With the easing of lockdown restrictions, more businesses are gearing up to open their office and resume some sort of routine for staff and customers. This also means that responsible managers are looking for ways to keep their team safe in the weeks and months to come.
Deep cleaning services are an excellent place to start.
Deep Cleaning Services – A Breakdown
Whilst there is no scientific definition for the service of deep cleaning, logic and sound judgement can assist us in determining what is needed at this point in time.
Ordinarily, when our team are called in for a deep cleaning service for either residential or commercial customers, they are expected to leave behind a sparkling clean space with every nook and cranny having had a good scrub. However, the long fingers of the COVID-19 pandemic have added the need for disinfecting the space in addition to a deep clean.
A closer look at the virus highlights some of the main areas which we need to concentrate on.
Hard Surfaces
We know that the coronavirus is spread primarily through contaminated droplets from coughing or sneezing. However, these droplets can remain a source of infection for hours as suspended particles in the air, and up to three days on metal or plastic surfaces.
This means that in an office environment, hard surfaces such as desks, phones, screens, cups, pens, elevator buttons, door handles, light switches or remote controls pose a potential threat.
That’s an awful lot of cleaning!
Soft Surfaces
It’s easy to wipe down and disinfect a hard, non-porous surface, but less so a soft or absorbent one. Clothing, upholstery, carpets, curtains and blinds can hold infected droplets, albeit less efficiently than metal or plastic. It’s not always feasible to deep clean these, in which case we may use a ULV air treatment.
Ultra-low volume (ULV) fogging or misting uses compressed disinfectant which is released into the air as a very fine mist. This allows it to settle on a large surface area – even those which are not easy to reach – and allows the chemicals to eradicate any bio-hazards.
Our team are licensed to use the Killgerm PX – ULV system which we have found to be very effective.
Hidden Dangers
One of the areas which tends to fly under the radar is the air conditioning systems in a home or office. The virus in aerosol form can easily get sucked into these systems and pushed out into another part of the office.
Often these systems can be left uncleaned for years and will, of course, need to be attended to during your deep cleaning service.
Dr Joyce Lai, a GP in Hong Kong’s Central district commented in an article in the South China Morning Post.
“It never hurts to clean more since we know the coronavirus can survive on surfaces for an extended period of time – from hours to days – or even longer given the ideal environment.
“The outer envelope [of the coronavirus] is quite fragile, and easily killed with common disinfectants,” says Lai, adding that the World Health Organisation said that regular household disinfectant can kill it.
“Disinfectant products don’t work properly if the surfaces are not visually clean. So, the message is: clean and wash with soapy water first. Then disinfect with disinfectants like common household bleach,” Lai says.”
In Conclusion
There’s been enough in the way of fake news and fearmongering to make many of us somewhat paranoid. However, common sense and wise choices will help to keep our family and our employees safe during this troubling time.
The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) has issued helpful guidelines on effective cleaning and disinfection protocols which we can all put in place in our own homes. Following these protocols will go a long way toward eventually combatting the coronavirus.
We would like to assist in any way we can and have made ourselves available for out-of-hours deep cleaning and disinfecting of residential and commercial buildings. Please don’t hesitate to call on us for more information or a quote.
Stay safe!