Floor Maintenance from Staples!

Clean and well-maintained floors are the foundation of any facility. That’s why smart and experienced facility managers make their them a priority. Establishing and following a floor maintenance plan is the key, and we’ve put together five steps to help you create one that’s right for your facility!

• Identify your floors’ purpose.
• Determine your budget and worker resources.
• Identify the optimal finish.
• Acquire the necessary maintenance equipment.
• Attend to the particular maintenance needs of carpet.

Step 1: Identify Your Floor’s Purpose

Start by asking a simple question. “What purpose should your floors serve?”

Here’s the obvious answer:

“My floors’ purpose is to serve as a surface on which building occupants can walk and work.”

But your floors can serve a much higher purpose than that. For starters, they can optimize occupant and visitor health and safety, namely by minimizing the risk of slips and falls.

Next, your floors can also enhance your facility’s appearance. People tend to notice the condition and appearance of floors, and they place judgment – both good and bad – on how clean and shiny they look on any given day.

A third purpose that’s gaining traction with many facility managers is improving sustainability practices. Your floors are the largest surface with which workers and visitors will come into contact. If your facility has sustainability goals, maintaining your them with eco-friendly products and procedures will go a long way to achieving them.

Step 2: Determine Your Budget and Worker Resources

Next, consider how much money you can spend and the number of cleaning staff members you can allocate for maintenance. There’s an excellent reason for this step:

Floor maintenance can take up to 80% of your workers’ time and cleaning budget!

Estimate how much of your annual operating budget you can devote to cleaning products and equipment. Then evaluate your cleaning staff to figure out who should be assigned to floor maintenance (because they aren’t the only area of your facilities that require attention). Our recommendation is to assign your most productive cleaning staff team members to maintenance.

Along with your floors’ purpose that you identified in Step 1, here’s why you need to have an accurate idea of the staff members and dollars available: your maintenance plan will be focused on the finish on your floors, not the actual type.

The finish you apply to your commercial surface will ultimately determine how often your janitorial staff will need to complete maintenance procedures.

Step 3: Identify the Optimal Finish (That Best Fits Your Floor Purpose, Budget & Staff)

A good finish protects and extends the life of the floor. The finish leaves an attractive appearance and provides a slip-resistant surface. Think of the floor finish like a football player’s helmet – he won’t survive well out there without protection. And neither will your floors. It’s that simple.

However, choosing the right floor finish for your facilities is more complex due to the factors you’ll need to consider:

The Four Factors of Choosing a Finish

1. Floor Type
2. Gloss/Shine Quality
3. Maintenance Requirements
4. Sustainability

The 1st Finish Factor: Floor Type

Resilient flooring is an umbrella term for materials that aren’t as hard as natural stone and hardwood but also not soft like carpet. When you press into a resilient floor, it gives a little and then returns to its normal shape. Resilient floor materials include:

Non-resilient flooring is commonly referred to as “hard surface” flooring. It’s made up of organic, inflexible and hard surfaced materials, including:

The 2nd Finish Factor: Gloss/Shine Quality

How shiny do you want your surface to be? The answer to that question will influence the finish you choose. A floor’s appearance varies on the amount of luster or sheen produced when the light reflects the surface at a certain angle. There’s even an industry scale for it:

The Floor Finish Shine Scale

• High gloss: The shiniest and most reflective finish

• Semi-gloss: Moderate amount of shine that is reflective just enough to be noticeable

• Satin: Medium to low sheen and serves as the median point of sheen levels

• Matte: Very low sheen level that has virtually no light reflection

The finish you apply to your commercial floors will ultimately determine how often your janitorial staff will need to complete maintenance procedures.

The 3rd Finish Factor: Maintenance Requirements

This is where knowing the number of cleaning staff members and budget you have for floor care (Step 2) comes into play. All finishes require some maintenance, such as vacuuming and mopping. Maximum floor appearance is achieved when the coating is clean and smooth. Over time, soils penetrate the protective coating and cause the film to become rough, less slip resistant and less reflective.

