The Janitors' Closet

Include the periodic floor and window work, and sanitation - in good times and in bad

I uncertain times, given banking challenges, inflation, labor and other shortages, I suspect we're soon to see commercial janitorial clients, ours and others, looking at ways to cut costs.  Here's some notes I put together a few years ago, during another uncertain period:

When the economy went south a while back, many firms around the Valley cutback on facility cleaning - either dropping the janitorial service entirely, or cutting services to a minimum, with periodic jobs such as burnishing and refinishing tile, carpet cleaning, and window washing eliminated.  (Or, if those periodic cleaning items were not included in the ongoing janitorial price, they were put off to another day.) 

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with saving a few bucks, particularly if it avoids layoffs, or bankruptcy.

Sooner or later, though, deterioration of your facility and furnishings, due to lack of proper periodic maintenance begins to show, and expenses multiply - deep shampooing of heavily soiled carpet is considerably more costly than the bimonthly or quarterly carpet cleaning we normally provide; burnishing tile is a lot less expensive than the refinishing job that’s needed if you skip the burnishing. 

Moreover, a building that is not being properly cleaned and sanitized - not just restrooms, but touchpoints through the building (due to a cheap but less than thorough janitorial service, or to one’s own untrained employees) - leads to a less healthy, and less productive, workforce. 

Now might be a good time to evaluate whether less frequent but thorough cleaning and sanitizing schedule (perhaps once or twice per week in a smaller facility) coupled with periodic burnishing, carpet cleaning, window washing and so forth, might make economic sense over the long haul.

We clean a lot of facilities on that kind of schedule.  Our client gets one reasonable and consistent monthly price, a better-looking and healthier workplace, and a happier and more productive staff.

Future Window Cleaning

Here's a good article on the Future of Window Cleaning, from our friends at CleanLink.  It talks about pure water cleaning, ultrasound, cobotics (essentially, extending one's reach), and drones.  

I suspect quick adaption of existing high-rise rigging (when you see a platform hanging on cables from the top of a high-rise, the window crew on the platform washing floor by floor) to facilitate some sort of robotic system to replace the guys on the platform. 

High-rise window cleaning has  always seemed to me to be a major safety risk; I gather that's why workers comp insurance for window cleaning firms is more expensive than for janitorial firms, like mine . We get to stay on solid ground, doing at the moment nothing higher than three stories.  Plus, there's my fear of heights. 

But, we generally include periodic window cleaning, and well as burnishing, refinishing and carpet cleaning, as part of our ongoing service and price.

Be interesting to see how quickly various systems are adopted.

Low moisture soil encapsulation carpet cleaning

Check out a recent article, from our friends at CleanLink, on a great carpet cleaning method.  We use soil encapsulation on virtually all of our client carpets, providing our client a variety of benefits.

"It’s a relatively basic concept: encapsulation cleaning utilizes the strength of crystalizing polymers with detergent components to attack and bind oily soil deposits buried within the carpet to dry elements that can subsequently be removed through a vacuuming process. The polymers penetrate much deeper than a standard vacuum bristle might, allowing cleaners to reach the deep-seated deposits and oils that give otherwise clean carpet that  worn-down appearance.  

"With encapsulation, a solution is worked into the carpet via a number of methods: it might be applied using a rotary machine, CRB counter-rotating brush, a brush applicator, or a compression sprayer. The method of application doesn’t really matter, though; what’s important is that the solution gets worked deep into the carpet.  

"After letting the solution sit, it will eventually dry and crystalize. Once that happens, a couple passes with the vacuum will remove the loosened compounds, leaving behind a clean and dry carpet."

We also see much less wear and distortion of the carpet than traditional rotary brush shampooing, and (due to less moisture) much less chance of either mildew or wicking than either extraction or shampooing.  And, due to less torque from the machine, it's easier on the operator. 

One of those rare win/win situations. 

Brighten it up.

We clean a vocational college campus; several construction and mechanical trades being taught, so the floors get heavy wear.  We do periodic work on VCT, concrete, ceramic and carpets.  But then there are the stairs. Noticed that the yellow safety stripes on the stair treads were getting a grubby looking, which is not simply unsightly but something of a safety hazard - bright yellow is used to increase visibility along the edge of the tread,  I stress the "bright" part.

Scrubbing by hand is ineffective, and quite time consuming.  Standard floor machines are too wide and, given the narrow tread and the "no place to stand" at the same level, unsafe.  Most smaller machines built for the purpose seem to be electric, not battery, so you'd have a chord snaking up or down the stairwell, a bit of a trip hazard if one is concentrating on the scrubbing.

We wound up using a circular brush on a battery powered drill.  Took a bit of time (much less than by hand, though), was safe, easy to maneuver, and minimal cost.  Just needed a couple extra batteries.

Here's before and after.

Those "maintenance free" floors

Now and again, a janitorial client will install a (rather expensive) luxury vinyl tile (LVT) floor, justifying the expense with the expectation that it will not need any maintenance over simple vacuuming and  wet mopping.

Sometimes, it's best to take the sales guy's pitch with a bit of salt.

Problem is, the wood grain that looks so pretty is embossed into the surface, creating texture - low spots that attract dirt, oily substances, and detergent residue (if you're mopping with detergent).  Mopping will not get into the low spots.  A machine scrub, with the proper pad, is necessary.  We scrub most of our LVT client flooring quarterly, which seems about right with low to medium traffic, treated entry mats properly positioned, and a mopping program that contributes little residue - we use a hydrogen peroxide based cleaner/sanitizer, not a detergent.

Here's an article from our friends at Cleanlink; it's an add for a particular floor machine, but tells the overall story well.

