WHMI Highlights PuroClean’s Coronavirus Cleanup

At PuroClean of Mid-Michigan, we are working with businesses to help them reopen with a clean start. Our Nick Aiello was featured in the WHMI News Small Business Spotlight where he shared insights on our coronavirus cleanup process.

Hear more about our special 3-step process in the interview below with WHMI News:

Step 1: initial cleaning with microfiber cloths
Step 2: fogging of the entire space
Step 3: clean and disinfect the space

Unsure of what you need to do to keep your customers and employees safe? We’re here to help!

Click to listen to the full interview on WHMI 93.5.

Transcript:

WHMI: WHMI and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We here at WHMI want to do our part to make you aware of small businesses that are essential and up and operating and doing different things that they may normally be doing during this time and one of the local small businesses that are helping those that are reopening up is Puroclean of Howell and Nick Aiello joining us from PuroClean. Good morning Nick.

Nick: Morning guys, how are you?

WHMI: We’re doing very well and you know as businesses start to reopen PuroClean is a special type of business to help them do that. So you’re actually helping businesses get back up and ready to serve the public. Let’s talk a little about that.

Nick: Sure so in trade, we’re a disaster relief company. Up until this point really we’ve been specializing in water, mold, fire damage, and then COVID-19 happened and all of a sudden everyone’s dealing with a new kind of crisis right. So we’ve kind of shifted gears and we’re more of it in its janitorial and cleaning company now. So what we’re doing is we’re offering businesses peace of mind really more than anything else by coming in and doing a deep cleaning of their office, their restaurant, I mean we’re cleaning churches, were cleaning schools, before they so to reopen their doors.

WHMI: Now when as you said before you were more into like a damage control or damaged after the damage happens to like a fire or a water flood type damage. What’s the difference in the products and techniques you’re using now from what you use back then?

Nick: Sure so in restoration, a lot of what we do is we do a demo and then we bring everything back to whole. What we’re doing now is we are using EPA certified products to go in and clean high touch surfaces, handles, doorknobs, railings, steps, office space. We’re carpet cleaning and everything that we use is non-toxic. So you know the last thing you want to do is go from we’re in the middle of a crisis and we’ve got this pandemic and then now all a sudden we’re pumping buildings full of pesticides or anything like that.

WHMI: Right, don’t touch the poison.

Nick: Right.

WHMI: So when things, whenever that is, come back to normal I mean I’m assuming you’ll pick up your mitigation end of the business once that picks back up, but do you think this part of the business is gonna maybe stay kind of a focus as well because I think as we move forward we’re gonna be much more aware of you know the presence of bacteria or viruses.

Nick: Absolutely. I think everyone’s gonna have it at the back of their mind even once you know we’re back up to 100% and everything’s re-opened. So what we’re offering is we’ll come in and we’ll clean you know the first time around just a really deep clean before the business goes and opens their doors back up and we’re already signing people up for continuation cleaning. So yeah you know once a month, once a quarter. We’ve got a couple of businesses already that are looking for, hey can you come in every other week?

WHMI: So what type of a – let’s just say do you do things like jimps for example? Are you gonna walk you look take like a – I’m gonna assume like for lack of a better term like a mist gun or to mist everything it in one fall swoop or how does that all work? Is there gonna be you know spray it and wipe it or just a big kind of like we used to bomb for bugs at restaurants and I’m sure for lack of better terms you know what I mean? So how does that work for the businesses? When you’re coming back to do that maintenance if you want to call it that.

Nick: So we’ve established a three-step protocol that we follow. So the first thing we do is we go through and we clean everything and that’s just with a microfiber cloth because the fact of the matter is spraying disinfectant or anything like that doesn’t do any good unless the building’s clean, to begin with. So we go through we clean and then the mister that you’re talking about we call it a fogger, we go through and we fog to the entire building and that does. It leaves like a mist, it’s like a garden hose kind of texture almost, with a real fine mist and that’ll leave a residue behind. So then we go through with the microfiber cloth again and then we disinfect everything. So it’s a three-step protocol really.

WHMI: So for businesses and again we’ll just use a gym as an example a place where you’re gonna have you normally you have a lot of people in and out a lot of touch surfaces, people in close proximity to each other, you know is that something that you would see a business may be doing on a weekly basis you know maybe daily as they start to come back and then lasts or how often does that need to be done?

Nick: So the nice thing we’ll do with companies like a bit like a gym let’s say, is they already have a maintenance staff on hand so we’ll work with establishing protocol with existing maintenance staff. So that they’re not having to have us come in every single day and then maybe we come in once a month and do a really deep clean.

WHMI: Let’s talk about some of the other businesses that you would that are coming to you for this type of service. You know as I’m gonna assume maybe some restaurants or things of that nature?

Nick: Yeah, so we’ve been doing a lot of stuff with restaurants and offices and the nice thing about them is they’ve been closed already for I mean it seems like forever, but what we’re going on like five, six weeks now right. So they’re already doing the right thing by not having anyone in the building and what we’re doing is we’re going through the three-step protocol that I walked you through already and we’re we’re giving them the peace of mind so that their employees feel like they’re coming back to a safe environment.

WHMI: And that’s important too because a lot of folks you know if you’ve got kids say kids that work in restaurants or even you know a family member you want them to be safe when they get to work and then of course when they come home you want them to return that way too. So Nick tell us a little about how folks can get a hold of PuroClean of Howell.

Nick: So the best way to get a hold of us honestly is through our phone number so and that’s five one seven two nine two eight seven zero zero that lines good twenty-four hours as we are first and foremost a disaster company. So we get phone calls at all hours of the night dealing with some pumps or fires or anything else.

WHMI: Mold issues and things of that nature too. You know it brings up a point it is so in the middle of this shutdown if you have a mitigation call I mean how do you guys have to handle that differently?

Nick: We’ve got multiple teams that we’re working with. So we’ve got a restoration team that exclusively does the reconstruction. We’ve got a mitigation team and right now we’re looking at three or four different teams that are focusing strictly on these COVID cases.

WHMI: Alright. We appreciate you checking in this morning to be a part of our spotlight. Again Nick Aiello from PuroClean of Howell. Thanks, Nick.

Nick: Yep, you guys have a good one, thank you.

WHMI: This has been another business spotlight focusing on essential Livingston County area businesses that are open and serving the public during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. If you’d like your business to be considered for the spotlight, submit your story by logging onto whmi.com and clicking the spotlight link. Let’s all support our local businesses whenever possible to help our economy through this difficult time. Be listening for the next business spotlight with Mike and John in the morning on 93.5.