Houston Republic

When Jose Menjivar started out 30 years ago in the commercial cleaning business as a janitor, it was all about surface appearances but, since COVID-19, cleaning is not only for appearances but also health. 

“Every cleaning is a deep one,” Menjivar told the Houston Republic. “Everything is about killing bacteria, germs and viruses.”

Menjivar was recently promoted to president of  PJS of Houston, a commercial cleaning company where he oversees more than 300 accounts and about 40 million square feet of buildings. 

“Every disinfectant has a kill time and most people are not giving enough dwell time for the product to work,” he said. “We've upgraded to products that have a faster kill time."

Over the years, Menjivar has learned that, unlike cleaning, disinfecting is a science.

“A product made by the Purell company called professional surface disinfectant has a 30-second kill time with which I can spray, wipe off and know that I just sanitized the area," he said."But for another product I am supposed to leave it on for 10 minutes for it to completely disinfect the area.”

On June 22, Texas had its highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations for 10 consecutive days with more than 3,400 in-patients, according to media reports. Overall, the number of cases throughout the state has surpassed 100,000.

As employers phase workers back into their jobs in commercial offices and spaces, Menjivar recommends studying how the coronavirus is spread and implementing an aggressive cleaning program.

“We disinfect at night but all it takes is one person infected with COVID-19 to walk into a place of business in the morning to taint the entire area in a matter of minutes," he said. "So you need a cleaner during the day doing regular touchpoints on elevator call buttons, door push places and door handles once every hour at least so that the chance an infected person can spread the virus is lowered. Disinfecting nightly is not enough.”

Although the state of Texas has not issued government standards for commercial cleaning companies,  PJS of Houston is closely following Centers for Disease Control guidelines on how to disinfect where there are confirmed cases and was recently certified for electrostatic disinfecting by an independent industrial hygienist.

“Electrostatic disinfecting is a fast, effective way of disinfecting with the proper equipment and products,” Menjivar said. “We've been doing electrostatic spraying for years but nobody really wanted to pay the price before COVID-19. It will have a tremendous impact in our industry.”