Does Your Company Have a Winter Floorcare Plan?

1. Does Your Company Have a Winter Floorcare Plan? At the time of this writing, winter is coming. It’s only weeks away in some places. When it arrives, there’s going to be snow and ice to contend with. That means wet, slippery floors that your employees and visitors alike will have to deal with. Our question is this: Does your company have a winter floorcare plan? If not, now is the time to put one together. A winter floorcare plan is a strategic plan laying out how you’re going to control environmental conditions to keep people safe and minimize damage to your floors. It is a strategy that combines preventive measures with routine cleaning. A good plan will keep floors as clean as possible while simultaneously minimizing winter slip-and-fall hazards. Get a Floor Mat Floor damage is not unusual during winter, thanks to salt and other ice-melting products. Property owners have to use these products to guarantee their walkways are free of snow and ice. Unfortunately, visitors track the products in on their shoes, which is not good for the floor. That’s why we recommend floor mats and routine wet mopping. A floor mat can catch most of the debris guests track in. If necessary, a floor mat can be taken outside and shaken off between deliveries to keep salt to a minimum. We do our part by picking up dirty mats and replacing them with clean ones at regular intervals. The snow and ice eventually melt to create an even bigger problem. That accumulated water under foot becomes a slipping hazard to anyone who walks on it. Again, floor mats are the solution. A floor mat is designed to absorb the water so that floors stay drier for longer.

2. Clean Your Floors Regularly Despite floor mats, winter conditions can be extremely harmful to a variety of flooring materials. From salt and water stains to damaged grout, winter is tough on commercial floors. Regular cleaning is the way to minimize the damage. This is especially true when you are using rock salt as an ice-melt solution. Rock salt is highly caustic in nature. It will ruin linoleum and vinyl flooring; it is unkind to ceramic and clay tiles as well. Keeping floors looking like new is a matter of wet mopping them on a regular schedule. If you have enough foot traffic going in and out, the maintenance crew may have to mop at the end of every day. A big part of our floorcare inventory is the dry and wet mops we provide. A dry mop is ideal for cleaning up solid debris prior to wet mopping. But make no mistake about it: wet mopping is the way to manage winter grime. Effective wet mopping starts with a highly absorbent string mop and a purpose-built mop bucket with a built-in ringer. The idea is to soak the floor with hot water and cleaning solution, then wring out the mop and allow its highly absorbent material to soak up the water, cleaning solution and dirt. A skilled worker with a high-quality wet mop can make your floors look new. When winter arrives you’ll have extra work to do to keep your floors clean and safe. If your company doesn’t have a winter floorcare plan in place, now is the time to develop one. We would be more than happy to assist by providing all your floorcare needs. Contact us to learn more about our floor mats, our dry and wet mops and our Just-in-Time floorcare service.