The Economy of Death Cleaning

May 6th, 2008
By Don M. McNulty

Where do cleaning and the death industry meet?

Mainly in BIO CLEANING; Bio cleaning is also known as Trauma and Crime Scene Cleanup. Many people now know there are companies in the Untied States and Canada performing this work. Until these companies appeared in the marketplace, the work mainly fell to the individual families. Friends, extended family, acquaintances, and an occasional church has handled the cleanup for the most part.

There were those rare companies’ from time to time who would sporadically help out, but their focus was mainly on fire and water restoration or carpet cleaning, and the occasional bio clean was something they did once in a while when the opportunity presented itself. These brave souls felt they had the stomach to get in and do the work and were willing to help if they could.

But, with the advent of more education towards AIDS and Hepatitis and other Bloodborne Diseases, and the OSHA regulations known as the Bloodborne Pathogen Rule in the mid 80’s, less and less of these individuals were willing to risk their lives in these scenes.The Birth of a Whole New Industry Thus the birth of a whole new industry known as “bio cleaning” came about.

I have long told my students that we’ve been cleaning up after our dead since Cane and Able and there have always been people individually help with the clean up of these aftermaths, and some companies would do help from time to time. I officially started Bio Cleaning Services of America, Inc. in early 1993 and we were the first company dedicated to helping our communities and in just a few short years several other companies started by 1995. By 1998 various individuals have come on board and have built fairly successful companies performing bio cleaning work along with other services such as fire and water damage remediation , mold remediation, etc. Of course, many have come looking for riches and are already gone - broke and disappointed.

In just the last couple of years, fire and water restoration, and carpet cleaning contractors, have now found that this can be a very lucrative niche as an add-on service to what they are already providing. Bio Cleaning Services of America, Inc. has been the catalyst in this movement by providing a seminar format that trains and certifies technicians within this industry.

Pricing has Grown. Although the invoices were much lower at the very beginning, the national average for an invoice is now $2800 to $3500 for just a few hours work with a net profit of 65%, which at first glance may seem excessive. Although these companies now understand that without the proper training and equipment they would be entering into a very dangerous field of work and exposing themselves or their employees to things that can kill them and in order to have the ability to make this offer the personal risk, liabilities, higher wages, training and disposal cost dictate the charges.

A savvy provider can enter this work for less than $5000 in basic startup equipment cost less the cost of a vehicle; of course, more can be spent with added equipment and materials. However, in order to be successful, they will need to spend a minimum of $8000 a year for their marketing.The Industry has taken off like a RocketIn the later half of the 1990’s this industry has taken off like a rocket. I estimate that there were only 30 or so companies by the end of 1998, but now there are over 250 companies operational within the United States and Canada today. Now the U.K. and Australia have companies performing the work as well.

Most of the companies offering bio-cleaning services are less than five years old. So very few areas have no real established companies and the road for competition is very broad. We see a heating up of competition mainly in the larger metropolitan areas. I estimate that currently this industry generates about one half billion dollars per year and see it growing to reach an annual amount of more than 1 billion dollars within the next three to five years. There is only one company annualizing over the million dollar mark, and that is Aftermath, Inc. based in Chicago, IL. Information is Hard to Come By for Marketing.

Currently numbers for marketing research are still hard to come by. Various entities such as Coroners, Society of Sociology, Departments of Health, and the F.B.I. are tracking numbers of suicide, and homicide, but other numbers need to be tracked as well. Such as, unattended death, these are people who die, (usually of natural causes), but are not found for three or more days. These numbers can be found from the individual county coroner’s offices, but they usually do not make a distinction as to where the decedent was found, indoors or out. Automobile incidents are another area where the numbers are totally unknown. Automobiles with blood are still being cleaned or remediated of the blood for the most part, by unqualified body or trim shop personnel, and then the disposal is illegal as well. Medical incidents or altercations where no one dies, but significant blood loss occurs are totally unknown too. So you can see, as these people become more educated as to the dangers lurking in blood and bodily fluids or OSHA becomes more alert to these areas where business and employee safety is a concern, the task of the bio technician will continue to grow.Other Work is AvailableOther areas of remediation the bio cleaning company performs are large deposits of bird, bat, or rodent droppings. Since bird droppings can cause Histoplasmosis and rodent droppings have the potential for Hanta Virus these present quit a significant health risk to those in and around the infested structure and need trained technicians to cleanup the area properly. Many bio-cleaning companies run into other areas for work, such as “Unsanitary Dwellings” otherwise known as “Hording Syndrome” and “Pack Rat Houses.” These are usually homes that are covered in trash inside and out and many times a city is condemning the property until the owners get it cleaned up. The number of these properties is significant, and can be found in almost every community.The danger of bacteria growing from human waste, fungus from fecal material from rodents, and other animals, and dangers from the brown recluse spider are always present. It amazes me how much money people are willing to spend to have someone else clean up these messes