A Clean WorkSpace Means Healthier Employees During Cold and Flu Season

Call on (316) 413 5750 for commercial cleaning or restoration services in Wichita. 
 
For businesses owners, cold and flu season is particularly troublesome given the effect it can have on your workforce. If your employees are out sick, not only will you be less productive and have more holes to fill, but it also means you’ll be taking a direct hit in the wallet, too.

The flu costs U.S. employers approximately $10.4 billion a year in direct costs for hospitalizations and outpatient visits for adults, and that doesn’t even count the indirect costs of lost productivity or paying others overtime to fill in.

To make matters worse, it doesn’t help that offices and work spaces are breeding grounds for the cold and flu, given the person-to-person interaction in close quarters and poor indoor air circulation.

All this being said, there are steps you can take to minimize the spread of the cold and flu around your workplace and maintain a healthy work environment. It starts with talking to your business’ commercial cleaning service to better understand their cleaning procedures.

Ask them these questions:

1. Are your employees trained to reduce bacterial, viral, and other infectious diseases? Does the cleaning service you use understand the difference between looking clean and actually being clean? Make sure they’re actually eliminating germs and bacteria instead of just wiping away dust and debris.

2. Are they trained to clean all the important touch points (e.g., light switches, door hands, elevator buttons, hand rails, etc.)? One of the reasons the cold and flu spreads around the workplace so easily is that everyone is constantly touching and sharing different things without washing their hands. A good cleaning service will make note of the objects that get touched the most, and make sure they clean them as often as possible. From telephones to computer mice, doorknobs to sink faucets, make sure your cleaning company is cleaning them.

3. Are they using the right cleaners and using them properly? Even if your cleaners are using something that’s supposed to kill 99.9% of germs, if they aren’t using it properly, they won’t be killing all 99.9%. Make sure they’re using the right cleaning products for the job, and make sure they know the proper cleaning directions for them, like letting disinfectants stand for several minutes before wiping it away.

4. Are they cleaning often enough? Though this a question you’ll ultimately have to ask yourself, it’s never a bad idea to increase the cleaning frequency of your workplace during the cold and flu season. The more you can keep things clean and sanitary, the better you can prevent the spread of germs.

In addition to making sure that your cleaning service is doing all that they can for you, there are also several ways for your employees to do their part in making your office cleaner and more sanitary. Teach your employees to follow these simple tips during cold and flu season to help limit the spread of germs and sickness:

• Use disinfecting wipes to wipe down work areas. If you can’t afford a cleaning company to come in every day, provide your employees with disinfecting wipes so they can keep their phones, keyboard, mice, and desk clean when the cleaning crews aren’t around.

• Wash hands after every trip to the bathroom and use hand sanitizer regularly. We can’t stress it enough: hands are the #1 transmitters of germs on the body. If you want to limit the spread of germs, make sure your employees know to keep their hands clean, and make it easy for them by leaving hand sanitizer around the office.

• Don’t let employees come in sick! As much as your employees might want to power through the sickness (in fact, 80% try to), don’t let them come in sick and jeopardize spreading it to everyone else. Set a firm sick policy with your employees, and make sure they stay home when they should—no excuses.

Looking for a commercial cleaning company that has experience keeping workplaces clean and sanitary during the cold and flu season? ServiceMaster by Best is the best in Wichita Kansas.

We’ll do more than just make sure your space looks good; our employees are properly trained to sanitize and disinfect all a workspaces’ problem areas—keeping your employees healthy, and saving your company money in the long run.

Call us today at (316) 413 5750 for a free quote.

The Dangers of Mold and Mildew, Explained

 

Call Service Master by Best on 316 413 5750 for mold removal and cleanup services.

Mold and mildew on the premises is a direct result of water incursion on the property. Whether it is residential property or a commercial unit, mold and mildew are more prone to develop in areas like attics, basement, crawlspaces or the interior of walls. The susceptibility of mold growth further heightens if there is a high amount of condensation and humidity inside the building.

