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Ultraviolet (UV) light is the portion of the light spectum between Visible Light and X-Ray.

The UV spectrum is split into 3 bands (UVA, UVB, UVC). UVA is commonly referred to as black light and is generally safe for extended human exposure, but it does not have the power to disinfect. UVB is the common UV present from sun exposure and causes sunburn. Although UVB is mildly disinfectant, it takes extended exposures to inhibit bacterial growth and is ineffective against some microbiological species. UVC is not present in the Earth's environment because the atmosphere absorbs all of these wavelengths before they hit the ground. This is great for humans and plants because these wavelengths are extremely energetic (close to x-ray) and have the ability to damage DNA and RNA with much less exposure time than UVB. This ability to damage DNA and RNA is how UVC disables reproduction or outright destroys pathogens. However, this is also what makes UVC disinfection hazardous. UVC exposure can cause severe skin damage within minutes (similar to sunburn, but worse), and is much more likely to cause cancerous skin damage with extended exposure. Severe eye damage, that can ultimately result in blindness, is also possible. This is why you should leave this method of sanitation to The UV Pros.

A home is a closed local environment for you, your family, and your pets. This local environment contains a unique collection of microbiota that we'll refer to as the terrior. The terrior within a home is affected by biological and physical aspects of the setting. Individual people, pets/animals, plans, commonly eaten foods, and exterior microbiota all play a role in the types of microbiota present in a home, whereas humidity, temperature, hygienic practices, and commonly-used cleaning chemicals all play a role in how the microbiota presents in the home. For example, a dark cool, moist space is far more likely to grow mold and mildew than a well-ventilated room that gets ample natural sunlight through a window. By disinfecting the full home with UV light, we effectively remove the previous owner's terrior. This leaves a blank slate for your terrior to grow into your new-to-you house. When you move yourself, your pets, and your belongings into the disinfected space, your unique terrior immediately starts inhabiting the area instead of mixing with the previous owner's terrior, meaning your new-to-you house will smell like Home in no time.

UVC light has sufficient energy to break many common types of chemical donts in organic materials. The majority of the dust in homes is comprised of dead skin and hair flakes. Gross. Our UVC lights break down the hair and skin particles into their base components. The good news is we're ridding your new-to-you house of the previous owners' dust collection. The bad news, these hair and skin particles contain sulfur compounds that have a very distinct smell. These compounds are detectable by the human nose at very low concentrations. Fear not though, these sulfur compounds are volatile and gas off with good ventilation over the course of 24-48 hours. The higher the dust load of the previous tenant, the longer this offgassing process takes. In most cases, the HVAC system and ceiling fans (if the home has them) will circulate the air well enough to faciliate the offgassing process in this time. In extreme cases, we will provide fans and HEPA filters to expedite the process. This is often the case when dealing with homes that have been smoked in or have heavy pet urine odors.

The issue with cigarette smoke is that it leaves a film of organic and inorganic material behind that coats any surfact it touches, like walls and ceilings. Although the UVC light will break down the surface layers of the residue, it oftentimes will not penetrate deeply enough to fully break down the film. Upon request, we will apply an advanced oxidation (AO) solution to all walls, ceilings, and floors. This AO solution interacts positively with the UVC light to faciliate more breakdown of the compounds present from the smoke. We encourage the seller or buyer to have all walls, ceilings, and floors cleaned prior to our process to achieve the best results. We can provide this service for an upcharge. In extreme cases, where the home has been smoked in for many years, the smoke will permeate into the drywall, the spaces between walls and framing, and the HVAC system. In these cases, it doesn't matter how well the surfaces are cleaned and how long they are exposed to the UVC light and AO solution, the home will still have the smell of smoke. We will be upfront with the owner on whether we believe the disinfection and AO process will have the desired outcome of significantly reducing the odor. Multiple UVC treatments may be an option for greater odor reduction.

Odors from pet urine are most often associated with cats due to their urine being much more concentrated than other animals, such as dogs. It doesn't help that cats find the most inconspicuous places to mark their territory. The smell associated with urine is due to the bacterial breakdown of the urea present. Bacteria break down the urea into ammonia, which has a very pungent smell. The bacteria will continue to produce ammonia until the urea content is exhausted. The best solution for urine smell is to find every location with urine (it could be multiple places in multiple rooms... pesky cats) and to clean them using commercially available solutions. Ammonia is another volatile compound, so it will offgas over time, but so long as the bacteria are producing it, you will smell it. Cleaning is especially difficult in carpet, since carpet absorbs and holds the urine.

The short answer is: somewhat. The light will definitely break down the dust and disable the microbiota on the surface of the carpet, but the light cannot penetrate the fibers of the carpet. In the same way you put on clothing to protect your skin from the UVB present in the sunlight, the fibers of the carpet actually protect the microbiota that live within them. For the best results, we recommend you have carpets cleaned prior to the UV disinfection treatment. This is especially true if urine odors are present for the reasons mentioned above. We can provide this service for an upcharge. Unfortunately, there is really no single solution for cleaning and disinfecting a home. If the home doesn't have carpet, the UVC light will disinfect stone, tile, linoleum, and hardwood floors.

Although the UVC light will kill most molds with proper exposure times, this process is not an adequate solution for a mold problem. Even if we were to kill all of the mold, you almost certainly have a moisture and ventilation problem that needs to be addressed, otherwise the mold will simply grow back. Heavy growths of mold will not be fully removed with UVC alone, as the top layer of mold will protect the reamining mold underneath. Breaking down a heavy mold growth with UVC will oftentimes leave a lingering smell that is far less volatile than the sulfur and ammonia smells mentioned above. These smells can lingers for weeks if not months, especially in settings with poor ventilation.

Ultraviolet disinfection is the most studied non-chemical disinfection method. It is commonly used in food production, industrial, laboratory, and medical settings. There are over 10,000 peer-reviewed articles supporting its validity against the most common and uncommon bacteria, viruses, molds, mildews, and pathogens. We're simply bringing the well-studied power of UVC disinfection to your new-to-you home. The FDA has exposure guidelines for the common microbiota that are well validated in laboratory settings. We double the exposure time recommended to make sure we allow light into every nook and cranny in the textured surfaces of a home.

The UVC light can only disinfect areas it shines on. Similar to how the carpet prevents the light from penetrating, a couch, chair, or shelf will block the UVC so that the areas in, under, and around the item don't receive the light. No light, no disinfection. Because the UVC light can be so harmful, all people, animals, and plants have to be out of the home during the disinfection process. The UV Pros wear specialized PPE and have to adhere to specific protocols to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the light.

The great thing about using UVC light is that the wavelengths are very good at penetrating biological substances. This allows the light to disinfect rapidly so the exposure of the walls, floors, and ceilings is reduced. Although UVC light will fade objects faster than UVB, the short amount of exposure time (hours) is typically not enough to cause fading or deterioration. It takes years of sun exposure through a window for a hardwood floor covered by a rug to fade enough to be noticeable to the naked eye. Very cheap or very old paint is more likely to cause problems, so we test in an inconspicuous location prior to the full treatment to verify.