[kelly acs]

I just received a letter from an estate agent we work for. They need us to clean a 3 bed house where an old lady and her cat have died and been left undiscovered for several weeks. They want us to attempt to clean the carpet where she died. We are willing to do the job but not sure of A. what to charge and B if the staining will come out? Anyone who has had to do similar and could share any advice i would appriciatte it. Thank you.

[darrenbale]

Sounds like a nice one. 

Why don't they just get a new carpet?

[Russell Morgan]

if theres any blood involved your supposed to use a different machine that can only be used to extract blood, i would quote very high

[*Professional Carpet Care]

I just received a letter from an estate agent we work for. They need us to clean a 3 bed house where an old lady and her cat have died and been left undiscovered for several weeks. They want us to attempt to clean the carpet where she died. We are willing to do the job but not sure of A. what to charge and B if the staining will come out? Anyone who has had to do similar and could share any advice i would appriciatte it. Thank you.

Personally, I would advise them to have the carpets replaced. Do you really want to contaminate your machinery? Is it fair for the next tenant to come in, perhaps with children, and have them play on carpet that has been stained with human blood, excrement, body fluids, eggs, lice, flies, flys etc etc? If you clean the carpet the chances are that the underlay also needs replacing and the sub floors properly cleaned?

[murky]

Having done some of this over the years and there have been several posts on this previously.

You are supposed to remove the carpet as its a health hazard now. It is absorbant and will keep some of the bacteria in it. You wouldnt expect a customer to keep a severly flooded carpet would you because of the bacteria  well this is what you are expecting the following occupier to live with.

Work out a price to responsibly remove the carpet, have it bagged up and taken to suitable disposal people (you will need waste carriers licence, have you got one?) and charge to wash down walls floors, clean and sanitize etc etc. Much more money in that.

Contact the BICS, BDMA  and the National Flood School who all teach on trauma cleaning and they will tell you the same.

And no Russell you dont keep a seperate machine for it, you just charge to clean and sanitize the machine and pipes before you use it for the next job, common sense really.

Murky

[The Great One]

I just received a letter from an estate agent we work for. They need us to clean a 3 bed house where an old lady and her cat have died and been left undiscovered for several weeks. They want us to attempt to clean the carpet where she died. We are willing to do the job but not sure of A. what to charge and B if the staining will come out? Anyone who has had to do similar and could share any advice i would appriciatte it. Thank you.

Hi Kelly

Just finished my Trauma scene course yesterday, we would be happy to take it on for you and obviously come to some arrangement, best you call me and we talk.

07941 923903

Regards

Martin

[kelly acs]

Yep have just spoken to the agent and discussed removing the carpet and cleaning the house. He seems happy with that. Thanks for the advice much appriciatted like I said before we havnt been asked to do a grim job like this before so was a bit daunting 

P.s Martin thatns but we really need all the work we can get right now no matter how grim it is. Cheers for the offer though. 

[darrenbale]

Good news that they are getting rid of the carpet. got to be the better option. Cleaning should be much easier for the rest of the property without it there. Have you been in to view the place yet? just asking as you don't want to turn up to do the job then find that its alive with pests.

[The Great One]

Hi Kelly

Always pleased to help.

Please be careful of the maggots & flies, careful of the hepatitis B & C, HIV, aids, Radiation disease (if the deceased was having radiotherapy for any cancers), e.coli, salmonella, parasites carrying tapeworm, fleas or ringworm, fungi, bacteria, or flesh eating maggots.

You need to know before you enter what diseases he had, what medication he was taking, any treatments he was undergoing, whether the pet was eating him before he died, if the pet was taking anything or had any health issues, any needles in the area.

By law you need an exposure control plan, you have to adhere to stringent H&S requirements, have your housekeeping & welfare facilities procedures in order, by law you need to give your risk assessment and method statements about how you are going to do the work and what procedures are in place to protect both yourself and your staff, have they and you had you Hep B shots and the paperwork to back this up (these need to be kept for 30 years) that you PL ins covers you for blood bourne pathogens, what decontamination procedures you have in place.

By law you have to dispose of all and any sharps (needles, glass sharp bits of bone) in a proper sharps container, which by law has to be labelled with the proper bio hazard signs, who is transporting it with consignment numbers (kept for 30 years) specify in your risk assessment what PPE is to be used.

Please also make sure you are in compliance with the 1974 H&S at work act, The management of H&S at work regs 1999.

If she was lain on the carpet for 'several weeks' then she would of putrefied and the sub structure may have to come up as well (floorboards & joists) also you will need some serious odour control.

Get it right it should a nice earner, get it wrong, go to jail, do not pass go, do not collect.

Best of luck

Regards

Martin

[Jim_77]

Oooh!! Look who's swallowed the training manual

[The Great One]

Hi

Ha, ha. weird isn't it, you come off these training courses with your head full of information, there was so much info on the course I'm amazed I retained so much, just goes to show how in-depth it was.

Regards

Martin

[markpowell]

Martin,
I am looking to go on a similar course early next year, which course did you attend and would you recommend it?
Mark

[The Great One]

Hi

Mark I cannot recommend the NFS enough.

I did the Trauma Remediation course, 3 days. It is very intensive, Laurence is very knowledgeable and crams loads in with H&S, actual cleaning, chemistry, biology, blood, odour and mould issues, BBV's (blood bourne Virus's) everything you need.

Take a strong stomache with you!

Regards

Martin

[ollie]

Hi

Mark I cannot recommend the NFS enough.

I did the Trauma Remediation course, 3 days. It is very intensive, Laurence is very knowledgeable and crams loads in with H&S, actual cleaning, chemistry, biology, blood, odour and mould issues, BBV's (blood bourne Virus's) everything you need.

Take a strong stomache with you!







Regards

Martin

how do you get this sort of work? do you approach the police, social services etc? or advertise? I wouldnt mind getting into it myself.

[Gerry Styles]

Done two trauma jobs this year, not a pleasant experiance

[kinder clean]

I Really can't understand an estate agent considering cleaning a carpet that's been soiled this way, not for domestic carpets anyway, if word got out that the estate agent had cleaned a carpet in such a way rather than spend a few quid more replacing it, the damage to his name would be far worst surely!!

Fair enough if sombody had popped there cloggs in the middle of a large commercial carpet and lay undiscovered for several weeks (pretty unlikely) the cost of replacing would be much higher so acceptable.

The mind boggles.

Paul 

[The Great One]

Hi

By what Kelly has said it is a 3 bed house not commercial, so a body laying undiscovered for several weeks is sadly very common.

It cannot be cleaned, it has to be replaced, as well as the floorboards and maybe the joists.

Regards

Martin