The Dangers of Mold and Mildew, Explained

Other than its visible appearance, the simplest way to detect the presence of mold on the premises is a musty odor in the home or workplace. If identified at this stage, mold and mildew can be contained by minimal effort but in instances where the damage becomes widespread, it is recommended to use the expertise of professional water damage contractors.

Some of the dangers that mold and mildew presence can present include the following:

• Mold growth is progressive

Mold does not require light or air to reproduce, so can grow anywhere. This growth once sprouted, is essentially progressive in nature and can spread on almost any visible surface around the home including wood, carpet, floors, ceilings as well as paper.  In addition, mold can also spread in “hidden” areas like the backside of walls, the top side of ceiling tiles, on drywall, around pipes, and behind furniture.

For instance, mold may only be discovered when the bathroom is being remodeled. Since the moist environment of bathrooms is highly conducive for mold growth, it can often invade this area of the home undetected for prolonged periods of time. It may only be when changing or installing new bathroom hardware that the presence of hidden mold is identified.

• Mold will compromise the structural integrity of the building

Constant presence of mold on property can impact the architectural stability of any building. This means that mold and mildew will render the structure weak by reducing the strength of its building materials and other structural components.

For instance, if mold penetrates the heating and ventilation systems of the property, it can find an easy gateway to access other areas of the home. As a result, the damage to personal property may become so extensive that items may need to be destroyed since the spores cannot be removed fully from their surface.

• Mold causes dry rot

One of the ways in which the structural integrity of a building may be compromised by mold presence is the development of dry rot. Dry rot happens when there is fungal timber decay occurring in poorly ventilated conditions. The result is cracking and powdering of wood in the structure. This type of damage may not always be visible but often detected when some kind of renovation is in progress.

The mold causing this type of damage is referred to as black mold and can grow in any area of the property that is dark and humid. It feeds on cellulose, the substance that gives wood its strength and can put the whole structure at risk since most homes are constructed of wood and wood by products. 

The wood then breaks down in composition and may require a full scale replacement.

• Mold presence causes health hazards 

Mold does not only hold the potential to damage the property but also impact the health of its occupants. This is because while mold itself is neither toxic nor poisonous, it is toxigenic in nature. This means that it has the potential to produce toxins. When unattended, prolonged presence of mold on the premises can often lead to serious health conditions such as persistent coughing and respiratory issues for individuals with asthma.

Other health concerns commonly associated with mold and mildew presence can include issues like sinusitis, skin rashes, chronic fatigue and frequent sneezing fits for individuals.

Mold Remediation by ServiceMaster Restore

In the end, the best way to alleviate mold presence is to deal with its root cause by detecting water intrusion. For permanent results it is recommended to get mold remediation done through the expertise of professional mold removal like ServiceMaster Clean in Kansas. 

Once all mold has been eradicated from the premises, our ServiceMaster Clean Response experts will complete the job by performing full dry services, followed by complete sanitation and deodorization of the premises.

Home Remedies For Cleaning Tile And Grout

Putting tile in your bathroom can significantly increase the value of your home. It looks beautiful and is highly functional in moisture producing environments.

On the flip side, it can be difficult to keep clean especially as most commercial tile cleaners do not clean grout.

Purchasing a product for the purpose of cleaning the grout can leave a film on your shiny tile.

Plus, you probably already have some of the best items in your home for cleaning tile and grout.

So Many Options

An online search for home remedy cleaning products will net many results. Some suggest using vinegar mixed with water, some lemon juice, others swear by toothpaste. These are all effective cleaning methods; however, they often require many steps and a lot of scrubbing.

Personally, I do not enjoy spending hours cleaning. I prefer methods that require minimal time and effort. Of course, it also has to be easy to make; I am not a chemist.

