WINTERTIME CLEAN UP

As we find ourselves in the beginning of the wintry time of year… snow, sleet and debris are bracing to wreak havoc on our tiled floors, carpets and entry ways.  Never fear however, because there are some things that you can do right now to make that clean up much easier.

 

Let’s start with matting. 

Place entrance mats in stages to wipe and swipe as much dirt as possible off of those shoes and boots.  By staging the matting from outside to inside, you stand the greatest chance of collecting as much water, snow melt and grime as possible. 

Those mats should be vacuumed daily and cleaned weekly or bi-monthly depending on the traffic.  We want to keep the mats in as good a shape as possible to keep them in tip top order to absorb as much as possible.  This will keep your overall clean up to a minimum.

 

Some debris, despite your matting efforts will still get by the trusty mats.  Don’t worry clean up is not as difficult as you might think… if you use the correct tools.  Let’s start by getting a neutral aggressive cleaner.  What is this you ask???? Well it is a traditional neutral cleaner that is a tad more aggressive in pH to give that salt and ice melt a run for the money!  The added pH with the surfactants within the cleaner don’t give ice met residue a chance.  You will be able to eliminate the white residue if you carefully select your cleaner.  A good janitorial supply company will be able to help you with this quest.  At VIKING, we offer VIKING AP Cleaner to handle this task effortlessly with a little pleasant scent to linger behind.

 

Suppose you aren’t having problems with tile at all.  Suppose all of your problems revolve around a carpeted area that has acted like a sponge to all this outside slop.  What do you do???? 

First off, extract what you can right away with a good quality commercial carpet extractor.  Next we need to clean and sanitize the area.  There are very few carpet shampoos that carry any type of sanitizing credentials.  I like Dual carpet shampoo for a couple of reasons.  In addition to DUAL being a certified sanitizer for carpets, it has a great smell and cleans great too!  Double bonus….One product for all of the problems!  Allow carpets to fully dry prior to foot traffic which will jeopardize all of your hard work.  

 

To speed the drying process up, there are a variety of floor fans that can be placed to get that air moving.  Some fans are as reasonably priced and easy to

carry.  We offer a new mini fan that packs a big punch for a little unit.  You get great air flow in a tiny lightweight yet durable mini mover.  It has a built in daisy chain feature that means you can plug them into each other and string them along if you have a larger area or feel you need more air flow.    Oh and did I mention the price is right too…..Only $109.00 per fan! 

 

If you stick to these helpful hints, add the right cleaner and be a little proactive, your ice and snow clean up will be a breeze.  More info on these products can be seen at www.vikingjanitorsupplies.com.

 

Happy Wintertime Cleaning J

Floor Stripping Pads

Floor stripping today is revolutionized by some newer and far more aggressive floor pads to help remove even the toughest of buildups.  Why strip with a traditional black pad when there are so many newbies to hit the scene?  Use a great water based floor stripper loaded with active content like our VIKING TERMINATOR in conjunction with one of these pads and you will wonder what took you so long to try something new!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always recommend the product that I find works the best right out of the gate.  In this case that would be the DOMINATOR floor pad. This pad should be used in the toughest of situations because it WILL perform the best.   This pad boasts an extra heavy denier fiber, more aggressive grit and more open weave to allow a nice holding spot for all the debris removal that will happen.  This pad is designed to be used up 350 RPM buffers and is made of 100% recycled polyester fiber for those who are earth conscious.  Using this floor pad can even get you a few LEED points due to its recycled content!

 

Moving on to a slightly less aggressive pad is the HI PRODUCTIVITY black pad.  This pad gets points for a great open weave design, giving plenty of room to hold plenty of old finish.  The construction is slightly less aggressive than our friend DOMINATOR, but still can handle a tough job in a super economical way.  HI PRODUCTIVITY black pads are designed to be used with machines up to 350 RPMs.

 

Remember folks, all pads can be laundered or rinsed to get more life out of them.  This will not only save the environment of unnecessary waste, but save you money too!  Just swirl in a bucket of stripping solution to remove the debris that your pad effectively collected.  Allow to air dry until your next stripping adventure…….

 

Capt. Paddy Pad, strikes again!!!

Until next time, folks….don’t let the stripper make you the slipper!

 

 

 

 

 

For More Information Please Call 410-525-2100

or visit us on the web at vikingjanitorsupplies.com

 

OUR 3-LAYER APPROACH TO CARPET MAINTENANCE

As the weather turns cold and snowy, it is time to redirect our focus to carpet maintenance to keep our flooring in as good a shape as possible.  This is the perfect time to implement a maintenance plan to clean, protect and extend the life of carpet.  We recommend that carpet be maintained with a 3 layer approach. 

 

The first step is to deep clean and sanitize the carpet.  Ice melter and dirt get tracked into facilities far more frequently in cold weather months as people dash in to protect themselves from the elements.  This combination makes a sticky residue on the carpet, that if not properly cleaned, will be ground deep into the fibers.  To begin the process of getting those carpets into shape, use DUAL sanitizing deodorizing carpet shampoo.  This product has enough surfactants to cut through that greasy grime, while its sanitizing capabilities will improve indoor air quality while cutting down on any germs that can live in the damp carpet environment.  The product smells fresh and clean so no need to add a deodorizer…..One product to do it all!  DUAL can be used in a traditional wet carpet extractor or with bonnet cleaning for a lower moisture approach.  (See our VIDEO DEMONSTRATION of DUAL Carpet Shampoo below)

 The second step is to be sure you have the proper matting placed at ALL entrances!  I can’t emphasize this enough….80% of dirt is tracked into a building, so if you can stop dirt in its tracks, you will be so far ahead in cleaning!  You really can’t have too many mats.  Stage them at your busiest entrance points so that you begin to trap big debris outside the entrance.  It is important to place matting just inside entrance doors to ensure you further scrape more fine dirt and dry soggy shoes as you keep moving deeper into the facility.  The idea being to remove all water, sand, snow melt, salt, etc., by the time you hit your unprotected interior floors.  By thoroughly drying feet and keeping the water to a minimum at these entrances, you really reduce your slip and fall vulnerabilities on these interior hard surfaces.  Note that carpeted entrances are actually 10 times less likely to host a slip and fall accident than a hard floor entrance. 

 Proper mat preparation will help drastically reduce the amount of dirt coming in, but if by chance you do get some spots, be prepared to treat those aggressively with a proper spotter for the stain.  One of my favorites is JET CLEAN.   It is an encapsulating spotter that requires minimal rubbing.  If you do need to blot the stain up, use a soft microfiber cloth and work the stain to the center point of itself.  You may need to reapply for stubborn spots and repeat the blotting motion.  The best part of this spotter is that as it is drying, it is encapsulating the remaining dirt and forming crystals that can be removed very easily by vacuuming, which brings us to...

 The third and final step is to Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum!   Make certain that entire areas are getting covered and that no spots are getting missed.  Try to cover areas after busiest times so that dirt has less time to get ground into the fibers.  Consider adding in sweepers to larger areas that are battery powered, yet very quiet.  These machines are very easy to operate, have tremendous dirt recovery capabilities and are super quiet.  One to check out is IPC Eagle's Smart Vac 464.  It offers a nice wide cleaning path, fairly long run time of about 3.5 hours and a good mechanism to actually pick up and retain the dirt so that the air isn’t re-infested. 

 We hope that this 3 point plan can help your carpets survive the winter weather.  For more information on these specific products or how to maintain your carpets, go to www.vikingjanitorsupplies.com or call 410-525-2100 and ask for a sanitation specialist…..