Nowadays, Coronavirus is in the news headlines all over the world. Coronavirus is a die-hard virus! Coronavirus can survive outside the human body for a long time, which is why it is widespread. Researchers say this family of viruses can survive between four and five days on various materials like wood, paper, plastic, and glass. One way to prevent and slow it down is by disinfecting different surfaces. In this article, we show you how to disinfect wooden furniture to fight the coronavirus.

What is Coronavirus?

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered virus. For up-to-date information on Coronavirus and public health advice for protecting yourself against coronavirus, you can visit the World Health Organization website.

According to the WHO statement, most people infected with the coronavirus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. Older people and those with underlying medical problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer are more likely to develop serious illness.

Wooden Furniture, a Place for Transmission of Corona

The best way to prevent and slow down corona’s transmission is by washing the hands or using an alcohol-based rub frequently and not touching your face. In addition, another recommendation is to disinfect different surfaces at work and at home. Wooden furniture is one of the important surfaces that can spread the coronavirus. How can we effectively disinfect wooden surfaces without damaging the furniture? We will answer this question here.

How Long the Coronavirus Can Live on the Wood Surface?

Researchers say this family of viruses can survive between four and five days on various materials like wood, paper, plastic, and glass. Another study published March 1 in the Journal of Hospital Infection looked at the lifespans of other coronaviruses found in humans on various surfaces.

The coronavirus, at a temperature of 68 degrees Fahrenheit, lasted for two days on steel, four days on wood and glass, and five days on metal, plastic, and ceramics. So the coronavirus has 4 days to transmit through the wooden furniture to another person.

Disinfect Wood Furniture to Fight the Coronavirus

Wood furniture is found in many places, used as anything from the kitchen table to an end table in the bedroom. Coronavirus can live on the wood furniture and can be transmitted to another person, which makes it important to clean and disinfect these surfaces.

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Making Disinfectant Solution for Wooden Surfaces

Bleach solution is usually used to disinfect ceramic, plastic and metal surfaces, but Viteks can damage wooden surfaces. You certainly don’t want your expensive wooden furniture to hurt.

The best ingredient for wood surfaces is alcohol. According to health experts, the solution that can destroy the coronavirus should be at least 60 percent alcohol. If you have 96% ethanol (white, medical) available for disinfecting surfaces, you need to convert it to 70% alcohol.

Ethanol (alcohol) is usually 96%. But the problem is that at high concentrations of alcohol without the effective presence of water, alcohol rapidly denatures the cell membrane proteins, thereby reducing the penetration of alcohol into the cell. Thus, a virus that is exposed to 96% alcohol, only denatures its surface and becomes impermeable to alcohol.

As a result, the vital proteins inside the cell become alive and the cell will be capable of repairing itself.

At a concentration of 70%, the rate of denaturation of cellular proteins by alcohol is such that ethanol has a good chance of penetrating into the cell. Therefore, the best concentration of alcohol to disinfect surfaces and hands is the concentration of 70% alcohol.

In fact, 96% alcohol does not kill the virus membrane and must be diluted. But how to dilute 96% alcohol for disinfecting? You have to consider a ratio of 7 to 3, that is, 7 portions of alcohol and three portions of water. For example, 70 ccs of alcohol with 30 ccs of water.

Industrial Alcohol: This alcohol is also known as “methanol“. Industrial alcohol cannot disinfect and clean viruses and it is very dangerous for the human.

How To Disinfect Wood Furniture Step by Step

You can disinfect wooden furniture with these three simple steps:

Step1: Making Disinfectant Solution

Fill a spray bottle with 3.5 cups ethanol, 1.5 cup water, and about five drops dish soap if the wood is soiled. Fill a spray bottle with 3.5 cups ethanol, 1.5 cup water, and about five drops dish soap if the wood is soiled. The dish soap works as an added cleaning element.

Step 2: Spray the Solution

Spray the disinfectant solution onto the wood furniture. Let it dry by itself and then wipe off with a damp cleaning rag. Using a damp rag removes the watermark of the soap. See how to remove the watermark from wood.

Step 3: Drying

Wipe the surface of the furniture with a dry cleaning rag to remove any excess moisture.

Conclusion

The coronavirus can survive for up to 4 days on wooden surfaces such as furniture. As you can see in this article, the best solution is to disinfect the wooden surfaces is ethanol.

Methanol does not work in this case and bleach can damage wooden objects.

Also, the concentrations of alcohol should not be too high. The best percentage of alcohol to eliminate the coronavirus is 70%.

Also, if you have 96% alcohol, you can dilute it with water at a ratio of 7:3 and use it as a disinfectant for your wooden furniture.

4 Comments

  1. Barbara Grant Reply

    I loved your article but I still have some questions. I have mahogany and cherry furniture. I am concerned that the 70% alcohol will damage the finish of my furniture. No one in my family is sick yet, so I’m just doing my regular cleaning of the furniture. But if a family member becomes sick, I think I should use the mixture to kill the covid 19 on the furniture in the isolation bedroom. I’m just worried about destroying the finish of expensive furniture. Can you advise further?

    • Mostafa Dehghan Reply

      Hi, you can keep 70% alcohol on your furniture for one minute and then clean it up, don’t worry.

  2. Hi, I’m looking to disinfect some wooden pews. Spraying them down, letting it dry then wiping it down might be a little time consuming to clean all of them. I wondered if there was a wet wipe that was just 70% ethanol that could be used the same way and would not require going back over. What I found were 70% Isopropyl wipes, would Isopropyl work interchangeably with Ethanol? And would it be safe to wipe the furniture down with said wet wipe and leave to dry on its own? Thanks for writing, was a supper helpful article!

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