Three Little Ingredients

It may surprise you to learn that baking soda, vinegar, and water can be used either alone, or mixed, to clean many types of surfaces in your home. Tile and grout is no exception: it is effective and relatively simple to make:

1. Place some vinegar in a spray bottle.
2. Make a paste using baking soda and water.
3. Spray your floor with the vinegar.
4. Using a toothbrush, rub the baking soda mixture into the grout lines. This will produce some bubbling foam; do not be alarmed. It is the reaction of the vinegar and baking soda. Think of it as “scrubbing bubbles”.
5. Let the mixture work in for about 15 minutes.
6. Spray again with vinegar.
7. Rinse well using warm water.
8. Use a soft cloth or squeegee to dry.

Your tile should be shiny, and your grout should be clean and free of mold. If for some reason this method didn’t do the trick for you, repeat the process, but this time allow the mixture to set longer. You can generally allow up to 8 hours without causing harm to tile and grout.

Things to Remember

It is always wise to test any product on your tile prior to use. While this remedy works well, the vinegar has a mild acidic content.

If your tile has an adverse reaction to acids, do not try this method. Instead, use water in your spray bottle. You will have to scrub more, but it’s much better than ruining your tile. You can also try other methods that don’t require harmful chemicals.

Many experts recommend sealing your grout after each cleaning. Grout is made with sand and therefore very porous. Sealing the grout keeps moisture and mold from soaking into the surface. It is a laborious and time consuming process, so I wouldn’t recommend resealing after each cleaning session. Personally, I reseal about once a year applying several coats.

Using the method described above prior to resealing removes all the dirt, mold, and debris leaving a clean surface for sealer application.

Please call 316.413.5750 to set up your Tile & Grout cleaning, refinishing and burnishing appointment.

Hoarding Clean Up Service

Hoarding Cleanup Services, when completed properly, help the individual dealing with the hoarding disorder get their life back. If you need hoarding help, know a hoarder that is ready for a fresh start or have recently become responsible for a property that has a hoarding collection ServiceMaster by Best can help.

Our specialized hoarding cleanup team is made up of passionate and understanding professionals that recognizes this process takes time. We want to help everyone that lives or frequents an environment that has seen excessive hoarding by supporting them in deciding how they want to take control. If you are in, or near Wichita, Kansas, Derby, El Dorado, contact us for our courteous hoarding professionals to assist you.

Specialized Hoarder Cleaning Services

Hoarding cleanup is a service that helps you sort through all of your items. Hoarders seem to seek out help when their condition makes it hard to live, have people over and discourages them from enjoying the things they use to. A hoarding disorder can take over someone’s life…but with the proper help, restoration is possible. We will not only clean, sort and organize the collections but we can also give you tools and contacts to help you maintain the environment.

Hoarding Cleanup Process

Anxiety, embarrassment, loss of control, overwhelmed…these are all common and frequent feelings someone with a hoarding disorder experienced. Whether it be hourly, weekly, monthly or yearly, our team thinks any amount of time feeling like this is too much. The truth of the matter is not every item a hoarder saves will be useful in the future.

And our team can help with the process of determining if the item will cause more harm than good when left in your home. It is understandable to be sentimental about items, but not every item is worthy of a place in your home and too many items risk the health and life of everyone in the environment – family, friends, pets, even your safety. ServiceMaster by Best will help you find a balance and keep it.

Certified Hoarding Help

Bring your home back to a clean, orderly, healthy and organized state with the help of ServiceMaster by Best. We won’t pile bags at the end of your street, or trash everything. We have a method that will help you detach from the items that are no longer needed in your home. Doing so will allow the important items to have a place in your home that are easily accessible and proudly displayed.

Contact ServiceMaster by Best if you need hoarding cleanup services in Wichita, Kansas, Derby and El Doraro and surrounding areas at (316) 413-5750.

The Structural Drying Process Explained

When considering your partnership with a restoration vendor for your business, call Service Master by Best in Wichita 24 hours a day. The quicker you call us, the faster we respond. (316) 413-5738.

If you’re looking for a good recipe for disaster, take a beautiful home or building and just add water. Easy breezy. Indeed, huge amounts of water and moisture left behind after a water disaster event is bad news for properties.

Water can seep into walls, floors, basements, and even ceilings, promoting the disintegration of architectural components. Furthermore, the presence of water and moisture can also encourage the growth of molds and bacteria, putting the health of your loved ones at risk.

