CM/Spotlight: Hard Floor Care Sponsored by: Ahead Of The By: Phillip Lawless Curve Phillip Lawless is Editor of Cleaning & Maintenance Management magazine; he can be reached at PLawless@ GrandViewMedia.com. A graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Lawless has over 13 years of professional writing and edit-ing experience. Floorcare tips and trends that offer operational advantages. H for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Floorcare . For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select DIRECTORY from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Automatic Floor Scrubbers . Hard floor care is one of the most pressing JanSan challenges facing facility managers and building service contractors (BSCs) today. Proper floorcare covers a lot of ground — both figuratively and literally — and it is an increasingly important process for a number of reasons. First, facility appearance is an obvious but seri-ous consideration. Every building occupant will notice when a floor is dull, sticky or slippery, and building managers today expect the attractive shine of an impeccably maintained floor, no questions asked. Sanitation is another growing area of floorcare concern. Dirty, unkempt floors in restrooms, kitchens and classrooms can contribute to “sick building syn-drome” and encourage dangerous cases of facility cross contamination. Finally, floor safety is absolutely paramount. As legal liability concerns have increased, floor technicians in commercial facilities must call upon their entire skill set to help reduce the occurrence of slip-and-fall accidents. April 2014 The demand for attractive, sanitary and safe floors is almost as old as the cleaning industry itself, and matting, equipment, chemicals and employee training are all integral parts of a modern floorcare program. The following tips were gathered from respected industry sources who have working knowledge of today’s most effective hard floor care processes and procedures. Starting Outside Catch it at the door: The first step facility managers can take to keep interior floors clean actually starts outside the building. According to Bryan Smith, marketing manager with Tennant Company, studies show that 70 to 80 percent of dirt actually enters the facility through the doorways. While sweeping exterior spaces regularly can reduce incoming soil by 66 percent, Smith notes, some innovative facility managers have taken an extra measure to reduce the incoming dirt even fur-ther by keeping a small battery scrubber near their 20 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ®
CMM – Archives April 2014: 20
