What to do after disinfection

When you can go back in

It depends on the method, the volume of the room and how intensive the treatment was. We always give the exact time on site — and that is not a formality but a safety matter.

If there are small children, elderly people or anyone with a respiratory condition in the household, we recommend waiting longer than the minimum. Tell us about that in your enquiry — it also affects the choice of method.

The absence of a smell is not the criterion for going back in — your nose adapts, the clock does not lie.

Human smell adapts within a few minutes, and the characteristic smell after ozone treatment can become unnoticeable before the room is ready. So go by the time you were given, not by how it feels.

Airing is not the tail end of the treatment — it is part of it. Without it the job is not finished.

Airing

After fogging and ozone treatment, airing is compulsory. In practice:

• Open the windows wide, not on the latch — short and intensive airing works better.
• If you can, create a through draught between opposite rooms — open windows at both ends.
• Switch on the extract ventilation in the bathroom and kitchen and let it run.
• Open the wardrobe and drawer doors if they were open during the treatment.
• Open the internal doors so the air changes throughout the flat, not just in one room.

In winter you air in exactly the same way, only more briefly and more intensively. Cold air is dry and holds little moisture, so it replaces the room air quickly. Worrying about heat loss is misplaced here: five minutes with the window wide open costs less than an hour with it on the latch, and the result is better.

If the flat is a new build with mechanical ventilation, check that the system is running at full rate rather than in night or economy mode. More on air exchange on the page about ventilation and mould prevention.

What to wipe down

• After fogging: surfaces that come into contact with food — kitchen worktops, tables, crockery if it was left out. Rinse with clean water, not with detergent.
• After ozone treatment: nothing needs wiping. Ozone breaks down into oxygen and leaves no residue. That is one of the practical advantages of the method.
• After surface treatment: only food surfaces; leave the rest as they are.
• Children's toys and baby equipment: if they were in the room during fogging, wipe them with water as well, even where that is not formally required.

The first days after treatment

In most cases life goes back to normal once the property has been aired and nothing special is needed. But there are situations where the following days are part of the job.

A concrete example. In a 75 m² three-room flat in Kengarags, flooded from the flat above, the treatment was done in two parts: the first immediately after the water was removed, the second after ten days of drying. In between, the client did nothing except keep the dryer running and resist laying a new floor covering. That pause is what decided the result.

The cause stays on your side

Treatment deals with the consequences. If the cause is damp, ventilation or a leak, fixing it is usually not our work — and that has to be said openly, because this is where most dissatisfaction comes from.

After the job we tell you exactly what we saw: where the damp is, whether the ventilation works, whether we suspect a leak, whether any material ought to be removed. That information is part of the service. But it does not replace a plumber, a roofer or the property manager's obligations.

If we said the ventilation needs sorting out and it does not get done, the treatment is a temporary fix. How temporary depends on the season: in summer the result can hold for months, but in the first heating season the problem often comes back in the same place.

What not to do

On that last point separately: a mould patch that has been painted over is not a solved patch. Paint hides the consequence, but the fungus stays in the material and within a few months it shows through the new coat. More detail: why mould comes back.