After a water disaster, humidity levels indoors tend to rise, creating a distinct foul and musty odor that is very hard to remove. Sometimes, however, water damage is not very apparent, leading property owners to believe that remediation procedures are no longer necessary. Nonetheless, if you don’t have the expertise nor the tools necessary to evaluate the extent of water damage in your property, it is best to get the advice of a professional restoration company.

Ideally, comprehensive structural drying should be performed in the property within 24 hours. The steps include procedures to remove the floodwater, evaporate the remaining moisture, dehumidify the air, and track moisture levels to ensure that the drying process is thorough.

• Water Extraction – This involves extracting most of the floodwater out of the property using special water pumps.
• Evaporation – Increasing the rate of evaporation is done with the help of air moving machines or air flow equipment.
• Dehumidification – Dehumidifying machines will also used in order to counterbalance the humidity being introduced by the evaporation procedure.
• Moisture Mapping – Moisture mapping will be conducted using moisture meters, thermal imaging devices, and other technologies in order to accurately determine the moisture levels around the property.

Depending on the severity of the water damage in your property, additional procedures may be required. These include deodorization and disinfection if your property was affected by black water flooding, as well as reconstruction if the water damage is so serious that certain parts of your home or building needs repair or complete replacement.

If you want to know more about structural drying service and water damage restoration, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with ServiceMaster Clean in Wichita by calling 316-413-5738.

Include Air Duct Cleaning in Building's Maintenance

With the fall maintenance season approaching, it’s time to consider what’s necessary to get your heating system ready for winter. When you call for preventive maintenance on the heating equipment itself, it would also be wise to schedule a commercial air duct cleaning. The air ducts in your commercial space have no doubt been directing cool air into your facility all summer long. Before winter gets here, have the ducts checked and cleaned by a professional duct cleaning service. You’ll see significant benefits in heating system efficiency and performance, consistency of heating, and indoor air quality.

The Need for Commercial Air Duct Cleaning

If the air ducts are not maintained and kept clean, you can experience problems such as:

• Dramatically reduced indoor air quality: Poor IAQ results when airborne particulates enter the ducts through gaps between sections and are then distributed along with conditioned air. Accumulations of dirt or other deposits inside the ducts can also be loosened over time and blown out into your facility.
• Problems with employee and customer health: Reduced indoor air quality can cause health problems related to airborne particulates or disease that can be more easily transmitted through faulty ducts. Material such as mold, animal or insect nests, dirt, and rodent droppings in the duct work can have significant effects on respiratory health.
• Wasted energy and money: Clogged, loosened, or damaged duct work can let conditioned air escape unused as the air travels along the duct network. This wastes energy and money, both because you’ve lost air that’s already been heated or cooled, and because more air must be conditioned to sustain indoor temperatures.

Benefits of Commercial Air Duct Cleaning

Commercial air duct cleaning offers substantial benefits for businesses, manufacturing facilities, offices, retail stores, and other commercial buildings.

• Improved indoor air quality: Clean ducts will not contain any materials that can be sent into your indoor spaces along with conditioned air. After a duct cleaning and inspection, loose sections will be reseated, connections will be sealed, and the chance of particulate infiltration will be reduced. Your indoor spaces will smell fresher and cleaner, which will make them more appealing to employees and customers.
• Improved facility safety: Any potentially hazardous or flammable material will be removed during a duct cleaning. Accumulations of dust, oil, or other material that could cause a fire will be scrubbed away.
• Less waste of energy and money: Clean ducts will provide a clear and open pathway for conditioned air to travel into your indoor areas. There will be no blockages that can interfere with airflow. Air leaks will be sealed and conditioned air will not be able to escape from the seams and connections in the duct network.

What to Look For in a Commercial Air Duct Cleaning Company

Ask your HVAC professional if his company also does duct cleaning. If so, have your duct work evaluated. If not, ask for a referral to a reliable source for a commercial air duct cleaning.

