FAQs
More FAQs- Do I have to move furniture before the carpet cleaning?
- We've already had deep cleaning and disinfection done in our facility, doesn't that cover it?
- Isn't clean, disinfect and sanitize the same thing?
To get the best results with professional carpet cleaning, we recommend removing furniture from the rooms we will be cleaning. Items we clean around instead of moving include file cabinets, conference room tables, bookcases, lobby furniture and large pieces of furniture.
The purpose of disinfection is for infection control to help ensure the health and safety of your facility and its occupants. Surface contamination can and is likely to recur. Once a surface has been disinfected, that same surface can easily be re-contaminated when the next passerby touches that surface or sneezes or coughs near that surface. As such, infection control is about regular and consistent cleaning and disinfection. Unless an occupant has been diagnosed with a confirmed case of an illness, you will likely not need to regularly perform deep cleaning and disinfection. However, to keep your facility healthy and safe, what you should be maintaining is your standard cleaning protocols with the addition of regular and consistent disinfection of high touch points.
To the general public, these three terms — clean, disinfect, sanitize — are often used interchangeably. However, to a cleaning professional, these terms are not the same and can refer to very different outcomes. According to Public Health Canada and the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the definition of these terms are as follows:
CleanThis refers to the removal of visible dirt and debris through the use of soap or detergent and water. While this process may remove germs from surfaces, it does not necessarily kill the germs. This said, the mere act of germ removal lowers their numbers and does help in reducing the risk of infection.
DisinfectWith disinfection, germs are actually KILLED on surfaces through the use of chemicals. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.
SanitizeLastly, the term sanitize has its roots in the word “Sanitary” which is defined as “of or relating to health”. When you keep this in mind, to sanitize means lowering the number of germs on surfaces to a safe level, as judged by public health standards or requirements. This can be achieved by either cleaning and/or disinfecting surfaces to lower the risk of spreading infection.
Not to confuse you anymore, but as an added bonus, we’ll also define the term “sterilize” which is the process in which chemicals are used to kill ALL microbial life including bacteria, viruses, spores and fungi. This is a process that is very rarely undertaken in a facility outside of a healthcare setting.
So, for a cleaning professional, our disinfection process for your commercial facility is routinely a 2-step process - We clean first, then disinfect - in order to provide you with a sanitary facility in which to work!
Sources:
- https://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/cleaning.htm
- https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/cleaning-disinfecting-public-spaces.html
- https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/bp-cleaning-disinfection-sterilization-hcs.pdf?la=en
- https://www.foodsafety.ca/blog/understanding-difference-between-cleaning-sanitizing-sterilizing