Creating a Floor Cleaning Toolkit

May 12, 2021 9:15 AM by Tennant Company

Posted in Cleaning Solutions, Productivity, Best Practices, Cleaning Challenges,

iCart with imop and supplies and equipment

As a customer, guest or patient of a facility, the state of the floor can be one of the most telling things about the business you’re entering.

Not just because of the special glisten that a clean floor can have (that’s great, too), but because it’s a sign of so much more: a cleaning team using quality cleaning equipment consistently, appropriately, and effectively. And if the floor is clean, it’s likely that the other surfaces within the building are, too.

To have a clean floor free of debris, dust and other detritus, you need reliable cleaning tools. And while these tools don’t fit in a neat little toolbox, they are extremely important for making a positive first impression in your facility.

First, always be sure to wear proper PPE (personal protectve equipment) such as gloves, a mask, and protective glasses while cleaning to protect yourself from injury.

A cleaning cart.

Nobody wants to carry around the variety of cleaning supplies needed to truly clean a space, which is why a cart with wheels that can hold all of your cleaning solutions, rags, PPE, and cleaning tools will ensure you have all of the necessary items in one place at all times. Although, running back and forth to the cleaning closet is one way to get in your steps for the day!

A broom, dust mop, and wet mop.

No toolkit would be complete without these basics. The broom is such a common floor cleaning tool that there’s not even a single inventor you can credit for it. All these years later, a dry mess on a hard floor still doesn’t stand a chance against a broom. Dust mops (also known as dry mops) and wet mops also serve vital roles in floor cleaning to help with pre-sweeping areas, gathering up dust and debris, or getting wet stains cleaned up in a jiffy. And don’t forget the dust pan!

Vacuum and carpet extractor.

Where hard-floor tools like brooms and mops lose their effectiveness is when vacuums and carpet extractors come in. Residential, commercial and industrial vacuums agitate carpet to loosen any dirt and then promptly suck it up. Today’s vacuums come in all varieties ̶ ones you strap to your back, ones you ride, or ones that look like the vacuum you have at home, but clean like they’ve consumed energy drinks. There’s a vacuum out there for every type of facility.

And for the times when you need a little more power behind your carpet cleaning, extractors are up for the task of cleaning and drying carpet with minimal downtime. From hand-held, portable spot extractors to ride-on dual technology extractors that perform interim and deep cleaning, if you’re facility has carpet, one of these powerful machines should be part of your cleaning toolkit.

Floor sweepers, scrubbers, and sweeper-scrubbers.

Sometimes a vacuum can’t cut it. As you might guess, floor sweepers use brushes and a vacuum system to pick up and remove dry debris from hard or soft floor surfaces. Exactly how they do that depends on your needs, whether you’re cleaning compact or large floor areas, if you want to walk behind the sweeper or ride on it, and more. The many options make this another great option to have in your toolkit.

Floor scrubbers are the bread and butter of many cleaning programs and are irreplaceable when you have hard floors that require frequent, thorough and hygienic cleaning. They use water to deep-clean hard floor surfaces and have a wide range of features and optional technologies depending on your specific needs.

Finally, for big facilities with lots of ground to cover, sweeper-scrubbers combine scrubbing with a vacuum system for a quick-drying deep-clean. These powerful machines can often offer one-pass cleaning that leaves floors sparkling without using excess staff time to get there.

These are just some of the items to include in your facility cleaning toolkit. Not every facility needs all of these, and some facilities may need even more specialty cleaning tools to get the job done. Some of the tried-and-true tools that have served cleaning crews well for decades or longer, and some utilize newer floor cleaning technology that only continues to improve. The more of these options that you have in your toolkit, the better you’ll be able to clean floors of any and all kinds.

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