• Check references and reputation of any company you’re considering hiring for duct cleaning services.
• Ask if the cleaning company belongs to any professional industry organizations, such as the National Air Duct Cleaners Association (NADCA). Membership in such groups indicates a company that is likely concerned with upholding ethical standards and industry’s best practices.
• Make sure the duct work is inspected thoroughly and that you are given a report on the condition of the ducts before cleaning begins.
• Ask questions about the process until you understand what will be done and what the results will be.
• Get a written contract, signed by you and the contractor, that specifies exactly what will be done during the duct cleaning process.

Our goal is to help educate our customers about Plumbing, HVACR, Fire Protection, and Alarm Systems in Mechanical, Commercial, and Residential settings.

For more information on commercial air duct cleaning and its many benefits, or to view projects we’ve worked on, visit our website!

3 Non-Toxic Ways to Clean Mold

Mold—that icky, fuzzy stuff that likes to lurk in high corners just a few feet beyond your reach. And the worst part about mold? Sometimes you don’t even see it immediately, as mold may be growing in your home and you don’t even know it. That’s because the fuzzy stuff loves dark, warm, humid places to live. Your basement, kitchen and bathroom are at the most risk for mold and bacteria growth because they are in constant contact with moisture.

When the conditions are right, mold can grow within 24-48 hours. Leaving mold untreated can cause respiratory illnesses as well as be a major factor for year-round allergies. It’s also unseemly and can give guests in your home the wrong impression of your hygienic habits. For all these reasons, it’s so important to kill mold at first sight.

Before you grab a damp towel and think that’s all you’ll need to kill it, consider these three household solutions for truly eliminating mold from your abode.

1. Hydrogen Peroxide

When you want to know how to get rid of mold, know that hydrogen peroxide is your new best friend. Hydrogen peroxide is an anti-fungal, anti-viral and anti-bacterial solution that kills mold effectively on a variety of materials such as kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, floors and walls.

To kill mold: Pour 3% concentration hydrogen peroxide into a spray bottle. Saturate the moldy surface completely and leave it to sit for ten minutes. Next, scrub the area to remove all of the mold and mold stains. And finally, wipe the surface down to remove residual mold and spores. You’ll want to take extra care if the mold is growing on delicate surfaces, as hydrogen peroxide can act as a bleach.

2. Vinegar

Chances are, you probably already have vinegar in your home. This magic elixir makes meals taste wonderful and stains disappear with equal potency. Vinegar is a mild acid which can kill 82% of mold species. (Baking soda is often used along with vinegar for killing different species of mold.)

To kill mold: Use white distilled vinegar and pour it into a spray bottle without watering it down. Spray the vinegar onto the moldy surface and leave it to sit for an hour. Finally, wipe the area clean with water and allow the surface to dry. Any smell from the vinegar should clear within a few hours, but if it lingers, you can freshen up the space with bowls of lemon water around the area.

3. Baking Soda

Baking soda is a mild, white mineral powder, that can be used to kill mold in your home, plus it is safe for your family and pets. In addition to killing mold, it will absorb moisture to help keep mold away.

To kill mold: Add one quarter of a tablespoon of baking soda to a spray bottle of water and shake until it has dissolved. Spray the moldy area with the baking soda and water solution, then use a sponge or scrub brush to remove all the mold from the surface. Next, rinse the surface with water to remove any residual mold on the surface. Finally, spray the area again and let the surface dry. (This will kill any left-over mold and prevent the mold from returning).

All of these solutions are great non-toxic alternatives to chemical-based cleaners. Not only are they safe to use and safe for the environment, all of these products are inexpensive and easy to find in your local store.

Mold is something you don’t want to ignore. The respiratory problems, allergic reactions and unseemly sights all add up to reasons to really get that stuff out of your home. Luckily, when it comes to products that kill mold, you probably have most of the ingredients in your house. And if you need help with a good deep cleaning of your home, just give The Maids a call at 1-800-The-MAIDS. We’re always ready to lend a helping hand!

Contact ServiceMaster Restore on 316-540-5317 or Visit us at smbybest.com and let us get to work making things right again.