Floor care is arguably the most expensive and labor-intensive cleaning task in the professional cleaning industry--especially when administrators insist on a high-gloss shine. Yet there are ways that cleaning professionals can help keep these costs in check.

Selecting the best types of floor care tools and equipment to tackle the job will address some of these issues. The more efficient and productive the equipment is, the faster the job can be completed, reducing costs and often resulting in more satisfactory cleaning outcomes.

This month’s Powr-Flite Floor Care Troubleshooter focuses on getting the right floor care equipment to meet your specific floor care challenges. Some factors to consider include:

· the size and amount of debris that accumulates on floors

· the type of debris (oil, dust, liquids, etc.)

· the type of floor surface (stone, VCT, concrete, wood, etc.)

· the amount of foot traffic and the type of foot traffic impacting the floor (Are carts or equipment rolled on the floor? What type of footwear is most commonly worn?)

· the “value” of the floor

“This last item is very important because it will impact how much time and attention the customer wants paid to the floor,” says Mike Englund, a Floor Cleaning Trainer and Product Manager for Powr-Flite. “A lobby floor is a ‘first impression’ floor and a good example of a valuable floor requiring more time and attention.”

Whenever feasible, Englund recommends using automatic scrubbers when maintaining floors because they can improve worker productivity significantly.

Taking this a step further, Englund suggests using scrubbers that have a wide scrub path.

“The larger the scrubber is, the more it will increase worker productivity,” he says.  “Because of this, the return on investment can be surprisingly fast, many times in just a matter of months.”