When the Call Comes: Why Electrostatic Disinfection Is About More Than Just Cleaning

The call came in at 4:47 PM on a Thursday.

A facility manager in Baltimore, let’s call her Sarah, had just learned that three employees tested positive for COVID-19. Two worked in the office. One worked in the warehouse.

All three had been in the facility that week, touching door handles, sitting in conference rooms, using the shared kitchen, and moving through the manufacturing floor.

Sarah’s voice was tight when she spoke.

“We need to shut down for disinfection, but we have production running and orders that need to ship tomorrow. The CEO is asking if we can keep the warehouse operational. HR is worried about liability. And honestly, Justin, I don’t know what I’m supposed to tell our employees who are scared to come back in.”

Foreman Pro Cleaning has responded to dozens of COVID cleaning calls like Sarah’s over the past few years. As a commercial disinfection services provider across Maryland, Virginia, and DC, we’ve learned that outbreak response is about far more than technique.

And every single time, I’m reminded that outbreak response disinfection isn’t about spraying surfaces. It’s about helping people feel safe again in the spaces where they work, learn, and heal.

The Weight of the Decision

Here’s what nobody tells you about managing a facility during a health scare: the technical decision about disinfection is the easy part.

The hard part is everything else!

It’s the employee who quietly asks if they should keep their kids home from daycare. The executive who needs to know if production can continue safely. The warehouse team wondering if they’re being put at risk.

And the fact that you need to document everything you did, how you did it, and when you did it—because if someone gets sick, they’re going to ask.

When Wes and I were building Foreman Pro in those early bootstrap days, we were called in for an emergency disinfection at a medical office during a flu outbreak. The office manager told me something I’ll never forget:

“I don’t just need you to disinfect. I need you to help me figure out how to communicate this to my team and my patients. I need to know what to tell people.”

That conversation changed how I think about outbreak response.

Yes, we need to eliminate pathogens. But we also need to help facility managers like Sarah navigate the human side of a health crisis.

How Electrostatic Cleaning and Disinfection Works

Let me break down the technology in a way that makes sense.

Traditional disinfection—even really thorough traditional disinfection—has an inherent weakness. When you spray or wipe a surface, you’re fighting gravity.

The disinfectant runs downward and pools.

You might get the flat top of a desk, but what about the underside? The back of a chair? The crevices around light switches? In a warehouse, what about shelving units, equipment controls, forklift handles, and pallet jacks?

Electrostatic cleaning solves this through elegant engineering. The disinfection process works like this:

The sprayer charges disinfectant droplets with a positive electrical charge as they leave the nozzle. Since surfaces naturally carry a negative or neutral charge, the positively charged droplets are attracted to them—wrapping around surfaces, adhering to the backs and undersides of objects, and reaching spaces that would never get properly treated with traditional methods.

Think about it like this: instead of throwing water at a surface and hoping it sticks, you’re creating a magnetic-like attraction that pulls the disinfectant exactly where it needs to go.

In our experience across many outbreak response cleanings in Maryland, Virginia, and DC, our electrostatic disinfection services can treat a 5,000 square foot office space in roughly a third of the time it would take with conventional methods, while achieving better coverage.

For combined office and warehouse facilities, the efficiency gains are even more dramatic.

But here’s the crucial part: electrostatic technology doesn’t just work faster. It provides documentable, verifiable results in the exact moment when you need to prove you did everything right.

EPA List N: Choosing the Right Disinfectant

When Sarah called us that Thursday afternoon, one of her first questions was: “What products do you use, and how do I know they actually work?”

It’s the right question.

And frankly, not enough facility managers ask it.

The EPA maintains List N—disinfectants that meet EPA criteria for use against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Many of these same products are also effective against influenza, norovirus, and other common outbreak-causing pathogens.

But not all products are created equal, and not all companies use them correctly.

We use hospital-grade disinfectants from EPA List N, and we follow manufacturer specifications exactly—particularly regarding contact time, which is the amount of time a surface needs to stay wet with disinfectant for the product to be effective.

For most products we deploy, that’s between five and ten minutes.

This is where a lot of outbreak responses go wrong.

Someone comes in with an electrostatic sprayer and treats a building in record time, but they’re not maintaining adequate contact time. The surfaces dry before the disinfectant has time to work.

