Floor Cleaning Services
Commercial flooring often covers a large area, sometimes along high traffic pathways, and is therefore prone to damage. With a floor cleaning services, this wear & tear is perfectly manageable when addressed frequently. But, if left for too long, it may be too far gone to salvage. This is when things get expensive.
Commercial flooring is an investment, hiring professional floor cleaning services is a much more responsible way to preserve it.
Collaborating With Professionals Floor Cleaner
Consulting with flooring experts is an invaluable tool for your commercial floor cleaning services. It’s important to have all invasive maintenance performed by an experienced maintenance company to make sure your property is well covered.
In the consult, they will explore:
- The needs and conditions of each room
- The distribution of the budget
- What tasks should be delegated to staff (especially janitors) on a daily basis in between professional cleanings
- What products will be needed
- Traffic and usage level of each room
- Recommendations to prevent thousands of dollars of damage in between cleans (sink mats, outdoor entrance/sidewalk sweeps, shoe removal stations, etc)
How our floor cleaning services work
Working with professionals of floor cleaning is the best and only way to get a realistic scope of what needs to be done and how often. They will help tailor the plan to fit the budget and specific needs of the building based on its usage.
Every building is vastly different, making a custom plan crucial. Between all the flooring, product, manufacturer, budget, and facility types – there are just so many variables. An expert will know how to work through all of these factors cohesively to get the best bang for a buck.
The commercial flooring contractor will meet with the relevant person in charge and possibly consult a floor plan. They may ask a range of questions involving the project budget, room usage, manufacturer-recommended procedures for the flooring products present, desired participation, etc.
Loaded with as much information as possible, the contractor can then design a maintenance plan catered to the facility on a room by room basis. Each room will be assessed based around its type of floor product and traffic level (low, moderate, heavy).
Then, with the budget in consideration two plans of floor cleaning will be scheduled, one for frequent routine cleaning tasks (vacuums, spot mops, sweeps), and one for intermittent deeper maintenance cleans (deep wash, wax, buffer, etc). The exact frequency will depend on budget and traffic intensity.
For example, one flooring product in a room may call for weekly deep clean (in its manufacturer’s guidelines), but the room is rarely used. It may be wise to only contract cleans periodically based on budgetary needs and allot more budget to rooms with high traffic, despite product guidelines.
Perhaps some high traffic areas can be maintained daily by internal staff like janitors, and low traffic areas can be addressed less often in the contracted maintenance visits.
Some identical flooring types will have instructions that vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, despite their similarities, due to things like minor chemical and quality differences – making the floor cleaning protocols different for each. All of these things need to be investigated for each room.
A strategy to keep all rooms standardized will emerge as cleaning plans configure what areas need overcompensating.
How To Clean Various Types Of Commercial Flooring
Learn to clean floors like the pros! It never hurts to have an idea of what the conmmercial floor cleaning tasks entail. These are the general cleaning methods for the five most common flooring product types:
Commercial Carpet
Carpet & broadloom tiles are some of the most popular commercial flooring types in North America.
Floor routine maintenance for commercial carpet:
Reactive measures are important with carpets, meaning addressing spills and spots right away with manufacturer recommended stain products.
Frequent vacuuming is also of utmost importance. Up to 85% of filth can be removed with the vacuum alone. If it isn’t removed, it will sit in the fibers of the carpet, eventually causing discoloration, matting, and fiber distortion.
Quality vacuum cleaners are also important so that dirt isn’t being dragged around, but rather sucked directly out. Gold-Level Seal of Approval from the Carpet and Rug Institute is a must.
Floor periodic maintenance for commercial carpet:
Encapsulation is a process in which the carpeting is vacuumed over, sprayed with a cleaning product, agitated, and then vacuumed again. This should take place every couple months – less often than general maintenance, but more often than;
Hot water extraction: a process in which the carpeting is vacuumed, sprayed at high pressure with hot water and cleaning products, and powerfully vacuumed. It is then rinsed with clean water, vacuumed again, and then left to dry out.
