School and kindergarten disinfection

When it is ordered

• after illness has spread through a group or a class;
• during term breaks, as planned treatment;
• before the start of the school year;
• after refurbishment;
• if a smell or mould has appeared;
• after flooding or an incident.

In an education setting the client is almost never one person. The initiative often comes from the head or the nurse, the decision is taken by management, and payment and paperwork are handled by the municipality's or the setting's finance team. In practice that means the quote has to be written, with a scope that can be submitted for consideration rather than agreed verbally.

Critical zones

Toys are a special case: children pick them up and put them in their mouths, and they pass between every child in the group. At the same time many of them are porous or awkwardly shaped.

In practice we divide toys into two groups. Hard, smooth ones — plastic blocks, cars, game pieces — are treated and then rinsed or wiped down. Soft, filled ones cannot be dealt with by surface treatment; there it is either machine washing, or a method that acts on the filling, or replacement. If a soft toy is old and cannot be washed, the honest advice is to replace it.

When we can work

The best time in education settings is a break: autumn, winter and spring half-terms and the summer. The rooms are empty, there is practically no time constraint, and treatment can go wider — the sports hall, the dining hall and the sleeping rooms in one pass. The alternative is an evening after lessons or a weekend, but the scope is then usually smaller.

Summer is also the only time when treatment can be combined with refurbishment. If work is being done over the summer, treatment should be planned after it rather than before — construction dust and fresh paint residue otherwise settle on freshly treated surfaces.

• Coordinate the treatment time with the refurbishment and cleaning schedules.
• Open food in the dining hall and kitchen is removed or sealed before the work.
• House plants and nature corners are taken out of the rooms being treated.
• Soft toys and bedding are dealt with separately — they are usually washed rather than surface-treated.
• Agree who on the setting's side signs the work off and receives the record.

The building type shapes what we find here too.

• Older buildings have natural draught and timber windows: air exchange is usually adequate, but damp concentrates in the washrooms and at basement level.
• Soviet-era standard buildings — the commonest finding is mould in external-wall corners and behind cupboards in classrooms, along with a smell from the shared ventilation riser.
• New builds with tight windows and mechanical ventilation usually have a regime problem: if the system is switched off over a break, after two weeks the air is stale and there is condensation on the coldest surfaces.

None of these is a treatment question, but all three are things we record at the inspection.

Child safety

This is the type of site where the return time matters more than anywhere else, so our practice is as follows:

• We treat when there are no children on the premises — during breaks, in the evening or at weekends.
• After treatment we air the rooms thoroughly.
• Contact surfaces and toys are rinsed or wiped down after treatment.
• We always state in writing from when the rooms can be used.

If the setting's management is unsure about the timing, it is better talked through before the work than assumed to fit.

In an education setting a clear, written return time matters as much as the treatment itself.

How we work

For an ongoing arrangement we draw up a schedule for the school year, tied to the term breaks, and keep a log of the work carried out with dates and zones. That matters practically: the question of when treatment was last carried out comes up both in internal checks and in conversations with parents.

What most often goes wrong in education settings: treatment is ordered for the group room, but the sleeping room, the washroom and the dining hall are left out of the scope; soft toys are left in the room although they need washing or replacing; or the work is planned before the refurbishment rather than after it. All three come out at the inspection, if it is done before the quote is drawn up.

What we do not do

We are not a substitute for daily cleaning or the setting's own hygiene regime — we carry out periodic or deep treatment. We do not issue opinions on whether a setting meets requirements. We do not deep-clean the ventilation system throughout the building.

And we do not promise children in the group will stop falling ill after treatment — it acts on surfaces, and it is part of hygiene rather than a substitute for it. We say that plainly, because expectations on this type of site tend to run ahead of what treatment can actually deliver.

Prices

Up to 100 m² — €1.20/m², 100–300 m² — €0.90/m², 300–1000 m² — €0.70/m². For regular treatment during breaks we prepare a schedule for the school year.