Blood Cleanup in Nashville, TN

When blood cleanup is worth a phone call

A drop of blood on a kitchen tile is a household job. Public-health guidance covers small spills on hard, sealed surfaces, and most people handle those without help. The situation changes when the amount is larger, when it has reached something soft or layered, or when the person who has to face it is the one who just watched a loved one get hurt.

People usually call us after one of these:

• A fall. An older parent falls in the night, hits their head and bleeds on the carpet before help arrives.
• An accident with a tool or glass. A table saw, a broken window, a dropped knife. The injured person drove or was driven to the emergency room and the room is as they left it.
• A medical event. Some conditions and treatments can cause sudden, heavy bleeding. Family members often come home from the hospital to find the bedroom or bathroom needs attention.
• Bleeding that went unnoticed. Blood found days later, after it has dried into fabric or wood.
• An incident at a business. A customer or employee injured in a store, office, gym or restaurant, where the space needs to reopen to the public.

Any of these can also involve other bodily fluids. We handle those too, as part of the same visit.

The health reasons, stated calmly

Blood can carry germs that you can't see. The CDC notes that bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV can be spread through contact with infected blood. That does not mean every spill is dangerous. It does mean blood from another person should be treated as potentially infectious, which is the standard approach in healthcare and in our work.

The practical problem is that blood rarely stays where it lands. It soaks through carpet into the pad and sometimes into the subfloor. It runs into grout lines, under baseboards and into the seams of upholstery. A surface can look clean on top and still hold contamination underneath. Household sprays are also not designed to reach that far down.

Blood and bodily-fluid services we provide

Each of these pages covers one kind of situation in more depth. Pick the one that sounds closest to yours.

• Dried blood cleanupBlood discovered days or weeks later, set into fabric, wood or grout
• After a traumatic injuryFalls, workshop accidents and other injuries at home while the person is in hospital
• Multi-room blood cleanupWhen an injured person moved through the house, leaving traces on stairs, doors and floors
• Bodily-fluid cleanupVomit, urine, feces and other potentially infectious materials after illness
• Biological contamination cleanupWider contamination of surfaces in homes and businesses, and what we refer to other trades
• Blood cleanup in rental propertiesFor landlords and tenants after an injury or incident in a rental unit
• Blood cleanup in commercial buildingsOffices, shops, restaurants, schools and gyms, including after-hours work

What the assessment looks at

Before we quote, we need to understand what was affected and how far it went. Sometimes we can get a good picture from a phone call and photos. Often we need to see the space. The assessment covers:

• Materials. Hard, sealed surfaces like tile, sealed stone and laminate counters can usually be cleaned and disinfected. Porous materials like carpet, pad, mattresses and fabric furniture often can't be, once blood has soaked in.
• Depth. We check below the visible layer: under carpet, behind baseboards, inside cushions.
• Spread. Footprints, hand marks on door frames, and towels or clothing used during first aid all matter.
• Access. Stairs, tight hallways and parking affect how we bring equipment in and take waste out.

You get a written scope that lists what we plan to clean, what we plan to remove and why. Our guide on how a biohazard assessment works goes into more detail.

How the cleanup works

1. Talk it through

   You call, tell us what happened in whatever words you have, and we ask a few practical questions about rooms, flooring and access. We confirm scheduling for your location by phone.

2. Set up and protect the space

   We wear protective equipment, set up a work zone, and protect unaffected rooms and walkways so nothing is tracked through the house.

3. Remove what can't be saved

   Porous items that are contaminated, such as carpet sections and pad, a mattress, or a fabric chair, are cut out or removed and packaged on site.

4. Clean and disinfect

   Hard surfaces are cleaned first to lift the material, then treated with EPA-registered disinfectants used according to label directions, including the dwell time the label requires.

5. Check and deodorize

   We inspect the area again, including below where material was removed, and address any lingering odor.

6. Dispose and document

   Contaminated material is packaged and disposed of in line with applicable Tennessee and federal requirements. You receive photos, the written scope and an itemized invoice.

If removal leaves a floor or wall that needs rebuilding, that is generally a contractor's job. We'll tell you during the assessment if your project will need one.

What to do while you wait

Our guide to the limits of household cleaning explains why well-meant scrubbing often makes the job bigger.

How this differs from crime scene and death cleanup

The cleaning methods overlap, but the situations don't. Blood cleanup on this page usually follows an accident or illness. The person who was hurt is often alive and recovering, and there may be no police report or medical examiner involved.

If blood is the result of a crime, our crime scene blood cleanup page covers the extra steps, including waiting for police to release the scene and Tennessee's crime-victim compensation program. If someone died, see unattended death cleanup or suicide scene cleanup. For an injury that also involved significant damage or several kinds of contamination, our serious injury scene cleanup page may fit better.

Not sure which applies? It doesn't matter much for the first call. Describe what you're looking at and we'll take it from there.

What affects scope and price

We don't publish prices because two blood cleanups can be very different jobs. The written scope is based on:

Some property insurance policies may cover some of this work. That depends entirely on your policy and your insurer, so we suggest asking them directly. We can give you photos, the written scope and an itemized invoice to send them. Our page on how pricing works and the guide to insurance questions after a biohazard incident have more.

If you'd rather start online, the Order Online page takes a $2,000 initial deposit. That deposit is not the final price, and it doesn't lock in a particular start time.

Where we work

We are one team based in Nashville and we travel out across Middle Tennessee, including Davidson, Rutherford, Williamson, Sumner, Wilson and Montgomery counties and the surrounding counties. Scheduling for any address is confirmed by phone, and distance can affect timing. See the full service area list, or go straight to Nashville, Murfreesboro or Franklin.

Questions people ask