School Cleaning Presents Unique Challenges

This article was originally posted on CleanLink.

From dealing with school boards and compliance with building security regulations to special event demands and maintenance scheduling, schools fall into their own unique service category. The work flow is just plain different, says Mahanay.

"The key to school cleaning is understanding that schools are cleaned differently and getting it right with the correct amount of labor and supervision as well as automated cleaning equipment that can help increase production," he says.

Continue reading on CleanLink. 

How to Select the Ideal Floor Cleaning Machine: Applications in the Field

Healthcare and education facility cleaning professionals must utilize equipment that accommodates their unique cleaning requirements and reduces the total cost of operation. Healthcare Hospitals and long-term care institutions are tasked with keeping the environment clean and healthy. This includes the use of floor scrubbers that make the facility cleaner and safer, using fewer chemicals and detergents for improved indoor air quality and safety. By providing chemical-free floor finish removal and delivering superior water pick-up, automatic scrubbers can improve the indoor air quality for facility occupants and, concurrently, minimize the risk of slip and fall incidents.

Education
Education facility floor surfaces present unique challenges to the building staff. With the need for daily cleaning and the presence of students for many hours each day, facility mangers must meet their cleaning requirements with limited time and labor resources. To cost-effectively handle hard surface cleaning, these facilities can use automatic scrubbers that are able to scrub high-traffic hallways and classrooms and also refinish gym floors—meeting multiple maintenance challenges with a single machine.

For carpeted areas, such as offices and libraries, powerful extractors deliver maximum soil removal, fast drying times and a quiet operation to minimize any unnecessary disruption for school occupants. Properly cleaned and maintained carpeting also helps improve indoor air quality, which reduces negative health impacts as well as student and faculty absenteeism.

Effective cleaning strategies are one of the most crucial components of any maintenance program, and with the benefits of sustainable cleaning, such as improved air quality, increased productivity and reduced labor and equipment costs, implementing the proper cleaning equipment has never been more important. Floor cleaning equipment is being engineered to combine the most advanced cleaning technology with the highest levels of efficiency to provide facilities with machines that perform faster and more effectively while ensuring a lower total cost of operation.

How to Select the Ideal Floor Cleaning Machine: Sustainable Cleaning Solutions

An essential step when implementing a facility-wide sustainable cleaning strategy is to select the proper cleaning equipment. When evaluating floor cleaning equipment, such as automatic scrubbers, carpet extractors and vacuums, facility managers should select machines that meet their cleaning requirements, maximize their labor force, and help them to achieve their green initiatives.

Automatic Scrubbers
Facilities looking to increase employee productivity while lowering or maintaining their labor costs will benefit significantly from the use of an automatic floor scrubber. Automatic scrubbers maximize cleaning efficiency and effectiveness. While typically used for daily scrubbing, enhanced scrubber platforms offer the flexibility to be used for deep scrubbing and chemical-free floor finish removal. Certain models of automatic scrubbers equipped with a unique rectangular scrubbing head provide straight edge cleaning along baseboards without having to use a separate piece of equipment for detailing. These machines should be available in both walk-behind and rider models to address specific budget and space requirements of all facilities. Additionally, these automatic scrubbers are designed so that the rear squeegee moves in line with the cleaning path to ensure complete water pick-up while scrubbing.

As more facilities face cuts in their operations and maintenance budgets, managers are looking for multi-purpose cleaning solutions that give them enhanced flexibility. Utilizing an automatic scrubber that has also been designed for single pass, chemical-free floor finish removal— as well as daily scrubbing—will result in decreased labor and chemical costs to the department. Facility managers are able to perform floor finishing project work without costly chemicals, excess labor costs, and slippery floors and odors associated with traditional strip out projects.

Carpet Extractors
Education and healthcare facilities often have a mix of hard and soft floor surfaces that they must clean. A proper soft floor surface cleaning program must also achieve maximum soil removal to prevent deterioration of indoor air quality and associated health consequences. A carpet extractor must be able to effectively eliminate ground-in soil while simultaneously leaving the carpet to dry as rapidly as possible in order to prevent the formation of mold and to allow the area to be used faster. Extractors that offer low moisture cleaning, a process that requires less water, can leave a carpeted room with a good level of clean and also be ready to be utilized in 30 minutes or less. To tackle more intense carpet cleaning tasks, extractors with restorative capabilities provide deep cleaning, effectively removing soils from deep in the fibers.

To minimize chemical usage and residue remaining in carpets, carpet extractors should provide the flexibility of high-quality soil removal without excessive detergent use. For example, extractors with the ability to reach and maintain extreme water temperatures, some as high as 212-degree Fahrenheit, can remove stains without detergents. The hot water improves cleaning results by as much as 40 percent over cold water alternatives and prevents any exposure to chemicals, while also eliminating the added expense of cleaning solution.

Vacuums
For maintaining the life and cleanliness of carpet, vacuums are the key to daily carpet cleaning. When selecting a commercial vacuum cleaner, facility managers should choose options that have received the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) Seal of Approval. The CRI Seal of Approval certifies that a product has passed a battery of tests verifying its ability to remove soil and minimize dust, while operating quietly—promoting cleanliness and increased indoor air quality. Vacuum cleaners should employ a multi-stage filter system, including H.E.P.A. filters that capture up to 99.97 percent of dust particulates down to .3 microns. Vacuums should also meet the sound requirements set forth by green cleaning requirements, which are ideal for daytime cleaning, saving labor costs of cleaning after hours.

