On solid ground

Sarah Blackman , July 20th, 2010

FM service providers explain the cost benefits of routine floor maintenance and how expensive restoration and material replacement can be avoided.

It’s no secret that floors need cleaning for hygiene and aesthetic purposes. But, according to service providers in the Middle East, most facilities managers are unaware that regular maintenance, not only protects the ground they walk on, but their cash flow too.

Carpets and tiled surfaces must go under the correct maintenance procedures to keep them from wearing away.

And, a wooden floor may appear to glisten with the help of a mop but without the correct cleaning compounds, cracks will begin to show, and eventually leave a dent in your finances.

“If the correct repairs are not undertaken promptly and professionally, then the damage will soon spread, often to a state beyond economical repair,” insists Craig Boast, manager of the Floor Doctor division at Smashing! Cleaning Services.

“Unfortunately, because floors can take some time to noticeably deteriorate, and the lines of communication between product users and specifiers are often poor, the learning curve amongst property companies is usually slow, and the take-up of improved methods and materials can be almost non-existent.”

Almost all floor finishes are prone to damage, particularly in heavily trafficked areas, such as hotel lobbies. But, costly restoration of these surfaces can be avoided by preventative maintenance. The question is, how?

“Unless scratches are extremely deep, the sanding of wooden floors is unnecessary,” reports Arturo Adefuin, housekeeping specialist at Ecolab, which provides maintenance services for several floor types.

“Maintaining a good condition of the polish applied, limiting damage to the polish or wax and not allowing the seal [of the floor] to be damaged would mean a lot of savings.

Proper daily maintenance is the key to prolong restorative procedures on the floor,” he says, adding that the use of walk-off mats in the entrance of a property will also trap unwanted dirt.

“Approximately 0.54 kg [of dirt] is collected from every 1000 people who pass through [a building], so just imagine a very busy business centre and hotel with lots of people coming in and out several times a day.”

Speed Cleaning is also called upon to preserve floors by power washing, scrubbing (using rotary scrubbing machines) and dusting (using dust control mops).

“Routines on client sites will normally include a daily, weekly and monthly cleans. Prevention [of damage] in the second case would normally be found via education, training others not to drag or drop items on a floor but rather lift and place,” says Speed Cleaning managing director Terry Vaughan.

When it comes to carpets, more than one maintenance cycle is required. A daily routine includes vacuuming and stain removal, which is commonly mistaken as a job that needs to be scheduled rather than taken care of as soon as possible, according to Adefuin.

“The longer the soil stays on the carpet, the more difficult it is to remove it,” he says.

Secondly, there is the intermediate maintenance cycle, which should be provided once a week or every few days, depending on the degree of soil imbedded in the carpet.

Adefuin explains that sometimes vacuuming is not enough to remove the grime that sticks to the fibres.

“We offer what’s called spin-bonnetting, whereby we use a rotary machine to remove attached dirt. After spraying detergent onto the carpet, the imbedded soil will transfer to the bonnet pad at the bottom of the machine. The floor requires a drying time of around 10 to 20 minutes and no vacuuming is required after the procedure.”

Floors made from natural stone also need to be maintained on a regular basis in order to prevent the need for restoration, which includes grinding honing and polishing.

Marble tends to stain and deteriorate over time since tap water, regulary used to clean the material, contains salts, minerals and chlorine which are all detrimental to natural stone.

“In addition, more and more ‘decorative’ marbles are being used for their beauty and not their strength. These marbles are generally prone to foot abrasion, vertical compactions, scratching and staining,” reports Marble Renewal managing partner Graham Alban.

“Impregnators often called penetrating sealers, chemically solve these problems. Dirt, water and waterborne soiling are prevented from penetrating deep into the stone causing staining, discoloration and deterioration.”

So, a good daily maintenance prolongs the interim maintenance cycle thus also extending the periodic or restorative maintenance cycle. Also, if floor restoration is prolonged, huge savings in manpower, equipment, electricity and utilities will occur.

“The labour cost accounts for 79% of the monthly operational fees of hotels, resorts and spas; 85% for kitchen services; and 84% for healthcare facilities, such as hospitals,” reports Adefuin.

“If routine maintenance is kept up then stripping [of wooden floors] will only need to be carried out every four months, if not, which happens to some companies, stripping needs to be done on a monthly basis. So if you strip the floor 12 times a years instead of three times a year, you will add 300% more cost on to the said procedure.”

Carpet restoration is carried out using a carpet extractor, which cleans the surface with chemicals as it vacuums, and only needs to be carried out every six months if daily and interim maintenance is kept up.

Specifiers must understand their floors and what type of maintenance and cleaning it needs, depending on the type of materials they are made of.

It is also important that a cleaning and maintenance consultant is brought in at the design stage of a project so the correct floors are installed in specific areas, as Boast explains.

“We have recently inspected an exhibition centre that has Crema Marfill marble in the main corridors. This is clearly unsuitable for the intended foot and mechanical traffic. The consultant that approved the use of that material is long gone, and the facility manager now has a major problem to maintain it.

“With tight budgets, their own short-term solution is to continue to replace panels with the same product. Over 10 years this will cost them millions of dirhams.

Floors are probably the most difficult element of a building to replace, yet they are constantly subjected to the worst wear and tear, aggressive cleaning methods and strong chemicals.”

So what chemicals should be used to clean floors and how much do they cost?
According to Adefuin, cleaning chemicals used in hotels, resorts and spas account for just 2% of the overall monthly operational cost, between 3 and 10% for healthcare facilities and 3% for kitchen floor maintenance.

Natural and environmentally friendly cleaning products are now becoming more popular among service providers.

Marble Renewal offers a PH neutral product which cleans and protects floors made from stone without the need to rinse the material afterwards.

“Conventional industry neutral cleaners are too harsh. They destroy the natural polish of the stone and cause it to discolour over time,” explains Alban.

And, Adefuin seconds that argument: “Neutral cleaners are the safest to use on most floor types. It also has a very pleasing scent and could also be used to neutralise foul odors.”

Ecolab offers a maintenance chemical called INdur Brilliant Plus, which is safe to use on all floor types and only 1ml is required per litre of water.

The Floor Doctor has also launched a number of eco-friendly floor maintenance products. But, according to Boast, green cleaning still has a long way to go.

“Whilst there are some very good products on the market that make a variety of ‘eco-friendly’ claims, often the plastic packaged products travels on airplanes, cross borders on smokey diesel trucks, and spend six months in an air conditioned store before we even see them.

“The term “carbon neutral” really needs to get more coverage – this is when a product can reach its point of use saving as much of the environment it has damaged. If we were all operating on a carbon neutral basis, then many environmental concerns would be resolved, and companies wouldn’t be hiding under the eco-bushel.”

There are also “non-slip” floor cleaning products on the market, which can be beneficial for high trafficked areas such as hotel lobbies and shopping malls.

These products can gloss the floor, whilst providing traction to prevent falls.

“It is misconception that a glossy floor is slippery, the truth is a gloosy floor means a highly polished floor, if a chemical used has non slip or anti slip properties then it should not be slippery.

A wet floor is a slippery floor, that’s what we have to always remember,” adds Adefuin.

But, with all the types of maintenance and the cost benefits they bring, are facilities managers taking note and demanding services? “Yes, undoubtedly,” responds Boast.

“Poor materials, incorrect cleaning methods and questionable restoration attempts have left an abundance of floors in a state of disrepair. We help our contract clients by providing flexible floor maintenance models that best fit their revenue stream and ease their cash-flow.”

And Adefuin agrees: “Just look at how many cleaning services we have now in the market, they have popped up like mushrooms.”