After 2 months of lockdown and not being able to provide a service I’m pleased to say that Pile Up Cleaning Ltd is once again open for business. However some things have changed so please let me explain how.

I want you to have the best and safest experience with the least amount of inconvenience possible. The following are some guidelines in how you can help me carry out best practices to carry out the cleaning of your carpets or upholstery.

STATEMENT

Firstly, there are several cleaning companies claiming to be able to kill the Coronavirus COVID-19. This is serious misinformation. COVID-19 is an enveloped virus, and at present there are NO KNOWN products certified to break that envelope. Pile Up Cleaning Ltd will not make any such guarantees that cannot be backed up scientifically. Regardless of what chemicals may be able to destroy the Coronavirus, there are no current products that will kill the new strain, COVID-19, that have legal backing. Scientific tests on COVID-19 are no doubt underway but are in the early stages of testing.

The overriding factor with any job undertaken will be to preserve the health of you, my  customers, the wider population, my family and I. The key is to be able to maintain social distancing to prevent the virus from spreading across the population. Therefore, even if a job involves cleaning empty premises (Eg. End of tenancy cleaning) as a professional cleaning company, Pile Up Cleaning Ltd will ensure maintaining the correct hygiene practices to the highest standard, regularly disinfecting equipment and wearing personal protective equipment.

This will reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus based on official guidelines provided by GOV.UK and the NHS. Technical cleaning advice issued by the British Institute of Cleaning Science via the NCCA will also be adhered to.

REQUESTS FOR SERVICE

Before any request for service I will consider the following issues:

Is the location to be cleaned in a healthcare setting? If yes, this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary risk and may still not be taken on at this time.
Is the customer or anyone present at the time of cleaning over 70 years old? If yes this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary risk and will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Do the customer or anyone present at the time of cleaning have underlying health conditions? If yes this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary outside influences and will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Has anyone in the household displayed symptoms of COVID19? If yes, the isolation period must have expired and then cleaning will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Can the premises being cleaned be vacant at the time of cleaning or can social distancing be maintained? If yes, cleaning can continue.
Can payment be made online, immediately and electronic invoicing be used? This will be preferred in order to 1. Limit physical contact with customer 3. Ensure future cashflow problems can be alleviated 4. Avoid requirement to attend bank unnecessarily to pay in cash/cheques

GENERAL OPERATING CONDITIONS

• Only essential travel will be undertaken by Pile Up Cleaning Ltd.
• Previous policy involving pre-visiting all requests for service to carry out a ‘quotation’ will no longer be undertaken at the present time. This will enable all customer/premises contact to be halved. On the date of the job the price will be confirmed based on examination and if agreed the cleaning will commence. During the pre‐cleaning inspection, please tell me about any cleaning concerns that you may have, particularly those regarding spots or stains. I am trained in specialised spotting procedures and can evaluate soils and make appropriate recommendations.
• Only one job per day will be considered thereby minimising and risk of cross-customer contamination and enabling daily sanitisation of clothing and equipment.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be worn, as necessary. This will include disposable gloves, mask, and overshoes as a minimum.
• All disposable PPE will be double-bagged and disposed of after 72 hours storage.
• Clothing worn will be the same and washed at the end of each day.
• Van refuelling will involve wearing gloves and payment at pump to negate cross-contamination and maintain social distancing.
• All payments MUST be made on-line prior to or on immediate completion of the job and no cheques or cash will be handled.
• Any room that requires my cleaning services will need to be free from personal items such as children’s toys, breakables, collectables small tables and chairs. If large items are to be moved for cleaning underneath, they should be free of any breakables, lamps etc.
• I will assume the environment has been free from any possible coronavirus infection and if this is the case, I will proceed to vacuum the area using an upright with HEPA filters to reduce the opportunity of redistributing particulate.
• If it is convenient for you, I would appreciate being able to park my van close to the door in your driveway or parking immediately outside if possible. This will help me with the amount of equipment required to bring into your home for the cleaning operation.
• If a child is going to be present in the home during the cleaning, I will require an adult of 18 plus to be present during the cleaning operation.
• I would appreciate if you could take steps to secure floor length curtains on the windowsill or curtain tracks using coat hangers prior to my arrival. This procedure prevents the fabric from directly contacting damp carpets during cleaning procedures.
• Water is required for the machine so I will need access (usually) to the kitchen sink. As I am still working to the government guidelines it will always be necessary to remain two metres apart. If this is the room you would normally isolate to then it is suggested that another room be chosen to enable everyone to comply with the guidelines.
• I would ask that anyone staying in the property will remain in a separate room to where I am cleaning to ensure we all continue with our social distancing.
• I will wipe all touchpoints with a sanitiser.  All carpets and furnishings will be post-treated with a sanitiser which has been approved to European standard EN14476:2013 + A2:2019 killing up to 99.9999% of microbes and coronaviruses including SARS – COV2 which causes the COVID 19 illness however please refer to my earlier comments regarding COVID 19 specifically.
• Hopefully, you will understand that I may turn down the offer of tea/coffee etc.
• It is important that all people and pets are kept away from the areas being cleaned and treated both during the cleaning process and during the drying process. If someone in your home is feeling ill, we encourage you to contact me and re-schedule the cleaning for a later date.