Next week, we will discuss applications in the field. 

How to Select the Ideal Floor Cleaning Machine: Cleaning Challenges Part II

Improper cleaning practices also create the possibility of slip and fall accidents. Given the heavy foot traffic typical in healthcare and education facilities, facility managers should minimize safety hazards associated with hard flooring. For dry, safe surfaces, floor cleaning equipment should be used and must be able to pick up all solution to prevent leaving behind slippery residue.

In addition to the challenges of maintaining hard surface floors, both education and healthcare facilities must also ensure that their carpets are properly maintained to prevent dirt and dust from contaminating the environment. Good carpet cleaning practices are crucial to maintaining good indoor air quality and, thereby, improving occupant health. Harmful dirt particles are often trapped in carpet fibers and spread throughout the facility.

Finally, both education and healthcare facilities must also be cleaned daily, with minimal disruption to students and patients. Excess noise can have adverse effects on all occupants. Students must be able to concentrate while in class and patients need a calm and relaxed environment to promote healing. Floor cleaning equipment should be able to deliver a quiet operation mode to minimize disturbance caused by cleaning activities.

Next week, we will discuss sustainable cleaning solutions.

How to Select the Ideal Floor Cleaning Machine: Cleaning Challenges

Ensuring education and healthcare facilities maintain a certain level of cleanliness is important to preserve the health and well-being of building occupants. In order to ascertain their cleaning equipment needs, facility managers must be able to identify their exact cleaning requirements and implement solutions designed to satisfy these needs.

Education facilities are currently suffering from severe budget cutbacks that adversely impact their capacity to clean and maintain their buildings. To promote flooring integrity and appearance, hard floors should be refinished regularly. With traditional floor cleaning equipment, this process typically requires hours of labor and multiple machines to maintain the desired level of appearance and cleanliness in hightraffic areas. Unfortunately, with as much as 90 percent of cleaning expenses attributable to labor, many schools and universities have been forced to reduce staff and, therefore, do not have the resources available to meet the rigorous cleaning demands of these large facilities.

To assure the health, comfort and contentment of patients and staff, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are challenged to provide superior cleaning results while minimizing occupant exposure to excess noise, unpleasant odors and potential health risks associated with chemicals.

Check back next week to learn about other cleaning challenges found in education and healthcare facilities.

How to Select the Ideal Floor Cleaning Machine - Introduction

This is the first of a series of posts that will identify how to select the ideal floor cleaning machines in education and healthcare facilities. 

As more cleaning standards are put in place, and maintenance budgets decrease, facility managers struggle to find effective methods to clean floors without increasing costs. Facilities such as hospitals and schools are subject to daily, continuous foot traffic, which can result in floors becoming heavily soiled very quickly. Soiled floors not only detract from the overall appearance of the facility, but slick dirt and grime can cause slip and fall hazards while dust and other particles can impact indoor air quality.

To overcome these challenges and meet current sustainable cleaning requirements, healthcare and education facilities should utilize cleaning equipment that maximizes soil removal without increasing labor or effecting the environment— satisfying industry standards while keeping the cost of cleaning within budgets.

Today, cleaning professionals can select from a variety of cleaning equipment that is designed to provide flexibility and meet cleaning needs. By understanding and identifying their cleaning challenges, facility managers can select the ideal cleaning solution(s) that promote facility sustainability—minimizing labor, chemical and water requirements without sacrificing results.

Check back next week for the next part of this series on cleaning challenges found in education and healthcare facilities 

Selecting Floor Cleaning Machines: Satisfying Requirements & Budgets

This article was originally published in American School & Hospital Facility

As more cleaning standards are put in place, and maintenance budgets decrease, facility managers struggle to find effective methods to clean floors without increasing costs. Facilities such as hospitals and schools are subject to daily, continuous foot traffic, which can result in floors becoming heavily soiled very quickly. Soiled floors not only detract from the overall appearance of the facility, but slick dirt and grime can cause slip and fall hazards while dust and other particles can impact indoor air quality.

To overcome these challenges and meet current sustainable cleaning requirements, healthcare and education facilities should utilize cleaning equipment that maximizes soil removal without increasing labor or affecting the environment—satisfying industry standards while keeping the cost of cleaning within budgets.

Today, cleaning professionals can select from a variety of cleaning equipment that is designed to provide flexibility and meet cleaning needs. By understanding and identifying their cleaning challenges, facility managers can select the ideal cleaning solution(s) that promote facility sustainability—minimizing labor, chemical and water requirements without sacrificing results.

Ensuring education and healthcare facilities maintain a certain level of cleanliness is important to preserve the health and well-being of building occupants. In order to ascertain their cleaning equipment needs, facility managers must be able to identify their exact cleaning requirements and implement solutions designed to satisfy these needs. Read the full article here to learn about cleaning requirements in education and healthcare facilities.