Facing down the Covid challenge

CLEANING UP Malcolm Cooney is pictured doing a deep clean of An Scoil Beag Montessori at Westport Quay.

Atlantic Sanitisation has been taking on the coronavirus head on for the last six months

Achill
Oisín McGovern

“My job is to kill Covid when it’s outside the body, it’s the doctors job to kill it inside the body!”
That statement pretty much sums up the business plan that one Achill Island man has stuck to since setting up Atlantic Sanitisation.
In setting up the company during the first lockdown, Ashleam native Malcolm Cooney foresaw a surge in demand for cleaning services before society began reopening in May.
Since then Malcolm – who has operated The Floor Clinic cleaning service since 2007 – has gone from cleaning floors and carpets to killing viruses.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Malcolm explained where the idea came from.
“I would’ve done a lot of courses with cleaning and carpets and tiles. In March of this year with the lockdown, I had time to think about how my business was going to go forward with cleaning floors and carpets.
“I thought nobody will want me in houses or businesses, even when the lockdown finished, so I thought I wouldn’t be as busy. So I started thinking of different ways of earning a living,” he says.
After a period of extensive research and up-skilling, Malcolm was able to source a product called Virasafe as well as a fog machine for deep cleaning. He began his search for clients only once he was certain that the product had been properly certified.
As he explains: “There were different products that I could’ve used but I didn’t use them because they didn’t tick all the boxes. I would rather use a product that doesn’t have the bleaches in it for the reason that it would tarnish soft furnishes like varnished floors.
“It’s safe to use for children, adults and elderly. It’s safe for pets, it’s biodegradable, and it’ll kill the virus. My job is to kill it when it’s outside the body, it’s the doctors job to kill it when it’s inside the body!” he remarks.

Togging out
Togged out in something resembling a spacesuit, Malcolm is able to all but eradicate the virus using a product which kills 22 different viruses as well as 26 forms of bacteria.
Through his many years with The Floor Clinic, he was quickly able to find clients in the pub and hotel industry who were willing to keep their premises safe and sanitised after reopening in early summer.
With little business coming his way from The Floor Clinic, nearly all of his time is currently dedicated to Atlantic Sanitisation.
With pubs and hotels currently shut, most of his time is currently spent on deep cleaning schools and nurseries, as well as houses where Covid cases have been confirmed.
Atlantic Sanitisation is also selling alcohol-free, environmentally friendly hand sanitiser and is currently in the process of developing its website into an online shop.
Malcolm says: “It’s been busy the last couple of weeks and months. I’m selling products that will kill [the virus] in houses and I’ve a food safe product as well, I’ve sold a lot of that into restaurants and pubs.”
While it is hoped by all that the current pandemic will pass, Malcolm reckons that the increased awareness of good hygiene and sanitation will provide him with plenty of business going forward.
“I gave up sanding timber floors in August this year just because I’d been so busy with the sanitising and the cleaning of carpets. It was too much of a strain on my body and time to keep everything going,” he says.
“I think people will be more conscious of using hand sanitizers for the rest of our lives because there will be always viruses.
“I probably won’t be sanitising as much going forward in a year’s time. I think pubs will get their own fogging machines and stuff like that. I’ll still be out there cleaning carpets and floors and stuff like that.
“When I’m cleaning carpets I will give them reassurance that I will sanitize the whole house for them before I leave, that’s an added extra for customers knowing not only is their carpet clean but their houses has been sanitized in all the nooks and crannies... It’s an added protection.”