Thanks you for your patience.

Since the UK Government announcement made recently regarding the requirement to ‘stay at home’, Pile Up Cleaning Ltd  will only be taking on limited work until that policy is relaxed. Please feel free to contact me to enquire whether or not your job might fit the criteria. It is crucial that everyone heeds this advice and only leaves their home if it’s absolutely necessary to do so. Best wishes to all of my customers and stay safe. We can ride this storm if we all take sensible precautions.

Author: Andy Lindsley – Director

Version Control

Version	Summary of amendment	Date
1	Original document	23rd March 2020

STATEMENT

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a serious impact on the business of Pile Up Cleaning Ltd and this policy is vital to enable the company to primarily mitigate against risking public health but also to preserve sustainability of the business long-term.

Firstly, there are several cleaning companies claiming to be able to kill the Coronavirus COVID-19. This is serious misinformation. COVID-19 is an enveloped virus, and at present there are NO KNOWN products certified to break that envelope. Pile Up Cleaning Ltd will not make any such guarantees that cannot be backed up scientifically.

Regardless of what chemicals may be able to destroy the Coronavirus, there are no current products that will kill the new strain, COVID-19, that have legal backing. Scientific tests on COVID-19 are no doubt underway but are in the very early stages of testing.

All requests for service will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but the overriding factor will be to preserve the health of customers, the wider population, my family and I.

The key is to be able to maintain social distancing in order to prevent the virus from spreading across the population. Therefore, if a job involves cleaning empty premises (Eg. End of tenancy cleaning) this will be an example of the type of work that will be considered. Even in those cases, as a professional cleaning company, Pile Up Cleaning Ltd will ensure maintaining the correct hygiene practices to the highest standard, regularly disinfecting equipment and wearing personal protective equipment.

This will reduce the likelihood of spreading the virus based on official guidelines provided by GOV.UK and the NHS. Technical cleaning advice issued by the British Institute of Cleaning Science via the NCCA will also be adhered to.

REQUESTS FOR SERVICE

Before any request for service I will consider the following issues:

Is the location to be cleaned in a healthcare setting? If yes, this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary risk and will not be taken on at this time.
Is the customer over 70 years old? If yes this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary risk and will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Do the customer have underlying health conditions? If yes this would involve at risk groups being exposed to unnecessary outside influences and will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Has anyone in the household displayed symptoms of C19? If yes, the isolation period must have expired and then cleaning will only be taken on if social distancing can be maintained (at minimum, separate rooms).
Is cleaning deemed essential at this time? If specific public health issues identified (blood, vomit etc) or essential due to tenancy changes, cleaning can continue.
Can the premises being cleaned be vacant at the time of cleaning? If yes, cleaning can continue.
Can payment be made online, immediately and electronic invoicing be used? This will be required to 1. Limit physical contact with customer 3. Ensure future cashflow problems can be alleviated 4. No requirement to attend bank unnecessarily to pay in cash/cheques

