lingering chemical smell — which matters in both a resident bedroom and a guest room.
Nursing homes & care facilities
How often should nursing home curtains be cleaned?
As a best-practice guide aligned with HPSC infection-control guidance: resident bedrooms every 3 to 4 months, communal and day spaces every 4 to 6 months, clinical and treatment rooms every 3 months, and isolation or post-outbreak areas monthly or as directed by your infection prevention and control (IPC) lead. There is no single legally-fixed interval — HIQA expects a documented, risk-based schedule that is actually followed, and we set that up as a rolling programme.
Why do privacy and bedroom curtains matter for infection control?
Curtains and privacy screens are high-touch fabric surfaces that are handled constantly and rarely cleaned, so they can act as a reservoir for micro-organisms and become contaminated again within days of being handled. Infection-prevention guidance therefore treats them as part of the environment that needs a documented cleaning regime — and inspectors increasingly ask about them.
Is your curtain cleaning HIQA compliant and inspection-ready?
Our service is built to support HIQA compliance: cleaning methods and frequencies align with HPSC guidance, and we issue a compliance certificate after every visit so you have documented evidence. To be precise, HIQA regulates the centre, not contractors — what an inspector wants to see is that your facility follows a documented, effective cleaning schedule for soft furnishings, and our certificate and rolling programme give you exactly that paper trail.
Which HIQA regulation covers curtains and soft furnishings?
The relevant requirement is Regulation 27, Protection against Infection, of the Health Act 2007 (Care and Welfare of Residents in Designated Centres for Older People) Regulations 2013, under which a provider must implement infection-prevention procedures consistent with the National Standards for infection prevention and control in community services published by HIQA. Keeping curtains on a documented cleaning schedule supports meeting that standard, and our per-visit compliance certificate slots straight into that evidence.
What documentation do you provide for inspections?
A compliance certificate after every visit, recording the date, the areas or zones cleaned, the method used and the technician. It is written to drop straight into your infection-control evidence file, so at inspection your curtain cleaning is already documented.
Can you clean curtains in occupied resident rooms?
Yes. Cleaning is done in situ around your care routine, the curtains dry in about 20 minutes, and there is never a point where a resident’s privacy curtain is missing — which protects dignity and avoids the gap you get when curtains are taken away to a laundry.
Can you clean isolation-room and post-outbreak curtains?
Yes. Isolation and post-outbreak areas are cleaned on a more frequent cycle — monthly or as your IPC lead directs — and we can apply antimicrobial and allergen-reduction treatments for high-risk areas. The in-situ method also avoids carrying contaminated fabric through the building, which is the cross-infection risk that off-site collection creates.
Does in-situ cleaning reduce cross-infection risk compared to off-site laundering?
Yes. Off-site cleaning means soiled curtains are taken down and carried through corridors and communal areas to a van, moving contaminants around the building. In-situ cleaning treats the fabric where it hangs and removes that transport step entirely, which is a meaningful infection-control advantage in a care setting.
We have a HIQA inspection coming up — how fast can you get here?
We typically schedule within five working days and prioritise facilities with an upcoming HIQA inspection. Call 01 254 8000 and tell us the inspection is pending.
Hotels
Will cleaning curtains take hotel rooms out of service?
No — that is the main reason hotels choose in-situ. Curtains are cleaned on the rail and dry within about 20 minutes, so a room is back in inventory the same morning instead of being out for days while curtains are taken down, transported, laundered and rehung.
How often should hotel curtains be cleaned?
As a guide: standard guest-room curtains every 12 months, high-turnover or city-centre rooms every 6 months, restaurants, bars and function rooms every 6 months, and suites or signature rooms every 6 to 12 months. We build the actual schedule around your occupancy and refurbishment cycle so it is done floor-by-floor with no single big disruption.
Can you clean blackout and thermal-lined curtains?
Yes. Blackout and thermal linings, voiles and sheers, and heavy lined drapes are all cleaned in situ. Because the curtains stay on the rail, linings and drops are not disturbed and there is no rehang error.
Can you clean curtains in function rooms, restaurants and lobbies?
Yes. We clean guest-room curtains, sheers and blackout linings, suite and corridor drapes, function room, ballroom and conference drapery, restaurant, bar and lobby window treatments, and spa and leisure-area curtains.
Will in-situ cleaning extend the life of our curtains?
Yes. Regular gentle cleaning removes the dust, body oils and airborne grease that break fibres down over time, so curtains stay presentable longer and you defer the much larger cost of replacing soft furnishings hotel-wide.
Our curtains smell musty when the heating comes on — can you fix that?
Usually, yes. That musty smell is typically trapped dust, moisture and body-oil residue reacting to warm air; the cleaning process lifts that residue and odour rather than perfuming over it, so the room smells fresh once the heating is on.
Pricing, scheduling, coverage & guarantee
How much does curtain cleaning cost?
Pricing is quoted per site, because it depends on the number of curtains, the fabric types, drop heights and how many zones or floors are involved. We provide a fixed quote after a free, no-obligation assessment, so there are no surprises. Call 01 254 8000 or request a free consultation to get a quote.
Is there a minimum order?
Yes — our minimum booking is a full day’s curtain cleaning for a two-person team (roughly a 20-room equivalent as a guide; we confirm the exact figure at the assessment). For smaller sites we will usually combine the visit with nearby work or fold it into a rolling programme so it still makes sense.
What days and hours do you work?
We work Monday to Friday. We are not limited to 9-to-5 — our teams can start earlier and finish later to fit around your housekeeping, care routine or occupancy — but we do not work weekends. Our office and phone line (01 254 8000) are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
How long does it take to clean a whole facility?
Allow roughly 40 minutes per room, so an entire facility is not cleaned in a single day. As a guide, a 60-room facility takes about three working days for a two-person team. We phase the work by floor or wing across consecutive visits — and because each curtain dries within about 20 minutes, every room is back in normal use the same day it is done.
What if we are not happy with the result — do you guarantee the clean?
Yes. If a customer is not happy with any curtains we have cleaned, we will re-clean them. The one honest caveat is stains: not every stain can be removed, because it depends on the type of stain and how long it has been in the fabric. We always tell you at the assessment what we expect to clean up and what is likely permanent.
Can you set up a regular cleaning schedule rather than one-off visits?
Yes, and it is what we recommend for most facilities. We set up a rolling programme that cycles through your zones on a documented schedule, so every area stays on a known cleaning cycle and nothing is left until it becomes a problem.
What areas of Ireland do you cover?
Nationwide. We run mobile teams covering Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and every county in between, operating from our base in Ballycoolin, Dublin 11.
Are your staff insured and Garda vetted?
Yes. We are fully insured, and every technician is Garda vetted and trained in infection control and manual handling. Teams are uniformed and used to working discreetly around residents, guests and front-of-house areas.
How do we get a quote or book a visit?
Request a free consultation through this website or call 01 254 8000 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). We assess your areas, fabrics and requirements, give you a fixed quote, and agree a schedule — including a rolling programme if you want zones maintained on a documented cycle.