How Deep Cleaning Improves Health and Safety

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Routine cleaning keeps a building presentable from one day to the next. It deals with what was used today: the bins, the restrooms, the floor people walked on. A deep clean deals with everything the routine walks past. We offer both, daily cleaning and periodic deep cleans, and after cleaning buildings since 1988 our view is that the two do different jobs. This article is about the second one: what it reaches, why that matters for health and safety, and when to plan it.

What a deep clean reaches

The simplest test of a building is to move something. One of the captions in our photo gallery reads: make sure to pull the refrigerator out to see what lurks underneath. What lurked under that one is in the photograph.

A deep clean goes looking for places like that.

• Under and behind. Refrigerators, vending machines, copiers, filing cabinets and the furniture that is never moved.
• Up high. Tops of cabinets and door frames, ledges, light fixtures and vent covers, where dust can sit for months.
• Deep in the carpet. The Carpet and Rug Institute recommends a professional deep cleaning every 12 to 18 months to remove embedded dirt and grime (CRI).
• Hard floors. Machine cleaning of the whole floor, out to the edges and corners a mop skims.
• Restroom and break room fixtures. The mineral residue that hard water leaves on faucets, sinks and toilets.
• Entrances. Mats, door tracks and thresholds, where shoes bring the dust in.

Dust: the health case

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that Americans spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, where the concentrations of some pollutants are often two to five times higher than typical outdoor concentrations, and that people bring soils and dusts indoors on their shoes and clothing (EPA). The same page lists dust mites, mold and particulate matter among the indoor pollutants that are asthma triggers, meaning that some people with asthma may have an attack after exposure. Routine cleaning removes the dust it can reach. The dust that settles above head height or under equipment stays in the building until someone goes after it.

In the Valley the supply never runs short. The National Weather Service defines the monsoon as June 15 through September 30, and its Phoenix office describes a dust storm as an advancing wall of dust and debris that may be miles long and several thousand feet high (NWS Phoenix). After a storm like that, the dust in a building may not be only on the floor. A deep clean takes it off the high surfaces too, with HEPA vacuums and microfiber cloths, so that it leaves the building.

Damp: the other health case

The EPA’s guide to mold in schools and commercial buildings says that mold requires water to grow, that indoor mold growth is controlled by controlling moisture, and that molds can produce allergens that trigger allergic reactions or even asthma attacks in people who are allergic to mold. It also notes that delayed or insufficient maintenance is associated with moisture problems in large buildings (EPA).

A deep clean is not mold remediation and should never be sold as one. What it does is open the places where slow leaks hide: the cabinet under the sink, the wall behind the refrigerator, the floor around the base of a toilet, the carpet under a window. Found early, a drip is a plumber’s visit. Found late, it is a different kind of job.

Floors and clutter: the safety case

OSHA’s rule for walking and working surfaces asks three things of an employer: that workplaces, passageways and storerooms are kept clean, orderly and sanitary; that workroom floors are kept clean and, as far as feasible, dry; and that walking surfaces are kept free of hazards such as loose boards, leaks and spills (OSHA 1910.22). Its sanitation standard adds that all places of employment are to be kept clean to the extent the nature of the work allows (29 CFR 1910.141).

Storerooms and passageways are named in that rule. They are often where boxes pile up and where a floor may not have been seen in a year. A deep clean clears those spaces down to the floor, which is a safety measure before it is a cleaning one.

When to plan a deep clean

• After the monsoon. Once the season has closed on September 30, it makes sense to take its dust out of an office, a store or a gym.
• Before the building’s big days. A church before Holy Week, a store before its busiest weeks, a clinic before an inspection.
• After construction or renovation. Post-construction cleaning means debris removal, dusting and a deep clean of every surface before anyone moves in.
• Between tenants. An empty suite is the easiest space to deep clean, because every surface can be reached.
• When the routine has stopped working. If a building is cleaned every night and still looks or smells tired, the routine may be cleaning on top of something it cannot reach.

What we will not claim

Deep cleaning is often sold as a way to raise productivity. We have no study to cite for that, so we make no claim about output, and we quote no number of sick days saved. The health and safety points above each have a source. The rest is our experience: a building that has had a proper deep clean is easier to keep clean afterward, because the routine is no longer working on top of what was underneath.

For what a deep clean has to deal with in our home city, from storm dust to hard water, see our page on commercial cleaning services in Mesa, AZ.

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