How to Prepare your floors by Winter

Winters in the Chicagoland area bring ice, snow, and sleet. To keep roads and walkways clear, many of us rely on sand, rock salt and/or ice melt which people then track inside, creating floor care and maintenance issues. To combat these issues, it’s important to look at the amount and type of hard flooring as well as what’s being tracked inside the building in order to determine the best floor care methods.

Evaluate Floor Cleaning Chemicals

First off, we must look at the product(s) used to maintain the outside areas. Sand requires extra sweeping and vacuuming each day. Where salt and calcium chloride are used, we often switch floor-cleaning chemicals in the winter months at locations with high foot traffic. The cleaning product we use neutralizes and counteracts the effects of calcium chloride and removes the whitish residue from floors.

Consider Flooring Materials

Next, let’s consider the type of floor that needs to be cleaned. Vinyl composite tile, also known as VCT, is an inexpensive floor that is used in many facilities. VCT is always waxed to protect the floor and give a glossy finish. Salt and calcium residue as well as water from melting snow can make VCT floors very slippery. For safety reasons as well as easier upkeep, we recommend walk-off mats at each entrance to minimize the amount of moisture that gets onto the floor. (It’s important to note that vacuums can be quickly damaged by moisture so care must be taken when cleaning walk-off mats.) Another popular flooring is quarry tile, which typically is a textured surface. Even though quarry tile is slip-resistant, we suggest placing wet-floor signs in visible areas every time it rains, sleets or snows.

Use the Best Cleaning Process

Finally, the best way to clean a large common area or open floor areas is with an automatic floor scrubber, or autoscrubber, as referred to in the industry.  An autoscrubber is a battery-powered machine that puts down water, cleans with a brush, and then vacuums with squeegee blade. These machines require a financial investment of several thousand dollars but offer labor savings over time. It’s also important to note that autoscrubbers use fewer chemicals than other methods as the machine, not the cleaning chemicals, does most of the work.


Article by Cleaning & Maintenance Management