With media hysteria and mass speculation over the meth decontamination industry, Chemcare is here to clear the air (in more ways than one). 

We know that meth contamination, at high levels is most definitely a health risk. But what are these levels exactly? While it’s hard to say when we have the young, sensitive and elderly people to consider, a rough figure of 1 micrograms/100cm2 is enough to justify decontamination in the areas affected. Chemcare receives calls every day by people getting sick at what are deemed by most to be 'low levels'.

In general, however, not all rooms are contaminated equally, especially if the property was just used for recreational meth use. At lower levels, some decontamination companies will advise you to strip out, or charge audacious sums of money for full decontamination - we on the other hand will not. 

Any kind of meth contamination that falls under the 1.5 micrograms/100m2 Meth standard NZ8510:2017 level will be fine for a precautionary clean. So what is a precautionary clean exactly? This kind of clean will get rid of meth on surfaces with low or negligible levels of meth. We at Chemcare use a ‘triple clean process’ which basically means that every surface that’s contaminated will be cleaned 9 times. On average, it works out at about 8 hours of labour per room as the process remains the same regardless of a level of 0.1µg/100cm 0r 10µg/100cm.

Now you may be asking if you could do it yourself? While you could attempt to bring down low levels of meth in your property, we use the analogy: ‘Imagine how long it takes to wash your car, now picture doing that 9 times.’ For the time, effort, expertise, equipment and cleaning solutions - you’re far better off leaving it with the professionals. While some cleaning equivalents like sugar soap are effective at getting rid of SOME contamination on surfaces, it is actually very aggressive and can cause other issues down the line. 

We make sure we use our cleaning solutions as per manufacturing guidelines to ensure your absolute safe even after we’ve finished. Our process is what’s regarded as “source removal”. We believe in removing all the contamination that can be removed, and rinsing free any remaining cleaning solution - leaving nothing behind.

Some important things to note before getting precautionary meth clean

• Most porous surfaces/items in the house will need to be disposed of. This includes curtains and sometimes soft furnishings and carpet. We will try to restore as much as possible, however, these surfaces tend to hold the most meth and can pose the biggest health risk. 
   

• We can assess the contents and chattels (at no additional charge) and on a case-by-case basis. Cost of remediation vs replacement sometimes does not count when it comes to very personal items like wedding dresses, or family heirlooms. Pictures and documents can be scanned and a digital copy left behind rather than the original.

If you are looking for effective precautionary meth clean, we are able to provide it to you for $350 per room. To reiterate, this only applies to rooms where contamination is at or below the Ministry of Health meth standard limits of 1.5 micrograms. If you have any questions or are seeking advice on a recent meth test result, please feel free to contact us on 0800 800 646.