Article How to Create A Flooring Maintenance Plan for Your Facility That Delivers Operational Optimization and Economies of Scale

Preventative Measures

Thoughtful Color & Design Selection.
Did you know that before the floor is even laid – the color and design you choose have a significant impact on the floor’s appearance over time? When properly considered, certain tones and patterns can help mask soiling and staining better than others. Mid-tones are a better choice over light or dark colors for masking dirt. Patterns with high contrast and visual texture will also hide better than a solid or monolithic design.

Walk-Off Mat Strategy.
Controlling grit and soil entering your facility at the source before it has a chance to reach the flooring is one of the best preventative measures to take. Studies over the years have shown that properly installed and maintained entrance matting systems significantly reduce the amount of soil and water tracked into the building. Less soil means less wear on your flooring, and reduced maintenance efforts and costs.

It’s recommended that walk-off mats should:

• Have a high-friction, open surface design to knock grit particles from the bottoms of shoes and then trap the particles.
• Be used at every entrance, inside and outside, and should be at least as wide as the doorway and 8´ to 12´ long.
• Use mats without latex or rubber backing since these backings can cause permanent discoloration.
• Mats should be cleaned regularly, vacuumed, shaken and/or hosed off frequently.

 
Suitable Furniture Rests.
An oft overlooked yet immensely important element of preventative floor care is thoughtful consideration and selection of furniture rests. The way in which the furniture in your space makes contact with the floor is vital in the maintenance and appearance retention of your flooring. When moving furniture, make sure to lay down plywood or kraft paper to protect the floor in the moving process. What do you need to determine from there? The contact area on the furniture itself should be large enough to distribute the load evenly without damaging the floor, as well as being smooth and flat. All edges should be slightly rounded to prevent damage if briefly turned on edge. Be mindful of selecting rests manufactured from non-staining materials, and properly maintain them over time. Worn, damaged, and missing furniture rests should be promptly replaced. Another smart tip is to level your heavy furniture to ensure all rests are always equally firmly on the floor.

Create Your Consistent Plan

Now that we’ve covered preventative measures, we can begin to map the regularly scheduled maintenance plan for your facility.

End User’s Expectations.
The best place to start is by gauging your end-user’s expectations. What is considered an acceptable level of appearance by the owner, customers, or staff? What is the overall perception of clean? Is there a preference toward high gloss, low gloss, or matte finish? Understanding these expectations and preferences will help you determine what final look is desired, then you can reverse-engineer your efforts to meet that desired outcome.

Type of Facility & Location of Flooring.
Knowing the spaces, how they are used, who is using them, and how often they are frequented is essential in mapping efficiencies into your maintenance plan. Where are your high-traffic and high-turnover areas? What can you do to aid in upkeeping that high-turnover, and working around operations in a way that doesn’t disrupt, but enhances? Where are your spaces that see the least volume and foot traffic?

Entryways, lobbies, patient rooms, classrooms, checkout lines, and pivot-point areas may require more frequent cleaning than lower traffic areas. What simplified products can you use to effectively clean high-use spaces that offer little opportunity in the way of downtime? What timetable can you develop to best address each space and it’s needs, in alignment with your cleaning staff capabilities?

If you take the time to distinguish these differences in needs upfront, you can save time and money in having to circle back what you could have already planned for.

Taking Stock in Your Resources.
Drill down into the resources, equipment, cleaning chemicals, and products you really need. Dirt and grit carried in from the outside can differ significantly from the soils and chemical spills found in a laboratory or emergency room setting. Have you considered this difference, and how much of each specialized cleaning product you need to deploy in each of these spaces – along with the expertise in personnel to address the varying care necessary? Can you train one person to expertly handle both? Are the appropriate pieces of equipment – best-suited to each specific need – available? Are the appropriate chemicals available? Having the right tools to handle the tasks at hand is half the battle upfront. Outline your preparation and work to refine it over time.

Have you gone in-depth with resources from your flooring manufacturer to know what is needed at a baseline level? Are you pouring effort and time into auto-scrubbing places where you could be dry or wet mopping? Are you labor-intensely mopping in places where it could better suit you to be going over faster with low-abrasion pads? Do your homework when it comes to manufacturer recommendations and identify where the efficiencies lie, then implement them.

Daily vs. Periodic Maintenance Planning.
Once working through the thought process and understanding all the above, you can most effectively determine your areas requiring daily maintenance vs. periodic maintenance. For daily maintenance, you should remove loose dirt and debris from the space you’re working in and use a damp mop with properly diluted cleaner or spray. Do not use an excessive amount of liquid. When using disinfectants, always follow manufacturers’ instructions for use to avoid slippery conditions and possible discoloration.

For periodic maintenance or to address heavy soiling or corrective cleaning, after sweeping, dust mopping or vacuuming, scrub the floor using a rotary machine or auto scrubber (300 rpm or less) with a properly diluted cleaner. Thoroughly scrub the floor, passing slowly in each direction, then rinse the floor with fresh clean water and allow the floor to dry.

To best tailor your plan, align your daily and periodic maintenance protocols with the manufacturers recommended maintenance instructions specific to your flooring. Become familiar with which surfaces require polish, and which surfaces are polish optional. This knowledge will help you save on manhours and costs over time.