Schuelke Disinfection does all manner of disinfecting for various viruses, mold and mildew. The chemical that we use attacks mold, mildew, all types of Coronavirus and bacteria.
Cleaning typically will involve wiping down the surfaces where there’s high traffic. A good example is break room tables, door knobs, things like that, and that’s an important component. And that’s something that any employee of a business can do on their own. But disinfecting literally goes through the entire building using our chemical is distributed in a particular way to actually disinfect the walls, the HVAC system and any other surfaces where bacteria or viruses can adhere to. Places that typically people don’t clean, like the walls and ceilings and lighting fixtures, things like that. So, disinfecting is a more thorough option to make sure that you’re doing a better job of removing or attacking any viruses or bacteria that might be present.
So there’s a couple of different systems that are out there. We are capable of doing both, but we prefer an electrostatic sprayer. And essentially what that is, is we load our special chemical into a machine that when it’s discharged from a hose, it pumps it through a hose and turns it into a very fine mist. When it’s discharged from that hose into a mist, it’s electrified and given a positive charge. So anything with a negative charge, such as tabletops, walls, things like that, that positive charge is naturally attracted to and will adhere to that surface as opposed to floating off. So the electrostatic sprayer is a very important component of doing a proper disinfecting.
There are companies out there that use what we call cold fogging, which is basically just an atomizer. It turns it into a mist, but it does not give it that positive charge. It’s still effective, but it’s not as effective as using the electrostatic sprayer. Our sprayers are backpack sprayers, usually two and a half, three gallons. They’re battery operated. So we don’t have to walk around plugging into outlets everywhere, extension cords, trip hazards, things like that. And it makes us more efficient in getting in and getting out, so we’re not having to inhibit the operations of the businesses that we’re conducting or where we’re conducting our service. And that seems to be a big component for some of the companies, especially the warehouses. They want us to get completed as quick as possible so that they can get their employees back to work.
It has a discharge of about six feet, up to really 13 feet but we like to keep it in that about halfway point, six and half to seven feet away from whatever we’re spraying. If we have desks where there’s going to be paperwork and things like that, we will typically spray in an upward motion and allow the mist to drop down on top of the desks and the computer keyboards and things like that, as opposed to spraying right on it. It is a liquid so we don’t want to get too much moisture, but it’s safe for keyboards and computers and things like that. But it just really depends on the environment that we’re in, how we’re going to apply it.
It depends on the amount of traffic going through that area. So in other words, if we’re going to be spraying down a break room table, it’s going to last upwards of a week on there. But if that table’s getting wiped down repeatedly because food is getting spilled on it, things like that, then the chemical’s going to get wiped off, but those surfaces are typically wiped down anyway. So, what we’re trying to focus on is getting it into the air system, getting it onto the other surfaces that maybe are not as wiped down as much or cleaned manually as much as the typical doorknobs, tables, things like that.
It is 100% safe for people to be around. However, we do require that people leave the area that we’re spraying for about 15 to 20 minutes. This allows the mist that we’re spraying to settle and dry. It’s very fast drying because it’s such a fine mist. And the initial spraying can cause some irritation to the throat and the nose. So we always recommend or require employees to vacate the workspace for at least 20 minutes, which is typical for you know, say a work break or something like that, a lunch break. So we try to work around the work schedules as much as possible, and very willing to accommodate that if need be.
Yes, it is EPA approved, which is important to some companies that are looking for that EPA approval number. So we have both options. They require us to use a chemical that is EPA approved. But that’s not to say that the other chemical we use does not have the same capabilities. It’s just, they haven’t gone through that approval process, which is very costly and time consuming.
Yeah. The general cost is estimated typically by square footage. That’s the baseline that we all use. But that price could change depending on, let’s use a warehouse, for example, again. If they want a warehouse and they’ve got a 2,000 square foot warehouse that they need to have treated, the cost could change if they want us to disinfect every shelf in that warehouse and go up the shelving and spray boxes and things like that. And then we’re talking about cubic feet, which the more chemical we have to use to disinfect the area, the more costly it’s going to be. But typically people are just looking for us to disinfect the walls, the ceiling surfaces, things like that. And again, in a warehouse setting, any forklifts or hand tools that the employees might be using. So, a flat square footage price is typically what we do and it starts out anywhere from 10 cents, a square foot, all the way up to 35 cents, a square foot, depending on the size and the scope of the work.
We cover the entire Inland Empire, which includes Riverside, San Bernardino counties. We don’t go to the High Desert, but we will go out to Pomona, parts of Eastern LA County and then the entire Coachella Valley as well. So Palm Desert, Palm Springs, La Quinta, Indio, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs. All of those desert communities out there, we service those areas as well.
We do, and in fact, that’s a great way for companies, for instance, to realize some cost savings in the service. Understanding that if we’re able to get a long-term or somewhat long-term contract for three months, six months, I can buy the product that we need in advance, knowing that I’m going to need that much. And that allows me to negotiate with my supplier because I’m buying it more in bulk. So then we can pass that cost savings onto our customers.
Yes, it’s pet safe and food safe. A lot of people don’t want to have to put away all their groceries or their stuff that’s maybe on the counter. We recommend that they do, it’s not required, but if they don’t have that much out there, it’s best to just put it in the cabinets and let it go. But we can do grocery stores and things like that and not have it be negatively impacting the food that’s there.
This is what you get with disinfection services from Schuelke:
OSHA Expertise. Our cleaners know health and safety standards inside and out.
