Everything you need to know from A to Z when it comes to Covid-19 cleaning services.
Your employees' health and safety is your number one priority.
You want to ensure that everyone is protected. You want to ensure that Covid-19 (and all those other harmful viruses and bacteria) are eradicated from your workplace.
After all, we all know how frantic it can get when one person falls ill and the rest follow.
This is exactly why you need a commercial cleaning company to perform Covid-19 cleaning on your site.
You want your staff to feel reassured that there are protective and effective measures in place if there ever was to be a Covid-19 outbreak in your workplace.
We can all play a part in the fight against Covid-19. Of course, Covid-19 deep cleaning is essential, but there are also some other simple things you can do to help.
Wash your hands often and thoroughly (for at least 20 seconds), cover your coughs and sneezes, stay home if you’re feeling unwell, and observe rules for social distancing.
Avoid over-crowded setups by arranging furniture and desks to allow for social distancing of 1.5 metres.
If your staff are working from the office, make sure your commercial cleaning service is still coming in for regular cleans. A clean workplace shouldn’t have to think about Covid-19 deep cleaning.
You want to be prepared. And the best way to do this is by ensuring you have two things:
1. A good commercial cleaning company
2. Regular (and proper) cleaning performed at your site
If you have these two ingredients, then the whole Covid-19 deep cleaning process is much easier. In fact, if your site is attended to frequently, and your cleaners do a good job every time, then you shouldn’t have to worry about deep cleaning. A cleaner that’s equipped with the right time, training, and tools will always eliminate germs, bacteria, and viruses during every clean.
It’s better to be safe than sorry.
It’s time to get rid of Covid-19 at your site.
It really is easy. Have a chat with us to discuss what you need, when you need it, and how it all works. What are you waiting for?
Be confident that your site is free from Covid-19 and that your team is protected.
This is where we’ll get to know your site, its specifics, and what needs to be done to ensure your workplace is left Covid-19 free.
Leave it to us! We’ll turn up at your site with the correct equipment and chemicals to get the job done properly.
Covid-19 begone!
Know that everything has been taken care of next time you walk into your site. Enjoy the relief of a clean, safe, and healthy workplace.
We get it.
Trying to work out which cleaning company will best conduct a Covid-19 deep clean at your site can be a daunting task.
But it doesn’t have to be.
At In-Tec, our team follows a rigorous 4-step Covid-19 deep cleaning process that effectively removes dirt and kills germs, bacteria, and viruses.
Our team will go above and beyond for you and deliver a safe and healthy work environment free from Covid-19.
When it comes to Covid-19 cleaning, there are so many questions to be answered. Some may be basic like the particular equipment we use, while others may get a bit more technical like the kill time of a cleaning chemical.
If you’ve found that you have a question (or maybe 5) circling your mind about Covid-19, you’ve come to the right place.
Below, you’ll find the most common questions people are asking when it comes to Covid-19 cleaning services.
What you use to disinfect your workplace for Covid-19 matters.
You may have heard some cleaning companies recommend electrostatic sprayers while others suggest fogging machines.
One thing to get across straight away is that the results between the two are quite different.
The electrostatic sprayer applies small electrostatically charged droplets of disinfectant to surfaces, including the exposed backsides of surfaces regardless of the direction of spray and has a 360 degree range. Because the particles are extremely small and charged, they cling to and completely coat all surfaces. This is the fantastic thing about an electrostatic sprayer.
But there is one thing to be sure of when using an electrostatic sprayer - always use the 40 micron nozzle. The 40 micron is the perfect size as it allows the disinfectant to dry quick enough on a surface and can completely envelop virus particles. Whereas if you were to use the 20 or 100 micron nozzle, the droplets don’t have the capability of covering the virus particles completely.
What about a fogging machine?
Well, a fogging machine creates a fine mist of disinfectant. It can dry very quickly on a surface which means it doesn’t have enough time to encapsulate and kill a virus. When fogging is used, the droplets don’t have the chance to wrap around surfaces, unlike electrostatic spraying. Also, fogging, by default, can release an unsafe gas (depending on the chemical) because it pumps at such a large volume.
Another one of the main differences between the two systems is dwell time.
If you didn’t already know, dwell time refers to the length of time a disinfectant needs to remain on a surface until it can be wiped away. It is during that time that the disinfectant kills the germs.
The dwell time for fogging is virtually non-existent as the mist already starts drying as soon as it’s released from the machine. This means the disinfectant hasn’t even had the chance to kill the virus. Whereas with electrostatic spraying, depending on the disinfectant you use, dwell time can be less than 1 minute. It’s quick, and also kills what needs to be killed.
If you need to complete Covid-19 deep cleaning at your site, make sure it’s with an electrostatic sprayer. After all, you want the most effective and efficient outcome achieved.
It would be nice if you could simply “spray and wipe” disinfectant off a surface immediately as it’s applied.
But it just doesn’t work that way.
You have to remember that disinfectants have a dwell time (otherwise known as kill time).
Too often we see people spraying a surface with disinfectant and then wiping it straight away with a cloth. I mean, it hasn’t even sat on the surface for longer than 5 seconds! You may have noticed this in cafes and restaurants and didn’t think about it twice. However, there’s one major thing wrong with this method. The disinfectant was not given enough time to kill the germs, bacteria, and/or viruses before it was wiped away.
Dwell time refers to the appropriate amount of time a disinfectant needs to remain visibly moist on a surface until being cleaned.
