Welcome to ServiceMaster Of Calgary Commercial Services

To the general public, these three terms — clean, disinfect, sanitize — are often used interchangeably. However, to a cleaning professional, these terms are not the same and can refer to very different outcomes. According to Public Health Canada and the U.S. Center for Disease Control, the definition of these terms are as follows:

Clean

This refers to the removal of visible dirt and debris through the use of soap or detergent and water. While this process may remove germs from surfaces, it does not necessarily kill the germs. This said, the mere act of germ removal lowers their numbers and does help in reducing the risk of infection.

Disinfect

With disinfection, germs are actually KILLED on surfaces through the use of chemicals. This process does not necessarily clean dirty surfaces or remove germs, but by killing germs on a surface after cleaning, it can further lower the risk of spreading infection.

Sanitize

Lastly, the term sanitize has its roots in the word “Sanitary” which is defined as “of or relating to health”. When you keep this in mind, to sanitize means lowering the number of germs on surfaces to a safe level, as judged by public health standards or requirements. This can be achieved by either cleaning and/or disinfecting surfaces to lower the risk of spreading infection.
Not to confuse you anymore, but as an added bonus, we’ll also define the term “sterilize” which is the process in which chemicals are used to kill ALL microbial life including bacteria, viruses, spores and fungi. This is a process that is very rarely undertaken in a facility outside of a healthcare setting.

So, for a cleaning professional, our disinfection process for your commercial facility is routinely a 2-step process - We clean first, then disinfect - in order to provide you with a sanitary facility in which to work!

Sources:

1. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/school/cleaning.htm
2. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/diseases-conditions/cleaning-disinfecting-public-spaces.html
3. https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/bp-cleaning-disinfection-sterilization-hcs.pdf?la=en
4. https://www.foodsafety.ca/blog/understanding-difference-between-cleaning-sanitizing-sterilizing

A key consideration in determining how often you should be disinfecting is based on the traffic level in your facility. As disinfection is for infection prevention, the goal is to help to mitigate surface-to-person transmission of pathogens. If your 10,000 SF office will be occupied by 5 staff and no visitors, you can likely disinfect less frequently than that same office which might house 60 staff and consistent visitors. Additional considerations include how often multiple people may be touching the same surface as well as whether an antimicrobial surface protectant has been applied. At minimum, however, we would recommend daily disinfection of high touch surfaces. If the traffic in your facility is high, we would recommend increasing this frequency to multiple times per day. For example, common elevator lobbies in an office tower should be disinfected multiple times per day, particularly at the entrance level.

ServiceMaster Clean has developed our proprietary Protect-3 Advance program to help protect the ongoing and continuous health and safety of our customers’ facilities and their occupants.  Our program provides you with solutions that help to:

1. Bring your facility to a healthy and safe state
2. Keep your facility in that healthy and safe state

Incorporated into our Program are state-of-the-art equipment to not only deliver the best cleaning and disinfection solutions to our customers but also provides you with scientific validation that we have done just as we promised – delivered to you a healthier and safer facility for you and your colleagues!

Depending on the cleaning method we use, drying time differs. The average drying time is anywhere from 1 to 6 hours.