# Hypothetical about moving house

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [April 15, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878 "2020-04-15T21:32:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\
**Post date:** [April 15, 2020, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878/1 "2020-04-15T21:32:34Z")

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If I move from my current rental into a new house rental, the house is not new but has been occupied, having read lots of internet stuff about the coronavirus and its ability to hang about on various surfaces and infect, it looks like on paper, metal, other materials, it is potentially active 3-4 days and then cannot survive. Any straight dope about say waiting one week to move into a new and different rental that is virus free?

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878/2 "2020-04-16T00:16:11Z")

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There was one study that suggests that it can live on surfaces for 9 days, but I haven’t heard of anything longer. If you’re really concerned **and** don’t want to wait a week or more there are cleaning services that will disinfect every surface for you. Our office had it done and it was $300, and our office is at least 3000sf. I believe it’s called EnviroShield.

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**Author:** ![bardos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bardos/32/1069_2.png) [@bardos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bardos)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878/3 "2020-04-16T00:20:42Z")

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Have heard a lot about “disinfection”… wondering if the chemicals they use might be worse than the disease, well, not really. But you realize the chemicals used in disinfection are not life-friendly. Do they also stay in the environment?

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878/4 "2020-04-16T15:43:04Z")

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If you have the money, then hire a cleaning service to thoroughly clean and disinfect the house before you move in.

If not, then what I would do is to let the house sit for 72 hours after the last occupants leave, then clean myself while wearing a mask and gloves.

The virus doesn’t appear to last longer than [72 hours](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2004973) on surfaces.

ETA: I would also air the house out for a couple of days to eliminate any aerosols.

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hypothetical-about-moving-house/851878/5 "2020-04-16T15:53:24Z")

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P.S. Here are the CDC’s guidelines for household cleaning and disinfecting:

[https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cleaning-disinfection.html](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cleaning-disinfection.html)

[https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/disinfecting-your-home.html](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/disinfecting-your-home.html)