The Framers Forum

I'm making preparations to re-start at some point and I could do with some advice on sanitisers. What sanitisers would you use for mouldings and mountboard?


(I'm not going to let customers touch moulding/mountboard samples - I'm thinking more of sanitising products on receipt of delivery.)

I have my doubts about being able to sanitising mountboard, but when it comes to sanitising mouldlings, perhaps the advise for washing your hands may give you some useful clues. If soap and water is good for sanitising your hands, then what not wipe you mouldings over with some soapy water on a damp cloth.

It is a scintific fact that soap, detergent and many other detergents contain an alkaline content rely upon their alkalinity to remove germs and viruses from surfaces, so this might be a good starting point.

There is a thread a while back about this

https://www.theframersforum.com/viewtop ... =6&t=18290

This wot I wrote

For your deliveries, then this from WHO (World Health Organisation ) might help

How long does the virus survive on surfaces?
The most important thing to know about coronavirus on surfaces is that they can easily be cleaned with common household disinfectants that will kill the virus. Studies have shown that the COVID-19 virus can survive for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel, less than 4 hours on copper and less than 24 hours on cardboard.

As, always clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water. Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose

So you could spray the moulding parcel with disinfectant, and leave for 24 hours before opening.

So when ordering mouldings, if you order 'Over Night' you will have to quarantine the moulding for 60 hours roughly or you could just wipe it down as Mark has suggested, that is if you are ordering factory finished mouldings, if ordering plain wood for hand finishing, well that's a different matter, the little begger (COVID-19) could get into the grain , so I think ban plainwood moulding for now

Mountcard, is a different matter, better to buy by the pack, so Daler , Larson Juhl both come in plastic bags , so you can wipe these down with alcohol base cleaners, by the way here is a link from LJ website regarding Tuffnells deliverys https://larsonjuhl.co.uk//content/files ... Update.pdf

With Colourmount mountcard which is in paper bags, I would take the sheets out and dispose of the bag

There's lots of information out there about how long the virus lasts on various surfaces.
Here are a few links:
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2020 ... n-surfaces
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... t-surfaces
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronav ... ?r=US&IR=T
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/N ... tured_home

If circumstances allow, store your delivery, sanitize yourself, and do not touch or unpack for a few days.

Thank you all for these replies, which are super helpful

Hi Rainbow,

Don't they say the virus can't survive more than 3 days on hard surfaces (forgive me if that is wrong or outdated info.)?

Maybe don't touch anything for 3 days after it has been delivered, if possible?

I get groceries online, and just put non perishables (tins, bags etc) aside for at least 3 days on the kitchen floor, rather than wipe them all down. I do the same with the mail.

All the best - stay safe,

Paul

I think another question would be, what are you going to do about finished work, when the customer come to collect it, what are you going to advise that they do

One of the articles that you linked to earlier gave a much longer period than 3-4 days for the virus living on hard surfaces, so I've got to do more research before advising customers, some of whom are quite elderly.

Those published guidelines are not super accurate. The survival times for the virus, will also depend upon environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity and probably other environmental conditions too. Like many other viruses, this one has an oily sticky coat, to help it stick to surfaces, but it does not have a very strong adhesion to these surfaces, otherwise it would stay stuck to the surface when you touch that surface and not get transffered to you, when you touch it.

This is why washing your hands with soap and water is so effective, because the soap and water enulsifies the sticky, oily coating and when you rinse your hands the virus washes off and down the drain. Washing down your newly arrived mouldings and wiping the down afterwards, should do the same thing. Like mould, viruses need an acid environment to live and opperate. The world that we live in is acidic, if it wasn't many life forms, as we know them could not exist, this is also true for most if not all viruses. The alkaline residue from the soap also destroys the defensive membrane around the single cell of the virus and the virus begins to degrade into harmless molecules.

Detergents also are based upon soluable alkalines substances and very largely work the same way as soap and water, that is why people use soap and water, or detergents and water, to clean things and to protect themselves by means of what we call hygene. We generally realise that we need to do this, most of us don't understand how this works at a scietific level , but this is how it works. My father was a chemist and I have a brother and a sister, who were chemists too! I grew up with this sort of knowedge and that's how come in know about this stuff. I hope that this helps!

^ Call me sad but that's the most interesting thing I've read about this virus Thank you for that!