GENERAL OPERATING CONDITIONS

• Only essential travel will be undertaken by Pile Up Cleaning Ltd.
• Previous policy involving pre-visiting all requests for service to carry out a ‘quotation’ will no longer be undertaken. Following assessment as to whether the job will be possible, details will be requested from the customer over the telephone (area of carpet to be cleaned, seating units etc) and an ‘estimate’ given based on that information. This will enable all customer/premises contact to be halved. On the date of the job the price will be confirmed as a ‘quotation’ based on examination and if agreed the cleaning will commence.
• Only one job per day will be considered thereby minimising and risk of cross-customer contamination and enabling daily sanitisation of clothing and equipment.
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be worn. This will include disposable gloves, mask and overshoes and goggles and disposable suit if necessary.
• All disposable PPE will be double-bagged and disposed of after 72 hours storage.
• Clothing worn will be the same and washed at the end of each day.
• Van refuelling will involve wearing gloves and payment at pump to negate cross-contamination and maintain social distancing.
• All payments MUST be made on-line prior to or on immediate completion of the job and no cheques or cash will be handled.

I’m not sure what a business blog is supposed to say really and all my previous ramblings have been related to cleaning carpets, upholstery or hard floors or directly related subjects. This one is different. And I might adjust future ones accordingly.

So if you expect some cleaning tips or insight as to what I did in the line of my work today you’re going to be disappointed. Not on this one.

This is just my way of expressing my gratitude for small instances of human kindness in what, especially at the moment, seems to be a world centred on violence, arrogance, warped ideology, blame culture and destruction.

Today, two small envelopes landed on my doorstep, and both contained gestures which although probably not intended to do so, brightened up my day beyond belief.

One was from a cousin who I haven’t seen for many years expressing her congratulations for a charity thing I did this last weekend to raise funds for a group set up to celebrate the assistance given to our dear country during the last world war by the Polish Air Force.

With all of the ‘Brexit’ fever, many forget that we owe a great deal to those of other nations who have, and always will, support us. The point is, I suppose, that we cannot and must not generalise. Thanks to Sarah for this gesture out of the blue. It means a lot.

The second envelope was from a lady originally from the UK and who now lives in Santa Cruz, California. It contained a thank you card expressing her gratitude to me for cleaning the carpets in a property she owns across here in the UK. She hasn’t even seen the job I did but still took the time to write a card. Human nature at its very best. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to help her maintain a home which held so many memories for her, and although I was unaware of the history at the time, it makes me even more proud of this job I do. Thank you Nicola for taking the time to put pen to paper.

Every day we see gestures of great human kindness which will always stand way ahead of and above the misguided individuals who think they can grind our great world society down.

Thanks today for those people who made at least one person happy!

 

 

Yorkshire / Humber home owners reveal their dirty habits.

It’s that time of year again – spring is upon us and aren’t we happy about that? Gone are the gloomy days, hopefully for a few months anyway, and we can now enjoy the return of the sunshine and longer evenings.

The trouble is, with the suns return comes the need to address a few issues around the home that we’ve been putting off. The sunshine has this terrible habit of highlighting the need to get the duster out a bit more often; it seems to shine a spotlight on each shiny surface showing you the error of your ways.

The dust around the home isn’t always visible, and often it’s the dirt and grime we can’t see that’s doing us the most damage.

The National Carpet Cleaners Association has recently conducted a Spring Clean Survey, asking the British public some rather interesting questions. This included those of us in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Here are some of the results:

70% of people surveyed admitted to treading mud (amongst other things) into the home. I wonder how many of those 70% got the vacuum out straight away to remove that dirt? Maybe they thought “I’ll let it dry, it’ll vacuum better when it’s dry”. Or perhaps they thought, “it’s time to get my carpets professionally cleaned to remove all that bacteria and dirt before I let my children crawl around on that carpet”.

