09/29/2026
The Science Behind Professional Cleaning
Verify Steemers
Harrisburg, PA
September 29, 2026
It's incredible how many firms we speak to – many of whom I refer to as 'DIY'ERS' – have no concept of the science that cleaning involves. Simply because you can point a spray gun, pull a trigger and run a cloth over a surface, does not mean you have the slightest idea about the chemistry of the substances you are using, the surface material upon which you are working or the nature of what you are actually trying to remove.
Cleaning is a science. You need to consider PH values, the concentration of the product, surface materials, temperatures, contact times and the necessary mechanical action required.
There are surfactants, designed to lower the surface tension of the water so that it spreads across the target surface and will then work its way into the oily soils, freeing them so that they can be wiped away.
Scrubbing works to free the dirt or contaminants from the material. The chemicals used have to work in tandem with the physical cleaning process – all too often, 'professionals' choose a product because it 'smells' nice, which is irrelevant to whether or not it's fit for purpose.
Then consider the difference between cleaning and sanitising/disinfecting. One is cleaning up the dirt/residue. The other is using a chemical product that is intended to destroy all the microorganisms for which it claims activity.
If a disinfectant specifies that a surface must stay wet for a specific amount of time to actually function – as all of them do – then wiping that disinfectant on and immediately buffing it away is absolutely not 'disinfecting' the surface. You haven't disinfected just because you bought a disinfectant!
Even the testing of cleaning surfaces is a science. People using ATP monitoring systems to 'prove' a surface is clean to a client are fundamentally misguided. An ATP swab tells you the amount of organic material remaining in a specifically sampled spot.
It is not a bacterial count.
It doesn't tell you the surface is germ-free. You have to understand the science of your tools to understand your results.
If you describe yourself as a professional cleaning business, you ought to be able to tell your customers what you are using, why you are using it and, most importantly, what the results of your cleaning efforts mean.
References
American Cleaning Institute. (n.d.-a). About cleaning product ingredients. https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/about-cleaning-product-ingredients
American Cleaning Institute. (n.d.-b). The chemistry of cleaning. https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/science-soap/chemistry-cleaning
American Cleaning Institute. (n.d.-c). How cleaning works. https://www.cleaninginstitute.org/understanding-products/science-soap/how-cleaning-works
Hygiena. (n.d.). Comparing the performance of ATP hygiene monitoring systems: Hygiena vs Neogen.https://www.hygiena.com/documents/62301/comparison-of-atp-monitoring-systems-hygiena-vs-neogen-en.pdf
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2025, October 8). What’s the difference between products that disinfect, sanitize, and clean surfaces? https://www.epa.gov/coronavirus-and-disinfectants/whats-difference-between-products-disinfect-sanitize-and-clean
Learn about the differences between disinfecting, sanitizing, and cleaning surfaces to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)