For instance, Tersano SAO can destroy various germs within a matter of 0-30 seconds. This means it has a kill time of, at the most, 30 seconds!
Whereas, traditional cleaning chemicals like Dettol, take up to 10 minutes to kill germs on a surface!
If you’re in need of Covid-19 deep cleaning, you want to be sure that your cleaners are, of course, using the appropriate disinfectants that have a fast and effective dwell time.
Disinfection has gotten a lot of attention since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s become a top priority for businesses to ensure their workplaces are kept clean, safe, and hygienic. But when you’re in need of Covid-19 cleaning, what’s the best way to treat your site?
We’re going to give the classic answer of - it depends.
For instance, at one large site we clean in Brisbane, the cleaner uses an electrostatic gun to treat high risk areas. And by high risk, we mean kitchens and bathrooms - waste in, waste out.
Whereas at another site in Brisbane, we hand clean surfaces, especially high touchpoints.
The reason we use two different methods comes down to the actual time the cleaning is scheduled.
When there are people around, you can’t use an electrostatic machine as they have airborne particles that can be a risk to humans. This is why you generally see cleaners wearing the appropriate PPE.
So, if you wanted high touchpoints cleaned during working hours, you would hand clean them with a yellow microfibre cloth and Oxivir.
Or, if you wanted your clean to be done after hours (and you wanted a better job as well), you would use a handheld or backpack electrostatic sprayer.
You can’t just use any chemical from your laundry cupboard or any piece of equipment to kill and remove Covid-19. If only it was that simple.
To start off, we’ll talk about the disinfectants we use at In-Tec. Our preferred disinfectant for Covid-19 cleaning is Oxivir. It is a hospital-grade disinfectant based on Accelerated Hydrogen Peroxide (AHP).
It is verified to kill Covid-19 in 15 seconds!
Oxivir is excellent for high touchpoint cleaning such as door handles, light switches, handrails, etc.
If we don’t use Oxivir for a deep clean, our next two disinfectants are Tersano or eWater.
Tersano kills up to 99.999% of germs including Covid-19. However, it’s important to note that although the TGA in Australia has not verified Tersano for this, other countries such as the USA have. The SAO system works by turning water, oxygen, and electricity into a powerful, safe, and highly effective cleaning agent.
eWater works by combining salt, water, and electricity to form 4 different types of cleaning solutions. The eWater disinfectant is proven by the TGA to kill Covid-19 and can be used on all types of hard surfaces.
When it comes to the type of machine we use to deep clean for Covid-19, it’s the Victory electrostatic sprayer. The sprayer adds an electrostatic charge to solutions, allowing them to wrap surfaces with an even coverage. The charged particles envelop all conductive surfaces - shadowed, vertical, and underneath.
At In-Tec, we use the best equipment to ensure the Covid-19 cleaning that’s conducted at your site is done to the best standard possible.
If your site is thoroughly cleaned on a regular basis, then a Covid-19 deep clean will take less than 12 hours which means you can get back to work quicker!
All our cleaners would need to do is disinfect your workplace, as the cleaning has already been taken care of.
Of course, the time it takes does depend on how large your site is, but this is a rough guide.
However, this all changes if your site is not cleaned on a regular basis. Why?
Well, the first thing our cleaners would have to do is go around your site and clean it, which can take a lot of time. It is only after they clean the site properly that they can start disinfecting for Covid-19. This can take up to a minimum of 24 hours.
Remember, prevention is better than the cure, so regular cleaning of your site will reduce any downtime due to a Covid-19 outbreak.
When a commercial cleaning company turns up to your site, what should they do?
Although there is no official protocol for a Covid-19 deep clean, the team at In-Tec follow a strict 4 step process which is as follows.
If you’re interested in reading a little further about deep cleaning, read our article What is Commercial Deep Cleaning?
You don't want to have a Covid-19 clean performed at your site to then find out the job has been done poorly.
But never fret because there are two ways around this.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has mutated, resulting in different variants of the virus.
But how does this mutation occur in the first place?
We do get a bit nerdy so bear with us.
Coronaviruses have all their genetic material stored in something called RNA (ribonucleic acid). When viruses infect you, they attach to your cells, get inside them, and make copies of their RNA, which in turn, helps them spread. If there was to be a ‘copying’ mistake, then the RNA changes. This is known as a mutation and hence why we’ve seen an emergence of multiple variants of Covid-19 .
In particular, the variant that has taken over Australia is the Omicron variant. It was first detected at the end of 2021 and has since been a ‘variant of concern’ around the world. Although it’s been found that Omicron is a milder version of the virus compared to the Delta strain, it does have a higher transmissibility rate.
The Omicron variant now makes up more than 90% of all infections Australia-wide.
The important thing to remember is to keep up to date with what you’re treating different variants with because as we all know, Covid-19 is a situation that’s always evolving. Make sure you’re having your regular cleaning performed along with any Covid-19 cleaning that needs to be done.
Did you know that cleaning must come become disinfecting?
Now more than ever, it’s really important to understand the differences between cleaning, sanitising, and disinfecting.
In this eBook, you will learn the best ways to maintain a high standard of cleanliness at your workplace and the proper procedures your cleaner should follow.
Plus, you’ll also find a detailed checklist that outlines the process for a complete two stage cleaning and disinfection service.
We care about the health and safety of your team which is why we really want to help you get started on your commercial cleaning journey.
It’s that easy!
Check out 'Our Services’ page to find out what we can offer you and why you’ll never have to worry about hiring multiple companies for different services.
Keep your business running in tip-top shape with the right cleaning company.