The good old 5 second rule! 50% of people surveyed, admitted to eating something they’d dropped on the floor in their home. Well, that’s not a problem if you vacuum daily and have your carpets/hard floors professionally cleaned once a year is it? Although I hope these 50% are not part of the 70% included in the first question!

This is a tricky one for many people. Do you or don’t you take your shoes off when you visit someone’s home? On the one hand you may not want to make a mess in someone’s home, but on the other hand, you don’t want anyone to see that your socks might not match! As a professional cleaner I always wear overshoes when I enter someones home. and that’s my get-out clause! Interestingly, 45% of people surveyed considered it rude if visitors didn’t remove their shoes when visiting their home.

I knew this one would grab your attention! It seems those surveyed were a fit bunch. 40% said they’d worked up a sweat and exercised on the carpet, whilst a quarter owned up to having sex on the floor of their home. I wonder how many of this saucy bunch took their shoes off first? Well it would be rude not to, wouldn’t it?!

No matter how clean and tidy we’d all like to think our homes are, did you realise that there are lots of things lurking deep within the fibres of your carpets? As already mentioned there could well be soil, bodily fluids and even dog poo, trodden in to your carpet. Even so it’s quite surprising that 30% of people surveyed said that they’d changed their baby’s nappy on the carpet.

 

And finally, it’s not just our carpets and floor that are subject to daily abuse, but also our furniture. A massive 70% of people revealed that they rest on the sofa when they are unwell (man-flu must involve sweating buckets into the fabric) and 30% even had accidents with blood, urine and vomit being spilt on their often costly upholstery. You’d like to think these people would have called in a professional to sanitise their furnishings wouldn’t you?  Strangely this is not always the case.

I started this blog talking about spring and how it makes us feel around the home. Maybe with the results of this survey highlighting what takes place in many of our homes, it really is time for a good spring clean! Don’t worry, spring cleaning doesn’t have to be scary, but it is something we should all do. It’s not just about cleaning blinds and dusting the skirting boards, though doing these things is great. It’s about sanitising your homes and making them not only beautiful, but healthy for your families.

You can use spring cleaning as a prompt to schedule household maintenance and call in professionals to do the difficult, yet necessary tasks. Having your carpets, hard floors and upholstery professionally cleaned every 12- 18 months is not only recommended by carpet and upholstery manufacturers, but is simply a must in order to keep a healthy home. Carpet cleaning may not have been something you were thinking of having done in your home, but it could well be at the top of your to do list now.

Look no further. At Pile Up Cleaning I am fully insured and fully trained and accredited by the NCCA. For information on my unbeatable carpet and upholstery cleaning service call me (Andy) on 01724 734039 or 07904 169273 or complete the contact form on my website https://pileupcleaning.com/contact-us/

 

At Pile Up Cleaning Ltd I am frequently asked to clean vehicle interiors, and when the seats are leather this obviously requires a different cleaning process to fabric upholstered seats.

In addition to carrying out cleaning for private vehicle owners I also carry out regular work for a local prestige car dealership.

Most leather in modern cars is what we call ‘coated’ or ‘pigmented’ leather, commonly known as ‘Pigment Coated’. These are different to other leathers some of which are known as unfinished leathers and I’ll try to explain here why coated leathers should not be cleaned the same way as an unfinished leather.

On pigment coated leathers at Pile Up Cleaning Ltd I use a water based product, which includes a cleaner and a protector, and if used on a regular basis will keep a cars leather upholstery in great condition.

By definition, ‘Leather’ is the tanned skin or hide of ANY animal, the obvious maybe being cow but you could also include rhinoceros, snake, fish, etc. – the list goes on, but you get my drift. Only when the skin/hide has been through the tanning process can it be called leather but at this stage it is still in a rather unusable state and if not kept wet it would dry out to a stiff board like sheet. All ‘natural’ oils and fats are removed from the skin during the tanning process. This is known as the ‘wet blue’ stage.

