Texas Biohazard Cleanup

On Call Bio serves families, landlords, and businesses across Texas — from the big metros to the small towns and the ranch roads in between. Death cleanup, suicide and crime scenes, hoarding, blood, drug residue, and more. This page covers what’s true statewide: who handles what, what the state does and doesn’t require, and how the money usually works here. When you’re ready, one call starts it.

Does Texas have a fund that pays for crime scene cleanup?

Yes. Texas runs the Crime Victims’ Compensation Program through the Office of the Attorney General, and it can reimburse crime scene cleanup for eligible victims and families. For crimes that happened after July 14, 2016, the program pays up to $2,250 toward cleanup. That is real money set aside for exactly this, and most families never hear about it until someone points them to it. Our crime scene cleanup crews work with these funds every week.

Two things to know about how it works. First, it’s a last-resort program by law: if you have homeowners’ or renters’ insurance that covers the cleanup, that has to be used first, and the fund fills gaps after. Second, it runs on paperwork — a bill or receipt from a professional cleaning company, or an itemized list of supplies, plus your insurance declaration page or a statement that you had no insurance. That’s the part we make easy. We document the whole job the way the program expects to see it, so your claim isn’t the thing standing between you and the reimbursement. You can start the application on the Attorney General’s site, and we’ll help you line up what it asks for.

If insurance doesn’t cover everything, financing options are available. Wondering how other states handle this? See our 50-state guide to victim compensation for cleanup.

Is a special license required for biohazard cleanup in Texas?

Texas does not license biohazard or trauma-scene cleanup as its own trade. Some states, like California and Florida, make cleanup companies register under a specific practitioner or biomedical-waste license. Texas doesn’t. So the honest answer is that no state cleanup license is required here — which also means the bar is whatever standard a company chooses to hold itself to, and that varies a lot.

Here’s where the real rules live in Texas, and where we hold ourselves. The medical waste a cleanup produces is governed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality under Title 30, Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 326, and anyone transporting more than 50 pounds of untreated medical waste needs a TCEQ registration to do it. On top of that sits the federal OSHA bloodborne pathogen standard, which sets how blood and body fluids must be handled to protect the people doing the work. We follow all of it — TCEQ-registered transport for the waste, OSHA methods on the scene, and verification testing before we call a job done. No state license doesn’t mean no standard. It means you have to ask, so ask.

Who releases the scene back to the family in Texas?

It depends on your county, because Texas uses a hybrid system that surprises people. Only 14 of the state’s 254 counties have a medical examiner. In the rest, an elected Justice of the Peace conducts the death inquest. Whichever official is handling it — the medical examiner or the justice of the peace — oversees the investigation and the release of the body. You’ll choose a funeral home and sign a release authorizing the body to be sent there.

What catches families off guard is what happens next. Once the inquest is finished and the scene is released, cleaning the property is the family’s or owner’s responsibility — not the county’s, not the justice of the peace’s, not the medical examiner’s. The officials investigate and take the person into their care, and then they leave. If the person wasn’t found right away, unattended death cleanup in Texas is usually the next call. What remains is yours to deal with, and it’s exactly what we’re here for. Call 844-326-6800 and that part moves to us.

What Happens When You Call

• You speak to a person immediately — no phone tree, day or night.
• A few gentle questions, a clear explanation of what comes next, and a crew on the way — same-day across most of Texas.
• We document everything for your insurance claim and can bill your carrier directly.
• The scene is returned to a safe, livable condition — meeting OSHA and EPA standards.

The Paperwork Side, Handled

A death brings a stack of paperwork that nobody prepares you for, and some of it you’ll need before the estate or the insurance can move. Death certificates in Texas are issued by the Department of State Health Services through its Vital Statistics office. A certified copy is $20 for the first and $3 for each additional copy ordered at the same time, and you can order online through Texas.gov, by mail, or in person. It’s worth ordering several copies at once — banks, insurers, and the county will each want their own, and getting them together is cheaper and simpler than going back.

We can’t file those for you — they’re yours to request — but we can tell you which document each party tends to ask for, and we hand you a clean cleanup record that the victim fund and your insurer will accept without a fight. The goal is fewer trips, fewer surprises, and no claim stalling because a form was missing.

Discretion, Everywhere in Texas

Our vehicles carry no company name and no biohazard markings. From the sidewalk, it looks like a plain van and a few people moving boxes — nothing that tells a story. Your neighbors never learn why we came, whether you’re on a close-set block in Houston or a quiet road hours from the nearest town. Crews suit up inside, waste leaves in unmarked containers, and if a particular hour draws fewer eyes on your street, say so and we’ll time our arrival to it.

