When an outbreak occurs, it’s usually up to facility managers and custodial crews to tackle the problem. You have to make sure the chemical you choose for disinfection is capable of killing the specific pathogen you are targeting. Many disinfectants are rendered useless without the proper application. The best process is a clear and defined two-step process. First, remove soils first where microbes can hide. Second, sanitize or disinfect for the pathogen of concern. When you are ready to disinfect the affected area, dwell time (also referred to as contact time) is paramount. All EPA-registered disinfectants are labeled with a dwell time. This is the amount of time the product needs to be actually wet in order to kill the pathogen. Products will often naturally dry before 10 minutes are up. Look for a product with five minute or less contact time, because that ensures it has enough time to kill the germs you are attacking.

Promoting personal hygiene, such as hand washing and covering mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing, is the best way to make sure illness does not spread in your building. Also proactive daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces like desktops to remove organic soils that can host and harbor pathogens. The key to any illness is to avoid transferal. If you can break a link in the chain, then you have a chance in stopping an outbreak.

Another way to make sure that your facility is germ free is to  hire EcoCare to do a Deep Clean service that includes sanitizing your facility top to bottom. EcoCare can employ all of these tasks and more in  your facility today. We employ green cleaning techniques and are very successful in disinfecting offices. Call us today for a free quote!

(Credit: Cleaning & Maintenance Management Magazine)

The post Preventing an Outbreak in the Workplace first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

As cliché as it may sound, these days, time is money. And while cleaning windows yourself may seem like the most frugal option, hiring professionals is the only way to guarantee you’ll have immaculate windows in record time. Aside from saving yourself the time and hassle, there are a few more good reasons to you should consider hiring professional window cleaners.

First and foremost, a perfectly cleaned window will allow you to fully appreciate the view from your office or storefront. Second, a crystal-clear window will let more natural light into your office, cutting down on your need for artificial light, which can end up saving you money on your electric bill. The natural heat from the sun’s rays can also help warm your building in a more environmentally friendly way. Third, having your windows professionally cleaned on a regular basis can prevent the buildup of natural pollutants.

Lastly, the worst enemy of a window is pollution. Natural pollutants can lead to hard water marks and etching, which can severely damage the glass. Once damaged, you’ll have no choice but to replace it. And depending on how many windows were affected, replacing them can be quite costly. However, hiring professionals can help you avoid damaged windows, and the unexpected costs that come with replacing them. Not only will your windows be residue and streak-free, but professional window washers have a keen eye for the beginning stages of weather damage and can stop it before the window is ruined.

So while cleaning windows yourself may seem like an easy way to save money, it can end up costing you in the long run. Call EcoCare today to get a free quote for window cleaning! 512-339-9111

The post See 2025 Clearly With A Window Cleaning first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

EcoCare, a green cleaning company, offers a range of of services. From indoor to outside clean-up, we handle every job that involves trash removal and keeping the space clean and tidy. We also do carpet cleaning, steam cleaning, removal of stains, stripping and refinishing of hard surface floors, buffing and window cleaning. For clients who have no need for a general clean-up and just need an actual area to be cleaned, we also offer one time floor work, construction cleans and make ready cleans.

Cleaning is one activity that may be done by either the business owner or an employed cleaner. What is important is it is constantly done to avoid health hazards caused by unhygienic surroundings. Let EcoCare take care of this task for you!

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The best way to remind employees to use hand sanitizer is by making it easily accessible and always placing it within sight. It’s important to place hand sanitizer near and around high-touch surfaces and communal areas, including:

Restrooms: If employees are in a rush and don’t think to stop and rinse with soap and water, providing a backup option near sinks and doors ensures germs don’t escape the restrooms.

Entrances and exits: A single door knob could potentially be the cause of a widespread illness in the workplace. In addition to frequently disinfecting door knobs, light switches and other high-touch surfaces, make sure to provide a hand sanitizing station near entrances and exits to limit the spread of infection.

Cafeterias, kitchen areas and break rooms: One of the hot spots for germs in an office is the break room and kitchen and if food is consumed with germ-ridden hands, it’s easy to digest the germs and become infected. Although hand sanitizer is not a replacement for hand washing, it can help eliminate certain germs in these areas.

