Achieving Complete Care By: Steve Schultz Restroom Effective disinfection and deodorizing options help address one of the industry’s biggest challenges. A Steve Schultz has a BS in chemical engineering, a MS in organizational administration and 10 years of product development experience with cleaning products, including those specially formulated to tackle tough restroom jobs like Clorox® Urine Remover. For more information on product solutions to help achieve a complete clean in restrooms, and address other tough jobs, visit www. CloroxProfessional.com/ Cleaning. for more info Visit www.cmmonline.com and type in search keyword: Restroom Care. For more information on related products, visit www.cmmonline.com , select BUYERS’ GUIDE from the main navigation bar, and enter keyword: Disinfect. According to a recent survey, two-thirds of con-sumers would refuse to patronize establishments such as restaurants or hotels with dirty restrooms, and more than half said they would likely review a business more negatively — online or offline — based on whether the restroom was clean. 1 Research from Harvard Business School found that Yelp reviews can have a 5 to 9 percent effect on business revenues, 2 meaning bad reviews can translate to lower profits. Clearly, restroom cleanliness is important to businesses’ bottom lines, so eliminating odors and maintaining a clean restroom are critical for clean-ing professionals and business owners. Cleaning restrooms can be one of the toughest jobs cleaners face. Aside from implementing an effective cleaning protocol that takes into account frequency of use, selecting the right products to clean and disinfect is perhaps the most important thing you can do to properly clean a restroom. There are numerous products on the market that promise everything from disinfecting to de-odorizing in a number of different forms and costs, but the best options can help you achieve a better, more efficient clean, saving you time and money. Addressing Urine Odors And Stains Urine, specifically its odors and stains, presents one of the toughest challenges when it comes to cleaning restrooms. Three out of four American consumers are dis-gusted by urine stains and odors in public rest-rooms, 1 making it one of the most important prob-lems to address. Tough-to-clean urine stains and odors can make an otherwise clean facility seem unappealing and dirty, despite the hard work of cleaning professionals. One of the biggest problems with urine odors is that many products simply mask odors with air fresheners. To properly address odors, remember the follow-ing: ■ The effective and lasting solution to elimi-nating odors lies in breaking down uric acid crystals and removing the source of the odors rather than just masking them. ■ Porous damp surfaces, such as grout, hold bac-teria, which feed on urine in humid conditions, and wetting the surface can reactivate the odor. To combat this, look for products that work on hard and soft surfaces and incorporate them as a regular part of your cleaning routine. ■ Avoid dilutable bathroom cleaners which tend to work poorly on long-term odors since they typically contain little active ingredient after dilution, making it harder to completely remove uric acid crystals from porous sur-faces such as grout. ■ Use hydrogen-peroxide-based cleaners for removing stains and odors. Porous surfaces not only trap odor-causing bac-teria and urine, but also are susceptible to stains. To eliminate urine stains, look for products with surfactants that penetrate deep into surfaces to reach and break up the cause of stains. Cleaning The Air The best way to eliminate odors is by breaking down their source — typically urine crystals, most often found in restroom grout. 30 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • November 2013 Image courtesy of xyno/iStock/Thinkstock
CMM – Archives November 2013: 30