At this point the leather is put through a re-tanning process where fat liquors are introduced and the correct moisture level is also achieved. These two factors combined give the leather its familiar flexibility and suppleness. These fat liquors are good in the leather for approximately 20 – 30 years and do not usually migrate from the leather during that time. However, what does alter in the leather is the moisture content and when tanners speak about ‘conditioning’ leather this is what they are referring to, not the replacement of oils and waxes.

It is important therefore that your leather is kept correctly hydrated with moisture to allow the leather to remain flexible and supple. That is why at Pile Up Cleaning Ltd I will use water based products and contrary to some ideas there is no reason to use oils and wax based products to ‘condition’ or ‘feed’ the leather. This is particularly true of pigment coated leathers that cannot absorb oils and waxes through their top finish in any case. But as with anything involving leather it is a balance that is needed and care must be taken when cleaning. Over soaking with water will result in the fibres becoming distorted and then when they are dried will not shrink back into their previous state or position and so become hard and brittle.

So just to return to the process of manufacturing leather for upholstery, once it has been through the re-tanning or fat liquoring process they move on to the finishing stage which is determined by the quality of the hide used. You might assume that the more work involved in preparing a hide for use, the more it would cost but there is a strange anomaly in the leather industry that the more you do to a hide the LESS it costs.

Hides with little damage (insect bites, barbed wire scars, branding marks etc) are used for top level upholstery and very little may be done to finish the leather so producing what are called aniline and other full grain leathers. Hides with a lot of damage are usually buffed to remove this damage and then used for pigment coated leathers.

Also, split leathers, where it is split two or three times during the tanning process are also used by bonding finishes to the leather. It is the thickness of the finished coating on leather that determines whether it can be classed as leather or not. If the leather has a surface coating, as does pigment coated leather, the mean thickness of this surface layer has to be 0.15mm or less (BS 2780:1983)

So leather is leather and is basically the same product from whatever it is produced but in this case it is the surface coatings that we are dealing with when we are cleaning and not the leather itself.

Think twice about attempting to clean your leather interior yourself. Many leather cleaners supplied through some car cleaning outlets contain oils. Some leathers have very little surface coating and are very porous to moisture and oils and you should be trying to prevent the absorption of oils into the leather as they can cause an imbalance which would then have to be rectified. Body oils can also cause many problems with leather of this type leaving unsightly patches which are expensive to fix. Why then would you want to add more oils to the leather? Here at Pile Up Cleaning I use only the best products for the job and have the training and experience to know how to correctly identify the leather type and which product to apply to it to attain the desired result.

Pigment coated leather needs to be kept clean. It is dirt and body oils together with constant abrasion that break down the pigment coating and then will begin to deteriorate the leather itself so it is crucial to stop this from happening. This can only be done with regular cleaning and protectors. If oils are used on pigment coated leather they cannot be absorbed into the leather the same way that moisture can and so sit on the surface and will only serve to attract more dirt so having a detrimental effect.

Pigment Coated Auto Leather

I recommend that deep cleaning and protecting of your vehicle interior leather should be carried out at least once a year, twice if it’s regularly used.

The best way to do this is to give me a call at Pile Up Cleaning Ltd. That way you won’t need to make the effort do it yourself, you won’t inadvertently use products which are not right for the job and you can be assured that I will take the utmost care with your cherished vehicle.

 

You’ve spent the weekend decorating and are toying with the trendy idea of throwing away the carpet and sanding the floorboards ‘like they did on the telly’. Well, before you do, just stop for a moment and think about all the things you take for granted in your carpets.

Before taking a trip to your local tool hire shop you need to sit yourself down and consider what benefits your carpets actually do provide. You will be very surprised as hardly any of these are purely cosmetic and all of which we take entirely for granted.

