Protect your investment

Businesses, schools, hotels, hospitals, shopping centres, restaurants; each makes a major investment into the look and feel of its premises for the overall satisfaction and experience of its users. Not only is it pivotal that the initial perception its visitors have is positive but the ongoing experience and likelihood of repeat visits, hangs on the quality and cleanliness of the premises.

Many organisations invest a lot of money into floor coverings specifically, which is represented by the value of the furniture and floor coverings market at £505bn in 2013 (according to a report by Datamonitor). However, many companies fail to protect this investment, putting a care and maintenance plan at the back of their list of priorities and leaving the specialist floor cleaning to in-house office cleaners. 

Utilising appropriate cleaning and treatment will lengthen the serviceable life of expensive floor coverings, which take a regular pounding, not just from our feet but from drinks, food and the dirt trailed in from the outside world.

Invest in quality walk-off mats inside and outside of the premises; this is your first line of defence again dirt and moisture. It is vital that floor coverings last as long as possible and regular maintenance is a lot less costly than replacing them. 

All too often premises managers assume they must dispose of their current products, when the technology for protecting, sustaining and restoring their appearance has dramatically improved. With the systems, tools and technology in place, floor coverings can be fully restored, saving money, disruption and the follow-on environmental impacts.

New lease of life

ServiceMaster Clean’s advice has always been ‘restore more, replace less’ – and never has this been truer than during its recent pilot project to clean, restore and seal the floor coverings at a charity shop chain, during a busy renovation and refit involving numerous tradesmen and businesses.

As part of ongoing maintenance work, ServiceMaster’s technicians were called in to inspect the vinyl plank flooring and subsequently carried out a full, deep clean of the floor area. Attention to detail even extended to the use of toothbrushes around the fitted entrance mat to give that ‘as new’ finish.  During the process, a large area of the floor required re-fitting; trained flooring experts successfully reused existing boards, to avoid requirement for new flooring to be brought in.

ServiceMaster Clean then applied three coats of a satin finish to seal containing a product called Hygienilac, which gives a 12 month guard against germs and bacteria. The finish had to endure the heavy footfall of customers for a number of years and provide a fresh, new look as part of the costly renovation works.

Slow & skilled

There is a lot of choice when it comes to selecting a professional cleaning company and organisations are putting their expensive floor coverings in the hands of the firm they choose. The focus for selecting a professional cleaning company shouldn’t necessarily be on cost – especially considering the expense of the investment – but high priority should be on the pedigree, history and reputation of the company.

All too often, individuals without any specialist training are given the task of cleaning floor coverings, which, given the level of investment and importance is a scary thought. Different floor covering surfaces and fabrics have varied cleaning requirements and the wrong treatment can do more harm than good. Imagine a sliding scale of treatments: ‘fast and easy’ but damaging at one end and ‘slow and skilled’ but promoting longer life, at the other. 

A quick clean and rinse on a wool rug using a very alkaline solution can yield impressive results quickly but closer inspection can show a damaged product, more likely to attract dirt quickly. Alternatively, a gentler, slower working cleaning process, rinsed thoroughly achieves the same great cleaning result, possibly at a slightly higher price, on a product that will last much longer.