There are many benefits when it comes to hiring professionals in any field to perform the best job for your needs. The same can be said for circumstances where there has been an accident of some sort in either residential or commercial lots, where a substance has contaminated the scene.
In the case of blood, whether human or animal and in any volume, there are a few reasons why you should turn to a professional forensic cleaning company for assistance in avoiding any permanent damage to your home. Attempts to clean blood from a space on your own without the proper tools, knowledge, and skills to do so successfully could cause further and possibly irreversible damage.
Personal and household items are valuable, expensive, and can be very meaningful in some situations. Below we will review the methods to remove blood stains properly and efficiently to keep it from permanently damaging several different items.
Carpet
Many of the issues with trying to clean blood stains out of carpets involves the first few steps of cleaning blood from a scene in first place. People who are trying to clean up themselves will usually panic and grab the first dishcloth they see and some bleach and start scrubbing away. Or you might notice people try to soak the stain first to get it to lift from the carpet by using a soaking wet cloth to treat the stain.
Firstly, using improper cleaning products in a rush can further damage carpeting and even wood flooring underneath the carpeting. Cleaning agents like bleach will cause discoloration in carpets of any color – even on white carpeting the bleached section may stand out and be obvious to the naked eye. Bleach is also very strong in scent and staining power itself so it can leak through the carpet and cause damage underneath.
Also, carpet is usually composed of materials that are difficult to keep completely clean with tufts of different sizes and levels from the ground, usually carpet is the hardest material to get dirt, debris, and stains out of. Professional cleaning companies will have power tools that can work to clean, soak, and suck up stains of any kind with efficiency.
Tile
Much like carpeting, tile has grooves between each piece that is made of grout. Grout is an almost rubber-like consistency that is quite porous. If you have tiled rooms in your home, you know the struggle of getting down on your hands and knees with a toothbrush to scrub in between your tiles.
Tile seems like the much easier job for a professional cleaning company as the hard material can, in most situations, be wiped with a liquid material easily and efficiently. However, different color variations of tile can be more difficult to work with. White or light-colored tiles can stain if a substance such as blood is left untreated too long.
Fresh spills of blood are easier to clean up because it is still in a form that can be wiped up and treated. When it comes to a stain, there are a number of things to consider. The type of tile – some are made of more porous materials like stone. This can be tested by spilling a liquid substance like water on the tile and evaluating whether water marks or darkened areas appear or does the liquid stay in its bubble form. Then you need to consider how cleaning methods vary across different types of tiles.
Therefore, it is highly recommended to avoid cleaning blood stains from tiles yourself, as you could damage the integrity of the tile by using the wrong product. You might also notice with a blood stain that it seeps into its outer shape, leaving a watermark look. This means the tile has already absorbed some of the blood and will result in endless scrubbing. A professional cleaning company who is knowledgeable around removing blood stains from tiles will be aware of both which type of tile they are dealing with, and what products are necessary to safely remove the stain.
Walls
When blood affects walls in a space, there are many reasons to avoid trying to clean any resulting stains yourself as walls can be very sensitive and very easily damaged. Depending on the material of the wall there are different methods to approach it. For example, stone versus wallpaper.
Walls are finicky in terms of understanding what substance makes up the formation of the affected wall first. If your wall is concrete, a porous material, a substance such as blood may be too absorbed by the time you get to it. If you have walls made entirely of wallpaper, you might as well redo the room. Wallpaper, much like regular paper, cannot be “washed” in the standard ways. Paper interacting with water is obviously a bad idea, so scrubbing wallpaper stained with blood with any cleaning products will likely scrape the wallpaper off. Attempting to clean a blood stain from drywall or wallpaper will peel off the material and likely not address the stain itself.
Using a professional cleaning company will ensure that you do not damage your walls by using incorrect cleaning products. Restoration companies will have tools in their inventory that are specialized towards certain stains on certain materials. In addition, experts in the field are more likely to have power tools like pressure washers and the more high-end cleaning products.
Clothes and Fabrics
It can be said that bleach or other household names for cleaning products can be used to successfully remove blood stains from clothing. For example, there are certain cleaning products that are meant to treat stains and other more permanently damaged items.
There are a few additional considerations here before you head to the local store to pick up some stain removers. Many people do not follow all the necessary steps when it comes to removing stains from clothing and other fabrics. They end up using temporary fixes like to-go bleach pens that can result in bleach spots, stain rings, or general discoloration. Simply washing fabrics with laundry detergent will rarely result in lifting a stain as well.
Experts will also have more knowledge around which fabrics can be used with which cleaning products. Most people throw all their fabrics in the wash together, which can even spread substances from certain stains around. Cotton, polyester, cashmere, silk, and more are all composed of different fabrics that cannot all be treated in the same way.
Conclusion
The content covered in this article is only a brief look into what could go wrong when you attempt to remove blood stains from a space yourself. The lack of proper knowledge of cleaning products can not only damage your personal items, but it can also be dangerous to your health. Throwing multiple cleaning substances on one stain out of panic can result in inhaling toxic fumes (many people don’t know this!). Using water and a sponge won’t get most stains out and laundry detergent isn’t meant to clean any type of stain on any type of fabric.
Hire a professional cleaning company if you are unsure of how to fix a blood stain on your personal items or in your personal space. Avoid a situation where you’re ripping up a carpet in a few years from now only to shockingly find a large blood stain on the original wood floors underneath that you thought you got out months ago. Keep it to the professionals to haul in their power tools and expertly mixed cleaning products to get those tough stains out without the hassle of scrubbing for hours or damaging your property.
Think about this – you wouldn’t take your dry clean only new coat and throw it in the dryer, would you? We didn’t think so! I mean, you can take the chance but sometimes it’s best to play it safe.