One-third of Americans are still waiting to return to the workplace.
After a year of working from home, COVID is still a large part of everyday life. For workers that are returning to the office, safety continues to be the main concern.
Mask requirements have helped, but cleaning has taken center stage in preventing illness. To keep employees and customers safe, many businesses are leaning on commercial cleaners.
What separates commercial cleaning from everyday office cleaning? In short, certifications.
Certified professionals use the most powerful disinfectant sprays and cleaning equipment available. Let’s look at how the pros use disinfectant sprays to keep us safe in the workplace.
Cleaning, Disinfecting, Sanitizing: What’s the Difference?
Before we talk about disinfecting, we should distinguish it from cleaning and sanitizing. These terms are often used to mean the same thing. Their exact definitions, however, are significantly different.
Cleaning involves water mixed with soap or detergent. It doesn’t kill germs, but it does wipe them off of surfaces. With cleaning, you’ll be less likely to come into contact with harmful substances.
Disinfecting and sanitizing both involve chemicals that kill germs rather than remove them. Sanitizing refers to reducing the number of germs to a safe level.
Health officials define what a “safe level” means for public spaces. It could differ depending on if it’s a school, hospital, or warehouse. This is one reason to work with a professional — you get the proper sanitization level.
Disinfectants are far more hazardous than cleaners. But the fact that they kill pathogens makes disinfectant sprays much more effective. In the fight against COVID, commercial disinfectant solutions are the most efficient weapons.
Effective Household Disinfectant Sprays
Many consumer products, including household staple items, can kill viruses, bacteria, and mold. You can make a simple DIY disinfectant by combining one gallon of hot water with one-half cup of bleach. This surface disinfectant can kill COVID along with a host of other pathogens.
Bleach is far from a complete solution. It strips the color from fabric, carpet, and other dyed materials. Even worse, it can create toxic combinations, like chlorine gas, when it’s mixed with ammonia or vinegar.
Brands such as Clorox, Lysol, and Purell offer disinfectants within their cleaning lineups. A name like “Clorox Disinfecting Spray” is a dead giveaway, of course. You can also tell them apart by claims like “eliminates 99.9% of germs”.
Employees should disinfect the workplace regularly, especially as cleaning opportunities arise. It’s important that business managers keep a variety of sprays and equipment on hand. Still, using household sprays is no replacement for the power of commercial sanitization.
Commercial Disinfectant Sprays
An essential benefit of professional cleaners is their powerful, targeted disinfectants. Their solutions work on a broader range of materials and destroy more pathogens. To manage COVID, commercial cleaners use the EPA’s List N for the best disinfectants.
Unlike consumer disinfectant sprays, commercial cleaners work on hard surfaces, upholstery, and more. In places like medical offices, a high level of sanitization is crucial.
Commercial COVID disinfectants are more effective but also more hazardous to humans. Solutions can include peroxide, chlorine, formaldehyde, ammonia, and several other dangerous chemicals.
These commercial-grade disinfectant sprays are more effective, fast-acting, and lasting than consumer sprays.
A key selling point for commercial sprays is their residual action. They stay active on surfaces for a long time, killing any new bacteria or virus that comes along. This is due in part to the chemical power but also the spraying machinery.
Commercial Cleaning Spray Technology
Even more interesting than what’s in commercial-grade sprays is how professionals apply them. There are two ways that professionals clean large areas — fogging and electrostatic cleaning.
Fogging
Professionals use fogging for several tasks, from disinfection to pest control. Special equipment turns disinfectants into tiny particles, making a thick fog.
There are two ways to use fog — cold fogging and thermal fogging. Thermal fogging uses heat to vaporize the disinfectant. The machine gets hot, so the operator needs proper training and safety equipment.
Cold fogging is safer for the operator. Instead of heat, the machine uses high pressure to make smaller particles.
Fogging is effective because the particles fill hard-to-reach areas and the air itself. It can attack airborne particles in a way a conventional spray never could.
Electrostatic Cleaning
Electrostatic spray is a mist full of fine particles. Unlike fog, it doesn’t hang in the air. But although it doesn’t kill airborne pathogens, electrostatic spray still holds unique benefits.
An electrostatic sprayer puts a positive charge into the disinfectant spray. It does this as the particles leave the nozzle. Under normal circumstances, surfaces in a room will be negatively charged.
The negative charge of the surface attracts the positively charged disinfectant particles. At the same time, the positive particles repel each other, so they don’t overlap. A particle won’t come to rest until it finds an unoccupied surface.
Electrostatic sprays are so effective because objects pull them right in. The spray coats the surface on all sides, filling gaps and hard-to-reach spaces. They even cling to the underside of objects like tables and chairs.
Only licensed professionals can handle commercial sprayers like these. They can be extremely dangerous to humans and animals while in use.
Schedule a Commercial Cleaning for Your Return to the Office
A return to work can be worrisome for many employees. While we’re still in the midst of the pandemic, it’s important that they feel safe and secure in the office.
The disinfectant sprays used by professionals will make sure your doors are ready to open. When you work with commercial cleaners, you maximize your team’s health and productivity.
Are you ready to schedule your commercial cleaning service? Our trusted team is available for custom deep-cleaning services to meet your goals. Contact us today to learn more about how we can contribute to a better workplace.