A bit of neglect. Just a bit.

We're cleaning a large industrial facility out by one of the east Valley airports.  Nice modern facility, that the previous janitorial service had let go, for so long that the client had more or less forgotten what a clean facility might look like.  We spent the first couple of nights bringing the routine janitorial up to speed (one can now see the paint on the walls around the Bradley sinks in the shop), and then rolled into floor work.  (We generally include periodic floor and window work as part of our ongoing service and billing- burnishing and refinishing VCT, carpet cleaning and protecting, ceramic, stone and concrete scrubbing, and so on.)

The worst part, appearance wise, involved lots of junked up textured ceramic, in office and shop lunchroom areas; took us a couple of nights to scrub.  Then we addressed office carpet cleaning, and some shop restroom concrete.  Last night, we finished the concrete and got into carpet cleaning in a couple of small shop areas.

Received this from the client's Quality Supervisor, this morning:

"...Also, kudos to your team that shampooed the quality office carpet last night! I have never seen the carpet look this good, great job!"

Always with the stories (you accumulate a few in 40-plus years in the industry), I responded:

"Glad the quality office looks better. We’ve fooled with worse.  Had a small place years back – offices of a trash collection firm – located right down at the dump.  No dumpster for the trash – we were supposed to open the back door and toss it.  They had a couple of back rooms with so much gunk in (and on top of) the carpet (and enough oil that it was kind of shiny) that my folks thought it was really grubby tile, at first…."

True story.  These days, we try to stick with rather more upscale clients, like the industrial one referenced.

(Top photo is the before, bottom the after.  As usual, the regular lines are lay of the knap from the extractor; when the carpet has dried, we can vacuum it to pull out the lines.)

 

Clogged toilets - a tail of retribution

My janitorial crews get more than a bit perturbed when they come across a clogged toilet, usually due to something placed in it - wads of paper, etc. - that doesn't belong.  But we usually can do little more than clean up the mess.

So it is with a certain amount of satisfaction that I noted an article via ISSA and the Sheboygan Press about a fellow who received jail time - 150 days - and was ordered to pay $5500.00 in restitution for repeated cloggings.

He does have something to say for himself: "According to the complaint, Beeman told police he gets urges to do odd things, like look for bottles in the garbage to plug toilets. He said he stopped when he heard police were investigating".

 

Don't overwork your folks

Caught an article in The Chronicle about Duke University rearranging their campus janitorial schedule to cover Saturday and Sunday cleaning in dorm restrooms, the library and other facilities used seven days per week.

Covering seven day usage facilities with seven day cleaning makes sense; that's what we do.  What Duke did to accommodate weekends was to move their cleaning staff to an every two week rotation, with a Saturday and Sunday v.s. Thursday and Friday day off routine.  Makes sense on the face of it, but some of the janitorial staff express concerns about meeting family obligations, and keeping weekend-only second jobs, under the new routine.  Makes sense.  Likely they should have simply hired some weekend only part-timers.

In commercial janitorial, I don't like to work folks more than 5 nights straight.  We have very few seven night per week clients, but a good scattering of six.  I have several crew members who are aggressive for work, and would likely take a part time job with someone else if I did not accommodate, so we'll sometimes use them six nights per week - but generally no more.  While I don't like to split up a small job between different crews, I'd rather do that than over-work my folks.

One point I did notice in the article.  None of the students petitioning seemed to be volunteering to clean their own dorm restrooms, weekends or any other time.  Somehow, I'm not surprised.  They also seem to not mind living with a dirty restroom for a couple of days; this does put me in mind of my own college days.

Disaster clean-up: keep your eyes open

Following clients and vendors with presence in the Carolinas, I notice quite a bit of thoughtful preparation in advance of the storm.  Very useful.  Here's a handy OSHA checklist of hazards to keep in mind.  In any disaster clean=up situation, one ought fully evaluate beforehand, look for fall risks, assume power lines to be live, break out protective gear, and use ladders and chain saws properly.

While we don't get involved in much major disaster clean-up (we concentrate on our core business, commercial janitorial), we keep a pretty fair rolodex of firms that do.  And we're always ready to provide immediate relief to clients experiencing day to day floods and biohazard situations (often from the same toilet): wet-vacs, blowers, hospital grade disinfectants, fungicides, and protective gear - from goggles and latex gloves up to surgical masks and bunny suits. 

Our office went up in 1914, and is thus one of very few buildings in Phoenix graced with a basement.  So we keep a couple of (immersable) sump pumps on hand - a high volume one, and a smaller one that can remove standing water down to about a quarter inch.  Handy during a really major rainstorm, or when we leave the hose running too long in the planter.  We also looked pretty hard, a couple of years ago during the Ebola scare, at potentially having to do major medical clean-up.  We formulated procedures, bought a stock of full face masks and bunny suits (when they were cheap, not when disaster hits), and a few related items.   We also prepped for potential power and service issues, and picked up a gas-powered generator, lots of batteries, a chain saw, emergency radio, and so on.

In passing, we've fully restored our 1914 building, mostly doing our own work.  That involved some of the same precautions as a disaster might.  For instance, we've learned that it is not a good idea, when stripping many layers of paint from 100-year old woodwork, to use a flammable paint stripper in the vicinity of a heat-gun.....

4000 feet above the Grand Canyon

Here's a picture article from the Sun, out of Great Britain, about cleaning the underside of the glass in the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

We're right down the freeway, in Phoenix AZ.  The glass we clean, as part of providing commercial janitorial service, is a bit different.  We keep both feet on the ground (as in the photo to the right).

Catch the article, and the pictures.  Not much more I can say.