Meeting rooms: Meeting rooms are often packed with employees, clients and other visitors who exchange handshakes, thus swapping germs. Providing guests and employees with an easy-to-access hand sanitizing station, either near the meeting room door or at the table, allows them to safeguard their hands against germs before and after the meeting takes place.

Employee desks: Desks, phones, keyboards and mice are key germ transfer points because people touch them so often. Considering that employees spend the majority of their day at their desks where they also eat, drink and even cough and sneeze, desks can become a hot spot for germs to reside. Placing individual hand sanitizers at desks keeps hand hygiene within reach.

In order to keep the workplace a healthy and thriving environment, it’s crucial that employers take into account the health of its employees. Providing hand sanitizer for employees, at desks and in communal areas, is just as essential as providing the right equipment and tools to do their job.

Another way to make sure that your facility is germ free is to  hire EcoCare to do a Deep Clean service that includes sanitizing your facility top to bottom. EcoCare is a Eco-friendly commercial cleaning company that provides service to the Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Memphis, Atlanta, Birmingham, Greenville & Columbia. 

Credit: Cleaning & Maintenance Management magazine

The post Simple Solution to Improving Workplace Health first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

Harmful chemicals that are usually found in commercial cleaning products are formaldehyde and ammonia. Exposure to these chemicals can create health issues such as, skin irritations, head aches, and respiratory problems.The more concentrated a chemical is the more harmful it will be.

The EPA also states that “using less hazardous products that have positive environmental attributes and taking steps to reduce exposure can minimize harmful impacts to custodial workers and building occupants, improve indoor air quality, and reduce water and ambient air pollution while also ensuring he effectiveness of cleaning in removing biological and other contaminants from the buildings interior”.

Lets face it, no one wants their employees to be out sick from being exposed to high amounts of chemicals!

The smart choice would be to choose an Eco-friendly cleaning service because they provide:

• • A healthy office and work environment
  • Clean air
  • Energy efficiency
  • Water conservation

So next time your company is hiring a commercial cleaning service be sure to ask if their products are environmentally safe.

EPA information about Eco-friendly cleaning products :http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/cleaning.htm#why

The post Why You Should Choose an Eco-Friendly Cleaning Service first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

• After cleaning floors, dry them quickly using air movers.
• Seal grout lines or porous tiles after the floors are dry. This helps to keep out the moisture that can infiltrate as a result of daily maintenance cleaning. A seal breathes and allows any moisture remaining below the surface to escape.
• Because efflorescence is more easily seen in dark colored grout, reduce the amount of water in the grout by choosing a sealer with a solvent carrier.

The post Grout Cleaning 101 first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

The ingredients that natural cleaning recipes call for the most are water, vinegar, baking soda, salt and lemon juice. Various combinations of these substances, along with some other minor ones, can allow you to effectively clean almost any surface of your office in a safe, inexpensive, green way. For glass surfaces, a good solution is made of half a gallon of water and 4 or 5 tablespoons of lemon juice. You may have heard about using old newspapers to wipe them down, but this is simply a bad idea. It can leave a big, shredded, inky mess. An old-fashioned wash cloth or an old shirt is a much better option.

To restore the shine to your old, wooden furniture, you can create a polish from two units of olive oil mixed with a unit of lemon juice. While most store-bought furniture polish is odorous and full of hazardous ingredients, this homemade concoction is effective, pleasant-smelling and even completely edible. If your furniture is made of vinyl, you can remove stains and get it shining using only a wash cloth dipped in lemon juice. To a greater degree than wood polishes, metal polishes are made with harsh chemicals. If you need to remove the tarnish from copper, brass or another metal surface, try using this recipe before going for the store-bought stuff. Create a paste by mixing together equal units of flour, salt and vinegar. Rub the metal surface down with a soft cloth dabbed in the paste. You should notice results fairly quickly.

Vinegar has a bonus use of being able to absorb the odor of paint fumes. Try leaving an open container of it in a room while you are painting. You can leave it there, while the paint dries, but remember to swap it out for a fresh vessel regularly.

