New Regina company offers free sanitizing to essential service sites

Sanitizing high-touch surfaces might not have been something everyone thought about three months ago, but in the age of COVID-19, it has become a new part of daily routines to stop the spread of the virus.

One new business in Regina has found a way of spreading goodwill in the community by offering free sanitizing services to essential worksites.

Dianne Beauchamp and her brother, Stephen Beauchamp, launched PuroClean Restoration in Regina on April 1. Their original plans for a grand opening celebration were cancelled, so they came up with a different idea to use that budget to put their skills and supplies to good use.

“With that money from our grand opening, we decided to do a little bit of good for the community and do some disinfection and protection services for free for some non-profits and essential services,” Dianne said.

The national PuroClean office liked the idea so much that it pitched in extra funds and rolled out the initiative to other branches across Canada.

The PuroClean Regina team started by reaching out to the Early Learning Centre in the Cathedral neighbourhood and suited up in full protective gear to disinfect the classrooms, lockers, bathrooms and all high-touch surfaces in the building. It also did all of the carseats used to transport the kids in vans.

The next project took PuroClean to the Weyburn Police Service on Monday, where the team sanitized all of the police vehicles and even some of the officers’ phones.

Beauchamp added she found a lost Paw Patrol toy police cruiser in the bushes nearby and, as a mom to young kids, she couldn’t resist cleaning that as well to park next to the real cruiser for a picture.

(Dianne Beauchamp/Submitted)

“The response has been mixed, because people are still very nervous about someone coming into their business, even with the full Hazmat gear and respirators. So it has been mixed, but a lot of the essential services have been very positive about it,” Beauchamp said.

While PuroClean employees use professional equipment like foggers and hot steamers to spray sanitizing solution around a building, they also offered some expert advice to correct a common mistake many people make while cleaning. They should let sanitizer sit on surfaces instead of wiping it right off.

“Dwell time is the most important because simply using a Lysol wipe (or spray) and wiping something across then wiping it off again isn’t going to do the job,” Beauchamp said. “You need to wipe it and leave it, let it sit for 10 minutes or sometimes longer depending on what you’re using in order to destroy the  bacteria that you need to destroy.”

While PuroClean waits for business to pick up for its other qualified services, Beauchamp said she is happy to offer something back to the community at a time when cleaning is so important.

“I’m pretty proud that we rolled this (goodwill cleaning) forward as a free service to essential services because I think everybody needs to do their little bit, do their little part to help the community and help the province reopen,” she said. “If that’s something that we can do at the beginning, then that’s wonderful.”