It looks impressive, but it doesn’t achieve disinfection.

We document contact time on every job. We note which products we used, on which surfaces, at what time, with what dilution ratio.

If you ever face questions from your team, you’ll have a paper trail showing exactly what was done.

Rapid-Response Commercial Disinfection: A Real Example

Back to Sarah’s situation.

It was 4:47 PM on Thursday. She needed a solution before employees arrived Friday morning. And she needed to know if she could keep production running without putting her warehouse team at risk.

This is where the “Rapid-Response Culture” foundation of Foreman Pro Cleaning becomes critical.

In my construction management days, I learned that having the capability to respond quickly means nothing if you don’t also have the systems to deploy that capability reliably.

We had a technician on-site at Sarah’s Baltimore facility by 6:30 PM that evening.

We completed a full electrostatic disinfection of all affected areas—office spaces, conference rooms, break rooms, restrooms, and the entire warehouse floor including high-touch surfaces like equipment controls, door handles, time clocks, and common-use tools.

We finished by 11:00 PM.

Sarah had her detailed report by 7:00 AM Friday morning—before her first employee walked through the door.

Our Operations Manager, Misty Kiley, describes what happened behind the scenes:

“The moment Justin created the Project Card, everyone knew exactly what needed to happen. We mobilized our team, staged equipment and EPA-approved products, and executed the disinfection protocol with precision. Sarah had her comprehensive post-service report documenting every detail within 24 hours of her initial call. That’s how outbreak response should work.”

Production continued.

The warehouse team came into a facility that had been professionally disinfected overnight.

Sarah told us later that having documented proof—with photographs, product specifications, and completion times—gave her the confidence to communicate clearly with her team about what had been done to keep them safe.

That’s what good outbreak response looks like.

It’s not just about spraying surfaces. It’s about giving facility managers the tools to lead through a crisis.

The Human Element

Here’s what I’ve learned after responding to dozens of outbreak situations across the DMV region: the facility managers who call us aren’t just worried about pathogens.

They’re worried about their people.

The pregnant employee who’s nervous about exposure. The employee with an immunocompromised family member at home. The warehouse worker who relies on this job to support his family and can’t afford to get sick. The team member who lost someone to COVID-19 and is understandably anxious.

When we show up for outbreak response, we’re not just technicians with sprayers.

We’re part of the solution to a human problem.

We help facility managers communicate what’s been done. We provide the documentation they need. We work around production schedules, shift changes, and security protocols.

We understand that this is stressful, and we show up with both competence and compassion.

When someone calls us for outbreak response, they’re usually having a difficult day, and our job is to make it easier, not harder.

What to Look For in Commercial Disinfection Services

If you’re a facility manager, here’s what I’d encourage you to look for when choosing commercial disinfection services before you’re in a crisis:

• Do they use EPA List N approved products and follow proper contact times?
• Can they deploy rapidly and provide detailed documentation?
• Are their technicians trained and certified?
• Do they understand your specific industry requirements and operational constraints?
• Have they actually done this before?

These questions matter tremendously when you’re making the call at 4:47 PM on a Thursday.

The Path Forward

I want to close with something Wes and I learned from our mother, who’s been running her house cleaning business for years and still loves it.

She taught us that cleaning is never just about removing dirt. It’s about creating spaces where people feel comfortable, safe, and cared for.

That’s especially true in outbreak response.

Yes, we’re reducing pathogen loads and minimizing transmission risk. But we’re also helping facility managers protect their teams, demonstrate duty of care, and restore confidence in shared spaces.

If you’re managing a facility in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC and you’re thinking about outbreak preparedness, have a plan in place before you need it.

Know who you’ll call. Know what documentation you’ll need. Know how you’ll communicate with your team.

And if you’re reading this because you just got a call like Sarah did—because there’s an outbreak in your building right now and you need help—know that we understand the weight of what you’re dealing with.

We’ve been through this exact situation before.

This isn’t a hypothetical scenario. Sarah’s story is real, and we’ve helped dozens of facility managers navigate similar crises across the Baltimore-Washington region.

Electrostatic cleaning won’t solve every problem.

But it’s a powerful tool, executed correctly, that can give you and your team confidence when you need it most.