How to Sanitize and Disinfect Exterior Spaces
Hi Everyone,
Hope you are all hanging in there. Thank goodness for the sun this week and the warmer weather in the forecast that allows us to get outside and easily get some fresh air and a break from all the stress on the television and screens.
I wanted to reach out today with some helpful tips today on how to keep the exterior of your home and your outdoor living space clean and safe. In fact you might even be able to apply some of this to some of your indoor spaces.
Since many of us are working from home now and following the government’s protocols for social distancing were finding that with everyone stuck at home it’s a good time to get a jump on that spring cleaning. Since we are spending so much time at home it makes sense to make our home as comfortable and desirable as possible.
With that said, it’s a bit painful trying to find household cleaning chemicals right now!
The BC Center for Disease Control identified both bleach and alcohol (70%) as effective cleaning solutions to disinfect and kill bacteria, viruses and other nasties. You can actually make your own disinfectant mixture by doing the following:
- For large outdoor spaces we recommend purchasing a pump up sprayer. For smaller areas or counter tops a spray bottle would work. (you can get them at rona, home hardware etc)
- Prepare a bleach solution by mixing:
1 part bleach to 9 parts water
- Before you disinfect and sanitize the surfaces its recommended to clean them first from dirt, debris, etc.
- After you clean the area, spray down the bleach solution over the entire area.
- Avoid electrical outlets (bleach conducts electricity), unpainted or unstained wood (will discolour it), clothing (will discolour it) as well as copper/brass (could oxidize it).
- Let the mixture dwell for 5-10 minutes
- Rinse off the mixture with water (garden hose pressure is fine!)
Be sure to also take the following precautions:
- Do this in a well ventilated area – exterior cleaning is best
- Never mix bleach and vinegar (or any other acidic cleaner) This mixture produces chlorine gas, which can cause coughing, breathing problems, etc.
- Never mix bleach and ammonia. It will produce a toxic gas called chloramine.
- Never mix bleach and rubbing alcohol – produces chloroform which is highly toxic
The solution we use in our Softwash Truck is a proportioned yet strong mixture of soap, sodium hypochlorite (main ingredient in bleach) and water. Our tanks and equipment is just much larger scale, we carry 55 gallons of bleach and we can spray the solution out at 5 gallons per minute.
If you are interested in regularly disinfecting your entrance-ways, common areas or outdoor living spaces or any other exterior cleaning to brighten and make your home more desirable such as exterior window cleaning, gutter cleaning, or a house wash we would love to help!
Contributed by: Brandon Gawdun – Owner of Next Level Window Cleaning and Foremost expert in home cleaning services.
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