If you’re going to reopen your shop or restaurant soon, you can’t let your guard down: being careful is the key not only to a clean place, but also to protecting your employees and clients. Therefore, we want to share with you how to do commercial cleaning in your local during the current health pandemic.
(Note: All our recommendations are based on CDC-guidelines, so if you need more information about this topic or other related points, make sure to read their website.)
As you already know, being safe from COVID-19 doesn’t only imply social distancing, but it also requires cleaning and disinfecting any type of public spaces such as workplaces, business, schools, etc.
Therefore, we want to help you to develop a plan that can make your environment as safe as possible. Requiring face covering to enter your local, for example, is a safety rule you should implement to protect your employees and other costumers.
However, we want to specify about how to tackle the commercial cleaning under these circumstances.
General overview to commercial cleaning
As you should already know, the SARS-CoV-2 can be killed when cleaning if you’re using the right products, so part of what you’ll need to do is get a disinfectant product with the required effectiveness, either in sprays, concentrates or wipes.
Cleaning and disinfecting (in this precise order) will be the base of your framework. Other important points to consider imply doing the following actions.
- Having a normal routine cleaning with soap and water. This will reduce the risk of exposure of the virus against surfaces and objects.
- Disinfecting surfaces and objects from high-use (such as door handles) frequently, especially if they’re touched by multiple people. For this, is necessary to use EPA-approved disinfectants. Make sure to read and follow directions on the label.
- Alternatively, to EPA-approved disinfectants, you can use 70% alcohol solutions or mix bleach and water (for example, 1/3 cup of bleach + 1 gallon of water). Bleach solutions can be effective up to 24 hours if the area isn’t contaminated again.
- Don’t ever mix cleaning and disinfection products to increase their productivity, since that can be dangerous to health (it can cause toxic fumes, which are dangerous to breath).
- Wear skin protection when handling these chemicals. If possible, use eye protection as well for potential splash hazards.
- When diluting products, use water at room temperature.
- Make sure to keep products away from the reach of children and pets.
- Make sure there’s enough ventilation (in case there is a fume, this will avoid its concentration).
- Let disinfectants act: this will usually take from 30 to 60 seconds.
If you’re already implementing this, you’re halfway through your commercial cleaning plan. Other important point to consider is to always clean objects and surfaces first with soap and water before disinfecting.
Determine what needs to be cleaned
High-usage areas, surfaces and objects will need constant cleaning and disinfecting to remove any virus or bacteria that comes from outside. Make sure to identify these areas to clean them as constantly as needed, and not only during the proper cleaning. Consider their materials as well, since you’ll need proper products.
You should also consider if you can remove certain items to avoid their frequent handling. For example, area rugs or seating are usually soft and porous materials, which makes their cleaning and disinfection harder. Removing or storing these objects can make cleaning easier while reducing the risk.
In case you can’t remove them, consider how much are they used. If they’ve a normal or low usage frequency, you can wash textiles under normal procedures (such as doing laundry), while if it’s high-usage, you’ll need to check CDC-approved disinfectants for these surfaces.
Decide what you’re doing for outdoors areas
Even if outdoor areas don’t need, usually, anything else than normal routine cleaning without disinfection, this will depend in the type of space. For example: disinfecting sidewalks is not efficient, but if you have a bar or restaurant, the tables will need disinfection as well.
For any normal outdoor area (such as the front of a store), keep your existing cleaning and hygiene practices. Make sure to evaluate this to integrate disinfection into the space in case is required. Also, in case you own an Airbnb, you should look for a rental cleaning service.
Reopening after 7 days: what to do
In case the local in question hasn’t been used in the last 7 days (or more), you shouldn’t require more than a normal routine cleaning (since it hasn’t been show SARS-CoV-2 survives longer than this on surfaces).
However, make sure the building water system is both functional and clean, as well as making sure the ventilation systems work correctly. A simple routine maintenance should be enough to keep the space ventilated, reducing risk of corona viruses.
Consider the resources and equipment needed
You need to know how are you going to acquire the cleaning and disinfection products, as well as considering their availability when doing this. Make sure to identify if your team is prepared or will need retraining for these actions.
When identifying the needed equipment, remember your team will need to wear appropriate gloves when handling chemicals, and to avoid certain disinfectants such as fumigants or fogs unless you count with the specialized training and equipment for them.
As you can see, there are many things to consider. However, being successful in the commercial cleaning will help everyone to have a safer environment around when it’s time to shop. If you’re looking for the best janitorial cleaning services in Los Angeles, contact Marianna’s Cleaning.
