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Monday, November 25, 2013

Carpet Care: Five Tips to Proper Wand Usage

This article was originally published in CleanLink.

The wand on a carpet extractor plays a far more important role in effective carpet cleaning than many carpet cleaning technicians and cleaning professionals may realize. Some more advanced wands can speed up the entire cleaning process while also allowing carpets to dry more quickly and more thoroughly-if the wand is used properly.

Experts agree that proper wand usage is key to successful carpet cleaning, and offer the following suggestions for proper wand usage:

Start in a far corner of the room, move from left to right, and work toward the exit. (The direction may vary due to room specifications.)
Once on the carpet, pull the wand's trigger to allow water (solution) to flow onto the carpet. Then move the wand forward.
Release the trigger and pull the wand backward to remove moisture from the carpet.
Return to the starting point, repeat the process, and begin moving the wand to the left, overlapping the area that was just cleaned.
Repeat the process until all areas are cleaned.

The wand on a carpet extractor plays a far more important role in effective carpet cleaning than many carpet cleaning technicians and cleaning professionals may realize. Some more advanced wands can speed up the entire cleaning process while also allowing carpets to dry more quickly and more thoroughly-if the wand is used properly.

Experts agree that proper wand usage is key to successful carpet cleaning.

"Some carpet cleaning technicians refer to working with a wand as 'dancing with the wand'-and in many ways, it is like a dance," says Doug Berjer, National Sales Manager for CFR, makers of continuous flow recycling carpet extractors. "However, you've got to know the proper steps for this dance to come out right."

Berjer offers the following suggestions for proper wand usage:
• Start in a far corner of the room, move from left to right, and work toward the exit. (The direction may vary due to room specifications.)
• Once on the carpet, pull the wand's trigger to allow water (solution) to flow onto the carpet. Then move the wand forward.
• Release the trigger and pull the wand backward to remove moisture from the carpet.
• Return to the starting point, repeat the process, and begin moving the wand to the left, overlapping the area that was just cleaned.
• Repeat the process until all areas are cleaned.

"It is not uncommon for streaks to develop during the extraction process," says Berjer. "Often this is because the wand left excess moisture on the carpet, which can be corrected by going over these areas once again."

Berjer says older wands tend to cause streaking problems more frequently, while more advanced wands flush and remove moisture from carpet fibers more thoroughly, thus minimizing this problem. - See more at: http://cleanlink.com/news/article/Carpet-Care-Five-Tips-to-Proper-Wand-Usage--16349#sthash.RUXF3A5h.dpuf

The wand on a carpet extractor plays a far more important role in effective carpet cleaning than many carpet cleaning technicians and cleaning professionals may realize. Some more advanced wands can speed up the entire cleaning process while also allowing carpets to dry more quickly and more thoroughly-if the wand is used properly.

Experts agree that proper wand usage is key to successful carpet cleaning.

"Some carpet cleaning technicians refer to working with a wand as 'dancing with the wand'-and in many ways, it is like a dance," says Doug Berjer, National Sales Manager for CFR, makers of continuous flow recycling carpet extractors. "However, you've got to know the proper steps for this dance to come out right."

Berjer offers the following suggestions for proper wand usage:
• Start in a far corner of the room, move from left to right, and work toward the exit. (The direction may vary due to room specifications.)
• Once on the carpet, pull the wand's trigger to allow water (solution) to flow onto the carpet. Then move the wand forward.
• Release the trigger and pull the wand backward to remove moisture from the carpet.
• Return to the starting point, repeat the process, and begin moving the wand to the left, overlapping the area that was just cleaned.
• Repeat the process until all areas are cleaned.

"It is not uncommon for streaks to develop during the extraction process," says Berjer. "Often this is because the wand left excess moisture on the carpet, which can be corrected by going over these areas once again." - See more at: http://cleanlink.com/news/article/Carpet-Care-Five-Tips-to-Proper-Wand-Usage--16349#sthash.RUXF3A5h.dpuf

Monday, November 18, 2013

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.

Monday, November 11, 2013

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.

Monday, November 4, 2013

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.

Monday, October 28, 2013

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.

Monday, October 21, 2013

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

Monday, October 14, 2013

Green Cleaning: Summertime Debriefing

This article was originally published in American School & University.

It's time to start a new school year, and with that comes freshly clean carpets and hard surfaces. So how exactly do educational facilities complete this cleaning over the summer? The informative article below published in American School & University provide the details.

The key is that education institutions repeat these activities every summer; a specific exercise should be established to ensure that the summer-time efforts continually improve. This is the time of the year to do a debriefing to determine how effectively the time was spent and identify opportunities for improvements that can be applied next year.

Conducting an annual summertime debriefing can make next year’s efforts more successful:

Products: Did the products meet the needs and expectations? Did the products perform adequately? Were adequate quantities purchased? If new technologies were used, how did they perform? Did products meet LEED, STARS, state mandates or sustainability objectives for using green cleaning products? Should new technologies, green or traditional products be considered for purchase throughout the school year or for next year’s program? What feedback do staff members have about the performance of the products, as well as any other feedback based on their experience using the products? Should the purchasing department incorporate any new requirements for next year
Suppliers: Did the suppliers meet needs and expectations? Were supplies delivered on time and complete, or were there numerous delays and backorders? If there were emergency requests for products, did the supplier respond in a timely manner? Was the supplier knowledgeable about the products? Did it offer informed recommendations about alternatives or other ways to be helpful? Is there any experience, either positive or negative, that should be shared with the purchasing department that should be considered next year?
Processes: Were the cleaning processes effective? What worked well and what could be improved? Were the people and teams well-organized? Did the processes reduce energy and water use? Did they reduce waste? What feedback from supervisors and staff could improve the processes, as well as those for next year’s intensive summer program?
Training: Was the training adequate? If not, where did it fall short? Should the amount of time be longer or shorter next year? Was enough time spent on improving skills vs. compliance? Was the amount of classroom and hands-on training appropriate? Was it appropriate for the skill level of the people being trained? Do supervisors and staff have feedback about the trainers? How can the program be improved next year? Should the trainers be invited back or new ones identified?
Personnel: How did the supervisors and staff perform? Did they do just the minimum that was expected or did any of them excel? Did any stand out as candidates for increased responsibility? What feedback do supervisors and staff have on their colleagues (good and bad)? Were any people given responsibilities that did not align with their skill set? What was learned about the team and how could things be done better next year? Should any information be discussed with the human resources department?
Facilities: Were any areas identified that need to be addressed differently next year? Were there any areas under renovation, construction and repurposing, or changes such as increasing or decreasing enrollment or funding that may affect next year’s activities? If so, how will this affect product purchasing, suppliers, cleaning and maintenance processes, training, personnel and other issues affecting next year’s summertime activities?