Working in a clean office can make you feel great. EcoCare is a Commercial Cleaning Company that can provide all of your green cleaning needs. We pride ourselves on our knowledge of the most environmentally friendly products available on the market today.

The post Green Cleaning Solutions first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

The post Carpet Care Tips first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

Pretend you are the patron. Walk into the stall (or restroom if it’s a single patron restroom). With the lights on, take notice of the floor, the walls and tha backside of the stall door to provide tha patron’s view from the “throne”. Notice the floor drain with gunk around it. That gunk was most likely created by numerous toilets and urinals that have overflowed, leaving both visible and invisible fecal matter deposits.

Don’t forget to check the door. Next, turn around and notice the latch that secures the door. Remember: The person who has just used the facilities must grasp and turn the latch to exit the stall. Too often, when custodians clean, the stall door remains in the open position while they clean the toilet and surrounding areas. As a result, the side of the door people see while seated is often neglected by the custodian. While training your employees, ask them the following: Is the door clean? Has the latch been disinfected?

Check out what’s not visible to the naked eye. Put on your gloves and take out your pocket mirror. Look under the rim of the toilet and you will see visible bacteria growth. Look at the underside of the toilet bowl where the left-behind residue is brown and tacky. This is a source of odors.

Now, turn out the lights. Go into the stall and turn on a black light (or a light that produces ultraviolet light) and take note of what you observe. If it’s like most restrooms, those specks on the walls around the toilet are urine that has not been removed by cleaning staff. They also could be feces that have gone undetected and uncleaned for days at a time.

Call EcoCare today, where our highly trained staff can provide a complete clean of all of your restrooms.

Credit: J. Darrel Hicks with Cleaning & Maintenance Management

The post Restroom Cleanliness first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.

The workplace restroom is crawling with germs. Research has shown there are thousands of different species of bacteria on the floors and on other surfaces of public restrooms. Even worse, that bacteria is not simply lying dormant – it is actively multiplying and dispersing at alarming rates. In fact, a toilet can spray aerosolized feces as high as 15 feet into the air, and during the coure of 2 to 4 hours, bacteria can spread to more than 60 percent of frequently handled surfaces, such as door handles and sink edges. Handwashing is a great first step to ensuring all of this potentially harmful bacteria is removed from hands before building occupants leave the restroom. However, hand drying is where things can get dicey and has the potential to invite all of that bacteria back onto hands and further contaminate the facility. When considering which drying method to install into your facility’s restrooms – paper towels or hand dryers – here’s what you should consider.

The process of washing hands removes bacteria and brings it to rest on the surface of one’s hands. When testing paper towels after use, researches have discovered many of the bacteria previously on one’s wet hands are transferred to paper towels, as friction from the mechanical abrasive action of drying the hands is a key component of removing the bacteria. Hand dryers, however, while seemingly quicker and more convenient, literally suck up all of that restroom bacteria and blow it around the restroom and onto one’s just washed hands – leaving them just as dirty, or even dirtier, than before they were washed.

The University of Connecticut School of Medicine conducted a study that examined the bacterial growth across 36 university restrooms. They examined test plates exposed to 30 seconds of hand dryer air and plates exposed to normal restroom air – and then checked for bacterial growth. When hand dryers were off, the 2018 report said, they found very little bacteria present – about six colonies per plate. When the plates were exposed to 30 seconds of blown air, however, there were as many as 60 colonies growing on each plate.

When it comes to dollars and cents, hand dryers reign supreme. Paper towels also cost far more energy and money to manufacture when considering the cutting down of trees, manufacturing expenses and transporting expenses. Hand dryers, while creating less waste and long-term expense, can last for up to 7-10 years, while paper towels must be continually replaced. Facility managers have a lot of important decisions to make, many of which involve keeping those who come to work each day healthy and safe. When weighing the options between installing paper towels dispensers or hand dryers in workplace restrooms, decision makers must understand how imporant hand drying is to the process of removing potentially harmful bacteria. Paper towels may be a costlier option, but it is the choice that will keep employees the healthiest.

Source: Cleaning & Maintenance Magazine

The post Paper Towels vs. Hand Dryers first appeared on EcoCare Professional Building Cleaning Services.