Duraclean Journal of Marketing, Management and Technical Topics

Procedures

The following directions cover both wet (water-based) and hot (dry solvent-based) fogging procedures where indicated:

1. Carefully follow label directions for any necessary mixing.

2. Wear your safety equipment.

3. Make sure no one is in the area to be fogged unless they are also wearing safety equipment. A safety confined space sign should be posted in the entrances.

4. Fogging can imitate smoke in the air and cause fire alarm and sprinkler systems to activate:

* If the alarm system is tied into the fire department have the customer notify the fire department that fogging will be taking place and if activation occurs that there is no fire.

* If there is an alarm system comprised of smoke detectors that only alert the occupants, the customer has the option of deactivating them during the fogging period.

* In any of these cases, never deactivate any systems or detectors on your own. Have the customer deactivate them or in the case of dedicated smoke detectors have the customer sign a permission form to do so.

5. When fogging an entire structure, evacuate all occupants including pets. If fogging an isolated area, make sure that the area is physically isolated from the remaining air space. This may be done by closing any doors and windows. Also, cover any cold air returns so the fogged material is not picked up and sent to other building air spaces through the heating/ventilation system. You may also want to consider removing or covering plants.

Note: The best way to ensure that no one else is exposed is that we recommend that no one is anywhere in the structure prior to the completion of fogging and the introduction of fresh air.

6. When thermal fogging, make sure that any electric motors are turned off and there are no pilot lights or other sources of possible ignition on such as in ranges, furnaces and hot

7. Fogging will not leave visible residue on most surfaces, especially when done properly, however, glass surfaces may show some product on them when finished. You may want to consider covering items such as glass tops (and computer equipment) as well to avoid extra cleanup following the job and prevent electronic equipment malfunction.

8. When thermal fogging the rule of thumb is to consider dispensing:

* 1 ounce of thermal fog deodorant per 1,000 cu. ft. for light odor situations.

* 2 ounces of thermal fog deodorant per 1,000 cu. ft. for medium odor situations.

* 3 ounces of thermal fog deodorant per 1,000 cu. ft. for heavy odor situations.

Note: To make sure that you don’t over or under fog, one thing that you can do is to calculate the amount of cu. ft. to be fogged based upon the level of odor to be treated, put that amount of product into the fogger’s reservoir and then make sure that you use all of it in the affected airspace.

9. When fogging the airspace make sure never to hold the fogger too close to or aim directly at a surface. That could result in the product over wetting the surface, cause streaks and possible damage or, at the very least, extra clean-up. The exception is if you intend to seal a surface such as in ductwork or in the case of an attic or crawlspace when a product like Unsoot #1 or Unsoot #2 may be used. Then wetting out a surface is necessary to properly seal it.

10. When fogging start at the farthest point and work your way out backing toward the exit. Never fog so much that you can’t see in front of you!

11. Fog the area and leave it enclosed for a minimum of 30 minutes in the case of both wet and hot fogging. Wet fogging has fairly large droplets (particle size) so the product drops out fairly quickly. If you are thermal fogging ideally you should leave any fog undisturbed again for at least 30 minutes although if you are using an ElectroGEN 2000 thermal fogger you may want to wait for up to 2 hours since it has a longer hang time. Thermal fogging produces a much smaller particle size than wet fogging so it remains airborne a much longer time and allows it deodorize longer.

12. An important safety tip: Before shutting off a thermal fogger make sure to bleed off Thermal Fog Deodorant remaining in the heat exchanger. This will prevent ignition and possible flame out of the residual Thermal Fog Deodorant.

You can accomplish this by releasing the solution dispensing button and let the unit run until you no longer see fog being dispensed. If there is a solution adjustment knob on the fogger, turn it to close off the solution (“dry” setting) before releasing the solution trigger to bleed off residual Thermal Fog Deodorant.

13. Once the correct amount of time has elapsed for the type of fogging operation open any windows (weather and building design permitting). Take the covers off of any cold air returns and position an air mover to exhaust the airspace while, at the time same time, bring in fresh air.

14. In the case of thermal fogging pilot lights may be re-ignited. All fire and smoke alarms should be reactivated.

15. Depending upon the circumstances a carpet cleaning may then be in order.