1 Commercial Flooring Report September 2017

Volume 108—September 2017

I’ve always said that the biggest cause of flooring failures is the wrong product in the wrong place and failing to live up to the expectations of the end user. The investment in flooring, which is sizeable in a commercial application, is supposed to deliver returns for years. In essence, “get it in the door and keep it on the floor” should be the mantra. But, even if you have the right product in the right place it won’t deliver the performance it should if it isn’t maintained. You don’t want your flooring to ugly out be-fore it lives out its useful life. In this month’s issue, Dane Gregory our guest author and cleaning associate of LGM, begins a series on cleaning and maintenance of commercial flooring. I think you’ll find this information eye opening and an excellent source of information. Dane consistently resolves cleaning and maintenance challenges on all types of flooring materials, soft and hard, often when end users think getting their flooring clean and main-tained is futile.

The Importance of Exterior Maintenance

In a series of articles, we will discuss the many variations of keeping flooring clean inside commercial structures. Not only do we have a variety of floor covering options that need to be maintained, but the amount and type of soil also needs to be addressed before maintenance operations can begin. In this first of the series, we will focus on the first level of flooring maintenance which is the preventative strate-gy.

Many building owners feel that the floor care program begins at the front door, and nothing could be fur-ther from the truth. A well-executed long-term maintenance strategy begins on the street in front of the building, continues through the parking lot, and winds its way across the sidewalk leading up to the en-trance. The more time spent out here will mean less time and effort inside the building, whether you have hard surface flooring, carpets or a combination of the two.

Let’s take a look at some of the exterior issues involved in building services. First we have sand, grit and other seasonal debris just waiting to get inside to do some damage to carpet fibers, floor finishes, and embed itself into any grout channel it can find. Depending on the type of mineral debris, sand and

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gritty abrasive products can also scratch and damage the wear layer on LVT or LVP products, as well as hard-wood, laminate and other non-coated hard floor surfaces. A strong preventa-tive strategy will keep this damaging material out of the building, or at least keep it contained to the entry area.

First realize exactly what climate type your building is located in. Do you have seasonal changes outdoors? How about snow and ice in the winter months? Does the building management use sand or ice melt compounds for removal and safety of pedestri-ans? How about dusty environ-ments like in desert locations? Is rain water a problem? All these questions will begin to place some emphasis on procedures and fre-quency of the exterior maintenance strategy. In each climate type, pro-cedures may vary, but frequencies will be similar.

Standing at the front door, look out and see the entry apron. A well thought out sweeping program will keep the approaching gritty soil at bay. If the apron is concrete, check the finish of the concrete to match bristling on push brooms to the surface type. If the concrete finish is smooth, use a finer sweeping broom to remove the smallest particles. If the area is large, you may want to consider a walk behind sweeper, with an edging brush to pick up loose soils along curbs and flower bed are-as. If this soil is left behind, wind or rain will move this material into the walking pathways.

Many contractors have opted for a “water broom” for clearing out soils in the walkways. This process can also remove any oily soils or sticky spills from becoming a problem. Attached to a simple garden hose, these “brooms” flush away the soils to an outside drain. Contractors should check with local municipal requirements for runoff from this type of outdoor cleaning. Certain local laws prohibit any runoff from entering a storm sewer.

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The experts at LGM

specialize in consultation, correction and resolution for flooring complaints,

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TRACKED IN SOILING

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If there is parking or other vehicle traffic near the doors, we must consider leakage from the automo-bile engines. Engine oil, brake fluid, anti-freeze and transmission oils will be deposited over time and must be removed. Not only is this unsightly, but eventually these oil spots will attract dry soils and start their approach to the front door. Oil absorbent can be used as a poultice to bring oil stains to the surface, where they can be removed. Dry granular absorbents are best for outdoor work and work best if left on the spot for several hours or days depend-ing on the severity of the spot. These spots can also be pressure washed, using strong degreasing agents. Again, watch for the run off, but there are several pressure washing tools with vacuum contain-ment, such as the Hydroforce SX-15.

The real key to providing great outside service of de-bris removal is to understand the surfaces you will be working with. Everything from concrete driveways, asphalt parking surfaces, paver block walkways and natural stone outer lobbies are found in buildings. Having a good working knowledge of each surface type is necessary to develop long term maintenance strategies.

Soil Prevention Walk-off Matting:

Every entry into the building that is used should have an outside mat that is rough enough to remove mud and other debris and soil and the inside mat that is absorbent can remove any moisture. The outside mat should be able to withstand the elements and have someplace for the dirt to drop into so that it does not get contaminated and start doing the oppo-site of what it was intended to do. The inside mat

Photo Courtesy of :

Milliken Carpet

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should be heavy enough to lay flat and have a rub-berized back to prevent creeping and any movement so they don’t present a trip and fall hazard. These mats should be cleaned or changed regularly.

Types of walk-off matting: Exterior Mats, Surface/Recess: These mats are designed to dislodge and scrape off large dirt particles, including snow. Some even have heating elements in them so ice and snow won’t accumulate on them. When specified and maintained properly, these mats will last for years, and provide an excellent defense against soil intrusion.

Interior Entry-Type Mats: These mats are designed to wipe off light soils, and absorb moisture and oily soils. Additional consideration should be given to placing mats in other areas of the building to control soil or spills (next to the photocopier or coffee maker, on a landing in the stairwell or any place where car-pet adjoins a hard surface). Properly placed mats or the appropriate type can reduce the time spent on spot and stain removal, and further reduce the spread of interior soils.

Maintenance of entryways: Walkway & Entry Aprons: If soils are allowed to accumulate here, they will eventually end up inside of the building. This area needs to be swept regularly and pressure washed periodically.

Parking Lots: Soil is abundant here. Parking lots and garages must be swept regularly to remove the dust and dirt, and must be pressure washed to remove the grease and oil.

Entry areas: Entry areas can consist of energy effi-cient doorways, with or without grid matting systems. Typically in geographic areas of extremely high or low temperatures, these doorways are the norm.

The space between the doors can be used to the cleaners advantage. In good weather conditions, there is not much debris that will collect. It is during this time that the maintenance of the matting or grid should take place. The more soil that is trapped in this area will mean less soil in the building, making cleaning operations much easier to complete.

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The next installment of this series will stress the four funda-mentals of flooring maintenance which include, Initial Ser-vices, Routine Services, Interim/Periodic Services, and fi-nally Restorative Services. Adopting a maintenance plan should include all of the preceding services with the proper intervals to address all of the specific needs of the flooring and the seasonal issues associated with the geography of the installation.

Dane Gregory, an associate of LGM, is the National Sales Manager for Carpet Cleaner America. He works with com-mercial cleaners to help them build their businesses by add-ing services without a lot of additional cost. He also helps them with technical aspects of cleaning carpet, tile and grout and stone surfaces. He instructs classes for each floor surface as well as the Commercial Cleaning Initiative, which covers all these floor surfaces. He can be reached at dane@carpetcleaner-usa.com or through LGM.