Guide for families
Can I clean it myself?
What’s safe to handle, what isn’t, and why bleach isn’t enough.
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Quick answerA small amount of blood on a hard surface can often be cleaned safely with gloves and a disinfectant. Anything that soaked into carpet, a mattress, upholstery or wood, or any death or large spill, should be handled by trained techs: it can carry disease, and the waste has rules. Reviewed by Kevin, who leads our Madison team · Updated November 2026.
Probably fine
When you can do it yourself
A few drops of blood on tile, a countertop or sealed hardwood, cleaned right away, with disposable gloves and an EPA-registered disinfectant used as the label says. Bag the paper towels and gloves, and wash your hands.
Keep kids and pets away while you work.
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Under the floor
Why scrubbing isn't enough
Blood and fluids from a death or a serious injury move down through carpet and pad into the subfloor, and in older Madison homes with plank floors, into the ceiling of the room below. Scrubbing reaches only the top layer, which is why the smell comes back on the first warm day.
Call a pro
When you shouldn't
Any unattended death, any suicide or violent crime, blood that soaked into carpet, pad, upholstery, a mattress or a car seat, anything that reached the subfloor, sharps, or a large area. These carry real disease risk and usually mean removing materials.
It’s also hard emotionally. Nobody should have to remember cleaning up after someone they loved.
Bleach
Why bleach isn't enough
Bleach can disinfect a clean, hard surface, but it doesn’t remove blood that soaked into porous materials, and it doesn’t reach under flooring. It can also damage surfaces and react with other cleaners.
Scrubbing pushes fluids deeper. If it soaked in, it usually has to come out.
Disposal
What to do with the waste
Wisconsin regulates infectious waste, including sharps and materials soaked with blood. They shouldn’t go in household trash or a dumpster.
We package it properly and take it to a licensed medical waste facility.
FAQ
Common questions
It can be. Some viruses survive in dried blood.
Ozone can’t reach the source in a subfloor or mattress, and it isn’t safe to breathe. Remove the source first.
Disposable nitrile gloves, at minimum, for a small spill.
Often, yes. It’s worth calling before you start.
Sources we checked (reviewed November 2026)
Keep reading
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