The daily routine of school cleaning can feel like an uphill battle. Daily wear and tear accounts for the majority of floor maintenance and repair needs, and is often seen on school walkways between staff, parents and an active student population.
Many custodial teams only repair and resurface floors a few times a year, deep cleaning school floors to remove the accumulated damage of several terms in one fell swoop. But good floor care isn't just about routine maintenance, it's also about solving big problems.
Routine floor care is critical to safe, sanitary operations throughout your school. It removes dust and allergens that can cause health problems for residents, reduces the likelihood of accidents in the halls, and makes the school look good, thereby increasing reputation and satisfaction. With that in mind, we wanted to offer some of our favorite tips and best practices for keeping school floors clean every day.
Create a floor cleaning schedule and stick to it.
Consistency is key to keeping school floors clean. Some surfaces require more attention than others (based on factors such as age, traffic, and use), but establishing a schedule and cleaning expectations is crucial to keeping your floors in good condition.
Most school custodial departments outline cleaning instructions in their standard operating procedures (SOPs). In addition to maintenance, make sure your school's SOPs include best practices for frequency and depth of cleaning, different types of cleaning equipment, when and how equipment is used, material handling procedures, and considerations for sensitive surfaces or areas that require special attention.
Keep trash and recycling bins in convenient places
Containers are an obvious way to reduce waste and clutter, but it's important to place them strategically. Consider concentrating trash and recycling bins in the following areas of your school:
- High traffic area
- Near the cafeteria
- on both sides of the door
- Close to bus station
- next to the restroom
- at the main entrance
Give them a place to put their trash, other than the floor, for easy cleaning.
Save time with a floor scrubber
Floor scrubbers are a central part of today's school floor cleaning programs. With staffing challenges and sanitation standards ever-changing, facility managers need all the help they can get to stay on track and on track, and floor scrubbers are designed to help managers use their time more efficiently without replacing humans. decision.
Make sure you use the right cleaning equipment in the right place
Your school may have flooring for a variety of different purposes: non-slip flooring, high-performance flooring, classroom tile floors, cement floors, carpet floors. Different floor types respond differently to cleaning methods, including chemicals and applicators (such as squeegees, brushes, and sprayers), and each floor requires different floor cleaning equipment to maintain its optimal shape.
Here's a handy guide to choosing the right type of floor cleaning equipment for your school environment.
Clean every inch faster with a micro-scrubber
From bathrooms to labs to cafeterias, schools are filled with hard-to-reach spaces like around tables, in kitchen crevices, under tables and between cabinets. Even if they are not as open or visible as corridors and walkways, these tiny spaces go a long way in making the space usable, hygienic and attractive, so it is important to keep them free of debris and daily build-up.
Mop and bucket cleaning used to be the most effective, and often the only, way to clean those hard-to-reach spaces on a daily basis. But smaller scrubbers machine can get deeper into tight spaces, packing industrial scrubbing power into cleaning paths as narrow as 15 inches. What's more, these "micro-scrubbers" allow you to do more with fewer people, protecting floor surfaces, and they don't leave as many slippery marks as mops do, meaning they can be cleaned after cleaning Safe to walk on.
Maintain your floor cleaning equipment regularly
Floor cleaning equipment is a significant investment for any school. Schools need these devices to last for many years of daily use. The good news is that with proper care and maintenance, a well-designed cleaning machine will last as long as you need to see a good return on investment. Here are the main areas that need to be checked regularly to ensure your floor cleaning equipment is performing at its best, day after day.
- Check and charge batteries frequently
- Clear any blockage in the drain pipe
- Check hoses for leaks and blockages
- Clean the debris tray regularly (don't let it get too full)
- Circulating solution and recovery tank (draining and flushing)
- Clean squeegee and brush/pad thoroughly
Regular professional maintenance is another sound investment and a great way to stop critical equipment problems before they have a chance to stop your cleaning crew.
With a variety of people using them all day long for months at a time, school floors can be one of the most challenging surfaces to keep clean on a daily basis. But with the right planning, equipment and forethought, even the beaten path can earn top marks for cleanliness, sanitation and appearance.