The process is very similar to steam cleaning, though the water is not hot enough to reach vapor point.
It is recommended about half as often as encapsulation treatments, so every 4-6 months approximately.
Commercial Marble
Marble is known for its glamour and polish, but the truth is it can be a lot of work. Marble is a porous and sensitive soft rock, which means it is extremely prone to damage and luster loss.
Marble stains, scuffs, and irritates easily. The wrong chemical or texture could mean visible scarring. It’s pores can gather grime over time and its seal can become insufficient.
It should only be cleaned by experts who know which products are chemically safe to use and how to use them. On a regular basis, they can properly scrub and reseal the marble to its original elegant sheen.
Commercial Luxury Vinyl Tile
Luxury vinyl tiling, or LVT, has been making market headway as a cost effective alternative to VCT (vinyl composition tile). Many commercial facilities are switching to this stylish polish-free option as a way to save upwards of 7k a year!
Floor routine maintenance for commercial luxury vinyl tile:
General tendings are recommended for this flooring type on a regular basis. Tasks such as dust mops, spot mops, sweeps, vacuums, and full mops on a weekly basis.
Spills should be addressed right away with a properly diluted neutral cleaner to avoid any staining. Removal of surface particles prevents grains of dirt from scratching the surface.
Floor periodic maintenance for commercial luxury vinyl tile:
A flooring contractor can devise a schedule for a safe amount of deep cleaning. This would entail using an auto scrubber with a properly diluted neutral cleaning agent and potentially a buffer spray to follow.
Before any deep scrubbing, all surface particles must be removed to prevent them from getting grinded into the flooring with the scrubbing equipment, so it would be good form to do general cleaning tasks before this step.
Commercial Vinyl Composition Tile
Commercial vinyl composition tile, or VCT, is similar to it’s counterpart LVT in that it is cost effective upfront, and popular, however it began losing its competitive market traction when it became clear that it was the more high maintenance option of the two.
VCT was the durable, scrape-resistant flooring material found in so many schools and cafeterias once upon a time, but it’s expensive and exhaustive maintenance needs have made it less prevalent.
Floor routine maintenance for commercial vinyl composition tile:
In order to preserve the flooring’s protective polish layer, it’s recommended to vacuum or sweep debris regularly, as well as to spot clean messes and mop reasonably often with an appropriate cleaner.
Floor periodic maintenance for commercial vinyl composition tile:
Now this is where it gets tedious. The tiles are made of porous material, sealed with a coating of protective polish. Once in a while, this coating needs to be completely chemically stripped and reapplied for effectiveness. This restores the floor’s face.
Beyond that, and more often, machine scrubbing is needed. This entails a thorough clean and application of fresh polish.
None of these periodic procedures can take place without first doing regular debris management.
Commercial Ceramic
Ceramic is another widely loved flooring option. It makes up 14% of flooring purchases in the US (reported in the July 2018 issue of Floor Covering Weekly) and prides itself in being another cost-effective and low maintenance choice.
It is favored by those who value vast design and esthetic possibilities, as they come in many different styles – all of which are also high performing. They are easily customizable and add so much character to public bathrooms and lobbies, to name a few.
Floor routine maintenance for commercial ceramic:
Ceramic should be vacuumed regularly so that gritty particles don’t scratch the surface. Spills should be tended to right away with non-oil based, ammonia-free cleaners, so as not to discolor the grouting.
Tiles can be wiped or mopped weekly with light neutral cleaners recommended by the manufacturer. Liquids may make the flooring extra slippery and caution is advised.
Floor periodic maintenance for commercial ceramic:
Degriming the grouting with a manufacturer-approved cleaner should occur when it starts appearing dirty or moldy. The tile and grout may collect mineral deposits, soil, or grease as well. They will need to be deep cleaned to prevent discoloration.
Sealing the grouting is helpful, but even epoxy-sealed tiles will need deep cleaning to maintain a uniform, clean look.