Safe and Legal Softwashing

At Softwashing UK we want all domestic customers to stay safe, legal, and sustainable, when choosing a supplier to clean their home. Whether you end up choosing us or not we want all potential customers to make an informed choice to avoid risking their family home, their family, their pets, and their garden.

When it comes to restoring, cleaning, and treating, building exteriors not all contractors apply the same high standards. At Softwashing UK we only work with ‘approved’ products in an approved way, like it says on the label. Some contractors try to cut costs and corners however, and compromise on safety in the process. While the requirement to follow health and safety laws makes these compromises far less common in the commercial sector the same cannot be said for domestic cleans. Unfortunately there are lots of contractors with a devil may care attitude to health and safety in a domestic setting. Known as bleach bandits these cowboy cleaning contractors trade off domestic customers relative lack of health and safety knowledge.

Regulatory Bodies and the Law

In the UK we have the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE has a division designated to chemical safety, this division is called REACH. The HSE and REACH follow UK, and ultimately European Law, which is enforced by Biocides Product Regulation, part of of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

These bodies all state that all companies using chemicals while delivering their services must only use these chemicals for their intended purpose. The intended use of a chemical, how it used, and all relevant safety information, must be published on a Safety Data Sheet. You cannot add anything to a chemical to create a blend, unless you have a separate Safety Data Sheet for the formulation.

Domestic customers are quite often unaware of the law, and the bodies that help uphold it, and mercenary cleaning contractors will take advantage of this,  and spray large quantities of cheap and potentially dangerous dairy and swimming pool bleach onto buildings to clean them. Sometimes, to disguise a heavy smell of bleach, which alarms some people,  the bleach bandits will add scents to the bleach solution. All of this is illegal and hazardous. We know of the illegal use of bleach damaging skin, hair, and clothes of domestic customers- destroying plant and garden life, and even killing pets in some awful circumstances.

This is professionally very upsetting- as there are safe, legal, and sustainable ways to clean a property without risking family, pets, and garden.

How to protect your family from bleach bandits

At Softwashing UK we are proud to only work using Approved products and methods, and be fully label compliant at all times. We advise all domestic customers to ask three questions to their potential cleaning contractors. To help them make distinction between legal and illegal suppliers.

1- What product are you using?

You need to make sure the product the supplier is using is approved for use. If a supplier tells you they are using “bleach”, “dairy bleach”, “swimming pool bleach”, or “sodium hydrochlorite” alarm bells should start ringing. There are some safe and legal sodium hydrochlorite solutions on the market, so always ask “what brand” so you can check for yourself that the product is fit for purpose. Ask to see the product container on the day, there should be a maximum of one open drum and all others sealed. 

2- Can we see the Safety Data Sheet?

Once the contractor has told you what product they are using ask to see the Safety Data Sheet/COSHH Sheet so you can see if it is fit for purpose yourself.

3- Can we see your insurance?

If a contractor does not have adequate public liability insurance you are leaving yourself open to a huge potential loss in the result of an accident.

The bottom line is that unless a supplier can tell you what product they are using, how they intend to safely use it, and prove they have insurance if anything goes wrong, they are taking risks and cutting corners. If that results in a slightly cheaper clean you may ultimately think it is a risk worth taking (we’d advise otherwise), but at least you are making a decision on the basis of choice rather than ignorance.

At Softwashing UK we prefer to keep risks to an absolute minimum, and do not believe breaking the law and compromising the health and safety of our customers is ever a price worth paying.

What Products are Safe and Legal?

The safest solution out there BY FAR, an ourdoor cleaning solution, is Safewash. It is a totally organic solution made from from fruit acid and poses no risk to health or environment. It kills all organic growth, and can remove algae the same day. It is recommended by the render manufacturer K-Rend, among others.

Safewash is manufactured by the excellent Softwash Solutions. We also work with a range of biocides- they offer other biocidal solutions which we recommend.

Benz are also recommended. They use a fully approved sodium hydrochlorite stain removing solution, and have written some excellent articles on the subject. https://www.benzsoftwash.com/blogs/trade-tips/sodium-hypochlorite-soft-washing

There are a range of legal solutions on the market. Always ask  your potential contractor what what product they are using, how they intend to safely use it, and can prove they have insurance if anything goes wrong. Stay Safe. Stay Legal. Stay Sustainable.

We’ll be glad to discuss our products and methods with you in depth and detail. Give us a call today, or drop us an email on the form below.