Some floor finishes need a lot more TLC, such as frequent, high-speed burnishing to maintain their shine and strength. Other floor finishes require no buffing or burnishing at all.

So, back to Step 2. How many people can you assign to your floors? Can your budget include the purchase and/or upkeep of a buffer and burnisher (or multiple machines if your floor space requires it)?.

Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow:

The greater the shine on the finish, the more staff and budget you’ll need.

If you have a limited staff and budget to maintain a building with heavy foot traffic, your best bet is to go with a harder, more durable (but less shiny) finish to reduce the amount of labor required to maintain it.

The 4th Finish Factor: Sustainability

If you’re an FM working in an industry with green certification requirements, the floor finish you choose can help your company meet those green standards. For brevity’s sake, we’ll skip the deep science lesson on what constitutes a green finish versus a non-green option. Here’s the most important thing to know

“Green floor finishes do not contain zinc.”

Shop Sustainable Floor Finishes

Shop All Hard Floor Care

Zinc is one of many metal ions used by floor furnish manufacturers to create big networks of crosslinked polymer chains that help to make floors more durable. But excessive levels of zinc can be harmful to the environment and to people.

So, if you want a floor finish that satisfies green mandates and even helps your company obtain LEED™ certification, choose one that’s certified by Green Seal® or SaferChoice®. They don’t contain zinc or any heavy metals but are still formulated to shine as brilliantly and last as long as conventional finishes.

Step 4: Acquire the Necessary Maintenance Equipment

If you’ve followed steps one through three, then you’ve identified your floors’ purpose, cleaning staff, budget and floor finishes to apply. The maintenance of your floors can now commence – as soon as you’ve acquired the proper products and equipment.

Backpack Vacuums

It’s 2023. Leave those upright or canister vacuums back in the 20th century where they belong. Backpack vacuums need less maintenance because they have fewer moving parts. They’re not as physically taxing on your cleaning staff. And most importantly, they get the job done faster.

Automatic Scrubber

Floor scrubbers are the 21st century replacement for mop-and-bucket cleaning. A floor scrubber uses less water, allowing the surface to dry faster while cleaning more efficiently than the traditional approach. They have the power to remove grime, grease, and dirt that are usually difficult to remove. Auto scrubbers come in upright, walk-behind, or riding options (like lawn mowers) and can even be cordless.

Floor Stripping Chemicals

Use floor stripping chemicals to dissolve existing layers of floor finish. It will leave the floor surface clean, film free and ready for new layers of finish.

Floor Buffer

A buffer strips or removes the existing finish from the floor (so that a new finish coat can be applied). Think of it as an exfoliator for your floors. A buffer operates in a side-to-side motion at a low speed. Spray buffing is the more common type of buffing. Dry buffing is possible with machines that can operate at higher RPMs.

Floor Burnisher

Floor burnishers are also known as high-speed floor buffers or high-speed floor polishers. They rotate at more than 10 times the speed of conventional floor buffers. With only a few passes, the burnisher’s faster rotation speed and heavier pad pressure create heat that are the keys to making dry floors shine like they’re wet.

Floor Mats

Often, these are the overlooked pieces of a floor maintenance plan because they technically don’t clean or shine the floor. But they do protect it by reducing the amount of dirt and debris that can accumulate on them. And every speck of dirt, dust and debris that you can prevent from ever touching your floors can reduce the amount of time, money and labor required to maintain them – no matter the finish you choose.

Floor Matting Matters!

Six feet of floor matting removes about 40% of debris from shoes. Twenty feet of floor matting can remove 80%.

Step 5: Attend to the Particular Maintenance Needs of Carpet

Carpet is in a floor class by itself, so we’ve saved it for last. Proper maintenance won’t only extend the life of the carpet but will also help to maintain your desired levels of appearance and comfort.

Just as your non-carpeted areas are subject to different levels of use, each of your carpeted areas needs the right amount of maintenance and care. Heavily trafficked areas, such as entrance lobbies and corridors, require daily vacuum cleaning – while areas around vending machines and desks may need more daily attention to spills and stains.