What to Do Before We Arrive

If you just walked into something and don’t know what order to do things in, here’s the short version we give on the phone. It’s the same whether you’re in a city or out in the country.

• Stay out of the affected room, and keep children and pets away from it entirely.
• Don’t try to clean blood or body fluids yourself — it’s a health risk, and there’s nothing in that room you need to face.
• If officials are still working, wait for the scene to be released before anyone touches it, and get the name of the justice of the peace or medical examiner handling it.
• Locate your homeowners’ or renters’ policy if it’s handy — and if it isn’t, don’t worry, tracking down coverage is something we do on nearly every job.
• Order several certified death certificates at once when the time comes; multiple parties will each want their own.

Every Kind of Scene, One Texas Number

The situations that bring people to this page are never the same twice, and we handle the full range across Texas. An unattended death discovered days later, where odor and fluids reached the floor and the air. A suicide, cleaned quietly so a grieving family never has to see the room. A crime scene, after the officials release it. A hoarded home that needs clearing and disinfecting, not judging. Blood after an accident or a medical emergency. Drug residue that has to be tested and removed. Whatever yours is, you don’t have to know the right word for it before you call. Describe it plainly, and the person who answers will know exactly what to send. Behind every dispatch is the same biohazard cleanup team we field nationwide. That includes help with a hoarded home anywhere in the state.

Common Questions From Texas Families

How much does this cost?

The size of the job drives it — one contained room is a modest job; a scene that sat for a while or spread through the structure is a larger one. You’ll get a firm written price after we see the property and before we lift a finger, and that approved number is what you pay, with nothing added quietly later. Between homeowners’ insurance and the state’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Program, plenty of Texas families end up paying little or nothing themselves.

How soon can a crew reach me?

Dispatch runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and most of Texas gets same-day response. If the scene hasn’t been released by the justice of the peace or medical examiner yet, call us anyway — we’ll coordinate the timing so we arrive the moment it’s cleared, instead of you starting the search for help at that point.

Do you cover my part of Texas?

Texas is big, and we serve it statewide — metros, suburbs, and rural counties alike. Tell the dispatcher where the property is and they’ll give you a straight answer on timing for your specific location. We take the same calls across the Gulf South, including Florida. The number is the same everywhere: 844-326-6800.

Will anyone be able to tell you were here?

No. Unmarked vehicles, no branded uniforms visible from the street, no signage anywhere. By the time we leave, the space looks like any other room in the house — you’d never know work was done there, or why it was needed.

From the Panhandle to the Gulf: All of Texas

Texas is four or five states’ worth of driving wearing one name, and the dispatch board is built for it — metro crews for the big four, long-haul routes for everywhere else:

• Dallas–Fort Worth — Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Denton, Garland, Irving, Grand Prairie
• Greater Houston — Houston, Pasadena, Pearland, Sugar Land, League City
• Central Texas — Austin, Round Rock, San Antonio, New Braunfels, Killeen, Waco
• West Texas & the Panhandle — El Paso, Lubbock, Amarillo, Midland, Odessa, Abilene
• South Texas & the Valley — Corpus Christi, Laredo, McAllen, Edinburg, Brownsville

All 254 counties come through one number — and a ranch gate three hours from anywhere gets its drive time quoted straight.

Why People Call On Call Bio

• A real person answers 24/7 — no phone tree, no answering service.
• Every technician is trained under the OSHA bloodborne pathogen standard and works to EPA standards.
• Uses TCEQ-registered regulated medical waste transport (30 TAC Ch. 326).
• We document the whole job for insurance and, where allowed, bill your carrier for you.
• No markings, no signage, no talk — total discretion is the default, not an upsell.
• Verification testing confirms a space is genuinely clean before we call a job done.

What Families Say

Jamie was compassionate, professional, caring and easy to work with, yet clear with what he needed to do and conscious of safety. His crew were equally caring and professional.

Peggy H.

On Call Bio was very professional and was able to accommodate the urgency in the situation. They explained the services and was able to relieve my worries.

Latoya

One Call Starts It

Something hard happened, and now there’s a property somewhere in Texas you can’t bring yourself to deal with. That’s alright — dealing with it is our job, not yours. Call 844-326-6800. You’ll reach a real person who will listen, tell you what happens next, and carry this the rest of the way. See our full coverage map for every state we serve.