Imagine for a second, five pairs of schoolboy feet running up your staircase – does a heard of elephants spring to mind? Well, without your stair carpet, believe me, it would sound just like that, but, when was the last time that you thought ‘thank heavens for my stair carpet absorbing the sound’ probably the same as me – never. But this is one of the aspects of your carpet that we never pay a second thought to and is vital for a stress free life.

Also, imagine if you can, 50% more dusting that would be the case if you didn’t have a carpet and yes, believe it or not, it is a fact that thanks to your carpet’s dust trapping properties, it can reduce your housework and I think you’ll agree that is a definite benefit. Not only do we have less dusting but also the environment in which we live is more hygienic because of it.

Let me explain, carpet fibres draw in dust particles like water going down a plughole until it is vacuumed and if vacuumed regularly you will get rid of those nasty germs that travel around on dust particles causing us all sorts of health problems. This, in turn, contributes to reducing the potential risk to family members who suffer from allergies such as asthma and hayfever. So you spend less of your valuable time nursing them –

Another point to bear in mind is it’s insulating properties. In other words, keeping us warm. Not only does you carpet act as a visual comforter it also acts as a thermal insulator, retaining heat within its dense pile and backing material .

It is proven that you will feel at least 2C warmer with a carpet fitted!

And if that isn’t enough to make you run to your nearest carpet shop, if you are all in favour of life’s little comforts like a thick, clean, woolen, fitted carpet to relax on, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s not only comfortable on your toes but it also has orthopedic benefits too and can actually do you good. Fitting a soft resilient carpet is gentle on the joints and if you can walk on them barefoot as often as possible, it is, according to prominent orthopedic specialists, equivalent to the effects of natural reflex massage treatment and that sounds like a nice bit of pampering to me. The rule that applies is quite obvious, the deeper the carpet pile the more effective it is.

For many of us in today’s Eco-friendly society, there is one more very important point to bear in mind. There are now available carpets and carpet products, which have been tested for any contaminants, emissions and potentially dangerous odours. Once tested, they are awarded a certification mark, which enables you to identify them immediately.

If you are still edging towards the sanded floorboards, maybe it’s because of the maintenance of a carpet, so let me put your mind at rest.

Granted, your carpet does need regular maintenance to keep it looking good. You should vacuum on a regular basis with an efficient vacuum cleaner, which both extracts dust and dirt from the depths of the pile and also contributes towards the attractive appearance. When your carpet is looking a bit tired and worn, give it a treat by employing the labours of a specialist carpet cleaner to give it the once over.

I am a member of  a recognised body, the National Carpet Cleaners Association (NCCA) and you should always use a company similarly qualified in order to avoid potential disaster.

You are now better informed in the battle of carpets v floorboards and are in a better position to decide whether you want a cold draughty, dusty room or a warm, relaxing, healthy one.

A great series of music and arts events were held in Winteringham over the last month or so. I was happy to donate a raffle prize which consisted of a £100 cleaning voucher.

A young lady won the prize which she kindly donated to her Grandfather. I spent a morning cleaning carpets for him and passing the time of day. Thanks Eddie, it was great to be able to help you out!

The icing on the cake for me was a ‘thank-you’ card which arrived through my letterbox and for which I am very grateful.

Roll on next year’s festival!

 

A great review today from a recent client which I’m very grateful for but which made me laugh too. Unfortunately I didn’t get a ‘selfie’ with the errant mutt because I was afraid he’d try to chew my camera too!

” I would like to thank Andy of Pile Up Cleaning for the outstanding professional care he gave us in caring for our lounge. We were going to exchange the carpet for a new one due to the coal fire in the room leaving soot deposits and dark areas where coal had fallen onto the carpet. Andy arrived promptly and provided a quote which was very thorough and he even deducted areas which didn’t require cleaning such as where the hearth protruded. Andy managed to move furniture out of the way and was very good with pets, even when our puppy started to chew his dongle he remained calm and composed. Excellent service, excellent value and highly recommended”  M. Lea, Cleethorpes, August 2016.