The building layout, type of usage, traffic patterns, hours of operation, etc., all need to be assessed when developing a maintenance program.

Daily Maintenance

As an FM, you already know the importance of daily cleaning. With carpet, it’s designed to keep the surface clean and free of loose soils and spots. Vacuuming, which can remove more than 80% of dry soil, is the most important element of a daily maintenance program, along with a plan to address spots.

When spills occur, they cannot be allowed to remain until the next scheduled overall cleaning. It’s critical that spots are quickly addressed, or else they can become deep soils that can cause the carpet to look old.

If your carpet looks old, it will have to be replaced. And not needing to prematurely replace your carpets is what every FM is shooting for – because installing new carpet throughout your facilities is expensive and hazardous to your operations budget. While spills and soils take their toll on carpets, the deep soiling is preventable if the carpet is treated with effective and reliable carpet cleaning products. More on that later.

Surface Maintenance

Also known as “appearance cleaning,” surface maintenance often utilizes cleaning methods such as bonnet systems, powder systems, or dry foam systems. These methods are noted for their short drying time and their ability to greatly improve appearance without damaging the carpet or leaving a harmful residue.

Think of carpet surface maintenance as a way to keep restorative cleaning at bay for a little while. It’s a relatively faster and easier method to maintain the carpet’s appearance for the short term.

Restorative Maintenance

Restorative maintenance, which includes extraction cleaning, is performed when carpets appear heavily soiled. Designed to clean the entire length of the carpet fiber, extraction cleaning typically occurs one to four times a year. The key is to use a carpet extraction equipment that cleans and sanitizes.

Using a two-in-one extraction product will attack mold and mildew, while sanitizing against odor-causing bacteria. And odors are one of the leading causes of carpet replacements, which are still as expensive as they were two sections ago.

The Key Carpet Maintenance Task

Vacuuming. We already mentioned it, but it’s worth repeating. Vacuuming is the quarterback of your carpet equipment team. In a typical facility, studies of the soil composition showed that roughly 80% of it is dry, insoluble soil. In other words, dirt. The most efficient way to remove dirt is with frequent and thorough vacuuming.

Whether they realize or not, your cleaning staff is in a tug-of-war contest with your carpet over where the dirt will accumulate. And the carpet is the odds-on favorite to win.

Here’s why: carpet is a three-dimensional product. Unlike hard, two-dimensional flooring, carpet has depth and the unique ability to hide soiling. According to the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI), carpet can trap and hold up to one pound of dirt per square foot before it starts to look dirty. Can Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) pull off such a feat? Not hardly.

To win that dirt-collecting contest, you must establish regular vacuuming processes and routines. Identify high-, medium- and low-traffic areas, then determine the frequency accordingly.

Spots and Stains

Many carpets are treated to be stain resistant, but 100% stain-proof carpet only exists in the future. So, today’s custodial staff must resort to traditional stain-removal methods. The best time to treat a spot is when you see it, and a simple way to extract it is by blotting it with a plain, white absorbent towel.

Tough stains will require a carpet spotter. For water-soluble stains, use an all-purpose, water-based spotter fortified with hydrogen peroxide. Use a solvent-based carpet spotter for oil-based stains.

Is It a Spot or a Stain?

A spot is any foreign substance that adds texture to a carpet fiber.

A stain is any foreign substance that adds to or deletes the color of a carpet fiber.

The Big Takeaway

We’ve shared some of the specific steps you can take to keeping your facility’s floors looking their best. Identify the purpose(s) they should serve. Then determine how much budget and worker resources you’ll dedicate to floors. After that, identify the optimal finish that best fits your floor purpose, budget, and staff.

Next, it’s on to step four, in which you acquire the necessary maintenance equipment and products you’ll need.

And, of course, carpet is in a floor class all by itself, but now you know how to incorporate carpet upkeep into your overall floor-maintenance plan. Establishing that plan and developing processes to follow it will help to keep your floors looking and performing the way you intended.