(UPDATED) Bathroom deep cleaning: your checklist

The reason we feel so passionately about deep cleaning and like to blog about it so often is twofold.  Firstly, we firmly believe that a thorough deep clean is the bedrock upon which a truly a hygienic bathroom is based, and secondly, what customers think is a deep clean is very often just daily cleaning.  It’s our mission to create awareness in our subscribers and customers alike regarding the difference between the two.

So, how can you tell the difference between daily cleaning and deep cleaning, and why does it matter?

The reason it matters has to do with my first point: the fact that a real deep clean forms the foundation for a hygienic bathroom. It does this by taking your bathroom bacteria count down to zero. Only from a zero base can you implement ongoing hygiene solutions to prevent cross-contamination and encourage good health.  

A good example is odour control. Daily cleaning gets rid of bacteria on accessible surfaces and will – in the short term – leave the bathroom smelling clean. But very quickly the odour issue will reoccur, as both the chemical products and the equipment available to daily cleaners are no match for the buildup of bacteria in really hard to reach places.

A thorough deep clean will tackle the origin of an odour problem by eliminating the bacteria that causes the odour in the first place.  Once bacteria have been knocked back to zero, ongoing solutions such as eco caps in the urinals and toilet sanitisers will prove effective at combating odour in the periods between deep cleans.

But if you simply try to implement an odour control solution like eco-cap without having first brought the odour causing bacteria under control, you’re destined to sit with an ongoing problem. All of Initial’s products are designed to complement each other and to be most effective when layered upon a foundation that includes regular deep cleaning AND daily cleaning.

Here’s a brief checklist to run through when trying to spot the difference between deep cleaning and daily cleaning:

• Does the deep cleaning look similar to your daily cleaning?
  The answer should be a definitive NO.  Daily cleaning should include (but not be limited to) the cleaning of all basins, toilets and bathroom fixtures. Deep cleaning should include the cleaning of areas that are generally inaccessible to your daily cleaner, such as u-bends and bottle traps, as well as walls (the tops of which are generally unreachable unless a ladder is employed).
• Are your cleaners using the same products as those they use every day?
  Again, the answer should be a definitive NO if what is occurring is truly a deep clean. Deep cleaning from Initial uses patented bio-enzyme preparations which are 100% environmentally friendly and compatible with septic tanks, in order to remove the buildup of scale, dirt and faecal deposits. 
• Are your cleaners using the same equipment as those they use every day?
  Specialised equipment should be used for deep cleaning. Initial is the only deep cleaning service provider to offer antibacterial fogging as part of our deep clean. Antibacterial fogging is delivered using specialised machinery which diffuses a high-level disinfectant in an aerosol state throughout the bathroom. The aerosol droplets reach into every crack and crevice and cover every exposed surface of the bathroom, penetrating the places daily cleaning just can’t reach.

Here are a few other things that you can look out for your washroom if you want to determine whether you are really receiving a deep clean:  

• Odour:
  As mentioned above, malodour is not always caused by bodily waste, it is often the byproduct of bacteria. A bathroom that is receiving regular deep clean treatments should not have an odour issue, as odour-causing bacteria is eliminated. Daily cleaning is able to mask an odour issue, but the equipment and chemicals available to daily cleaners are no match for the buildup of bacteria in the u bend, the urinal bottle trap or under the flushing rim.
• Scale:
  Encrusted scale on the inside of your toilet and basins is a sure sign that you haven’t received a deep clean in a while. Most daily cleaning products and equipment are simply not sufficient to prevent the build-up of scale.   A regular deep-clean every three months will take this buildup back down to zero.
• Urine, faeces and other bodily waste products found in deep recesses, flushing rims and outlets:
  Daily cleaning, however good, can’t always get to all the residue that collects in particularly hard to reach places, such as flushing rims.

So what does a deep clean from Initial entail?

Initial’s Ablution Hygiene Treatment is delivered by trained hygiene specialists to sanitise toilets, bathroom fixtures and surfaces. Regular ablution hygiene treatments (we suggest quarterly for optimal hygiene, but this is dependant on the size of your washroom and how heavily in use it is) will ensure that even the most impossible to reach places – such as bottle traps and U-bends – are cleared of uric acid and scale buildup (one of the leading causes of pipe blockages) and that tiles and sinks are cleaned, de-greased and left sparkling.  Patented bio-enzyme preparations, which are 100% environmentally friendly and compatible with septic tanks, are used to remove the buildup of scale, dirt and faecal deposits.

In addition, a deep clean from Initial includes antibacterial fogging, which compared to manual cleaning, is an extremely fast, efficient and water-wise service which significantly reduces the overall bacteria count in a bathroom. Read more about the service and its benefits here. Antibacterial fogging is also extremely water-wise due to the fact that only an extremely small amount of disinfectant is required once in aerosol format, to cover a large space.

DID YOU KNOW THAT WE OFFER DEEP CLEANING SERVICES FOR YOUR HOME BATHROOM TOO?

Contact us here for more information. This service is currently available in Western Cape only.

Contact Initial for more information on deep cleaning, or call us on 0800 777788 to book a free survey of your bathrooms.