Air duct cleaning in Nijmegen

Nijmegen alongside Arnhem and Doetinchem: what the Gelderland figures show

Nijmegen has 187,049 inhabitants on 5,281 hectares of land, giving 3,542 inhabitants per km². That is the highest density of the three Gelderland cities in this comparison.

In Nijmegen, government, education and care is the largest sector, even larger than business services. If you want to compare the neighbouring municipalities, see air duct cleaning in Arnhem and ductwork cleaning for Doetinchem businesses.

Which guidelines apply to air handling in healthcare?

For Dutch hospitals, the SRI is the successor to the WIP guidelines for infection prevention. The guideline on air handling in operating theatres requires an air management plan covering technical management, maintenance and periodic checks, in which procedures and responsibilities for air quality are laid down. At a minimum, the volume of air supplied to the operating theatre and the instrument preparation room is monitored.

In Germany, VDI 6022 is the benchmark for the hygiene of air handling installations. It prescribes a hygiene inspection every 2 years for installations with air humidification and every 3 years without. You can use those intervals as a reference for your own schedule. The details are covered under cleaning ducts in a hospital and under Duct cleaning standards for cleaning contractors.

Legionella and humidification: a separate point of attention

If a building has central air humidification, legionella comes into play alongside dust. The RIVM (Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment) guideline on legionellosis lists air humidifiers and central humidification as possible sources, although most infections arise from water installations that produce a spray. Article 4.87b of the Working Conditions Decree (Arbobesluit) sets out measures against legionella in air humidification installations, and the Dutch government asks the employer to carry out a risk analysis and record the measures in a management plan.

For hospital air handling systems, German literature gives guide values for humidifier water: Legionella below 100 CFU per 100 ml, total colony count below 1,000 CFU per ml and Pseudomonas below 100 CFU per 100 ml. Cleaning the ducts does not solve a contaminated humidifier; both belong in the same plan.

Duct cleaning Nijmegen: see what you clean with a camera

KHN (Royal Dutch Hospitality Association) notes that serious contamination is often invisible to the naked eye, and that is just as true outside the hospitality sector. In care buildings with many branch ducts and small cross sections, a camera is therefore no luxury.

Air lance with camera for cleaning contractors from Danduct Clean combines compressed air with a built-in camera with LED lighting. It works in ducts from 30 mm, handles tight 90 degree bends, pulls itself forward on the air pressure and has 20 metres of hose. You need a compressor delivering 700 litres per minute or more at around 10 bar, or nitrogen, and a separate monitor connected via the A/V output. Lamers writes that cleaning with an air nozzle was long regarded as less effective than rotating brushes, but that with the camera you see and clean every spot and corner.

Working sequence for a facilities team in a care setting

1. Plan together with the department. Decide which rooms will be taken out of use and for how long.
2. Seal off. Use sealing balloons in the duct and foam caps on valves and diffusers.
3. Maintain negative pressure. Every section being cleaned stays under continuous negative pressure. If the extraction unit exhausts indoors, a HEPA filter with 99.97% at 0.3 µm is required.
4. Clean from clean to dirty. Work towards the extraction unit so loose dust is not blown back.
5. Have someone else do the assessment. A German laboratory advises separating cleaning and the hygiene inspection for objectivity.
6. Record it. Include the results in the air management plan.

For steps 2 and 3 there is dedicated equipment: see sealing balloons and vent caps for businesses.

A practical tip for care settings: agree in advance with the department who gives the final release of the rooms, so that cleaning, assessment and reopening follow each other without confusion.

Fictional example: an education site with three air handling units

Suppose an educational institution has three air handling units, each with a main duct and dozens of branches to classrooms. The facilities team wants to carry out inspections itself and remove minor contamination straight away. A workable setup is then a DC4 for the main ducts up to 30 metres, a set of brushes in sizes from 100 to 600 mm and the Intelligent Airnozzle for the narrow branches with bends. The institution has the final hygiene assessment done by an external party. This example is fictional and intended to show how equipment can be combined. The choice for each building is discussed on the basis of the duct data. A complete overview can be found under air duct cleaning tools for businesses.

Ventilation duct cleaning Nijmegen with a supplier from Gelderland

Lamers is not located in Nijmegen but in Zelhem, in the same province. You request advice or a quote by phone, email or form, and on every product page you can ask for a callback. Also take a look at the overview of duct cleaning by municipality or the background Lamers Equipment for businesses.

When you get in touch, have the duct drawings, the number of air handling units and the smallest and largest diameters to hand. That makes it easier to advise on a combination of machine, brushes and sealing equipment that suits a care or education building.