Meeting Our Customers' Needs

IH Services and Newbold Services are very concerned with the coronavirus and what steps we can take to reduce the chances that our employees and customer employees come in contact with the virus. Currently there are safeguards in place to ensure that we are disinfecting all "high touch" surfaces such as door knobs, restroom fixtures, desks, countertops, desktop phones, outside of microwaves, buttons on canteen vending machines and other frequently touched surfaces on a daily basis with disinfectants that kill the virus, specifically Spartan's HALT and Diversey's OXIVIR 516.

An article issued by the Building Service Contractor's Association International (BSCAI) proclaims that during this time it is wise to consider increasing the frequency of your cleaning schedule. As our customer, if you express an interest in increasing the frequencies of disinfecting these surfaces, we will work with you to identify the additional hours required to meet these additional services. How fast we would be able to ramp up will be based on how quickly we can recruit additional labor and perform background checks and drug tests. Each labor market is different and labor is difficult to identify in many markets. We can provide your facility with an hourly rate for additional employees and a time-and-a-half rate to utilize existing employees until additional employees can be identified. Any additional chemicals and supplies would be billed at cost plus 10%.

We have also been contacted as to our availability to completely decontaminate or deep clean a facility that has come in contact with the virus. There are CDC procedural guidelines that must be met to decontaminate a facility that has been exposed, and these guidelines require special PPE such as Tyvek suits with hoods, certified respirators, gloves, face shields and foot covers along with defogging and bio-misting machines.

Due to the seriousness of this virus, some of these items are not available and our suppliers are not able to tell us when we might be able to obtain them. At this time, because of the unavailability of these CDC-required materials, IH Services and Newbold Services are not able to provide total decontamination or deep clean services. Should that change and we can obtain the items required to perform this service, we will inform our customers.

Although we are unable to assist our customers in this area, we have made contact with several Biohazard Cleaning companies that can help. If you are interested in making contact with one of these companies, please contact Parker Moore at (864) 297-3748, (864) 678-4696; or email Parker.

Please remember that the coronavirus is spread in the very same way as the common cold and other viruses, which is person-to-person, between two people who are in close contact with one another, through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. It may be possible to get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then touching your mouth, nose or eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.

In every case, washing your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds is the primary means of prevention, as well as not touching your face, mouth, nose or eyes; avoiding shaking hands; covering your cough or sneeze with a tissue and then throwig the tissue in the trash; and staying home if you feel sick and seeking medical care if you experience known symptoms.