An unattended death or body decomposition occurs when a person passes away and is not discovered immediately and the body decomposes. Days, weeks, or even months can go by before the discovery of the body leading to extensive damage to the structure of the home. This creates a potentially dangerous environment for anyone who comes into contact with the space where a decomposed body is found and can create a secondary trauma for those loved ones who try to cleanup after the death.
Not only is it traumatizing but it also requires trained professionals to properly clean and sanitize the area. With a decomposing body, comes an extensive amount of biohazards too. In the case of an unattended death, the body is in a state of decay. When a body decomposes, dangerous pathogens are released from the body in the form of liquids, solids, and gases. The contaminants should be cleaned by a properly trained professional. The contents themselves and anything that is considered contaminated may require special biohazard waste disposal. Only trained professionals should handle these cleanups
- Content Removal: We start with the removal of the “other” issues in the home. Those issues would be the removal of the contaminated contents such as soft goods that have absorbed the odors in the home from the death. This process itself can take a day or two depending on the size of the home, the time of year, and the complexity of the decomposition.
- Cleaning/Sanitization: First the structure is tested to determine the level of contamination. Then, using special cleaning agents the structure is washed and followed by an EPA-approved disinfectant application. All this is done using specialized equipment and highly trained and certified staff.
- Odor control: Once the structure has been cleaned and washed we will be treated for odors by chemical or gas or both. Before we even get to this point the odors should be heavily reduced as the removal of the sources is the first step in odor control. The remaining odors should be minimal and come from surfaces that have absorbed the odor and not from physical contact
- Once we are 100% confident the odors are gone we will do a final test to confirm the cleaning and disinfection has passed using hospital-grade technology. If the area(s) fail our threshold we will do further remediation.
- Restoration is the last step in the process and is handled by our subsidiary company Twin Cities Restoration.
Homeowner’s insurance will often take care of this type of cleanup, and we will work directly with them to make sure everything is handled correctly. Give our expert team at Scene Clean a call today locally owned and first responder operated. 612-643-0911.
