Dicom Health Care Laboratories

Cleaning of Hard floor

Article published in Clean India Sept 2010 issue

Recent studies in the US have shown that using a vacuum to clean hard floors can deliver better results, be more efficient and improve indoor air quality. A Backpack Vacuum with a HEPA filter is found to be very effective for removing soil from hard floors.

While brooms and mops leave fine dust and do not reach edges and corners, the vacuum sucks up and removes all the dust, even the fine dust. It removes all the soil. Vacuum typically does better job than mops at reaching dirt in cracks and corners. This is especially important with uneven floors. Mops tend to glide over the surface and miss dirt in the grout lines.

 

Vacuuming rather than dust mopping reduces the need for burnishing by 60%. Collecting dust and soil with a vacuum also makes mopping easier because there is less dirt to remove. Another study in a US university says it took a janitor 47 minutes to dust mop and wet mop one classroom. Using a vacuum and then a damp mop reduced the cleaning time for the same space to 25 minutes. The time savings were realised in not having to move furniture around and in not having to replace the bucket water.
 

Hard surfaces floors by their basic nature require constant attention so that the dirt and liquid do not damage them. Natural hard surfaces are of marble, granite, limestone, kota, brick, slate, natural wood and parquet. Synthetic hard surfaces include concrete, tiles, mosaic, vinyl, terracotta and laminate. All these floors require maintenance to increase their life. Traffic on these floors brings in a lot of dirt and grime which if not cleaned properly, leave scratches and the floors lose their shine. Spilled liquid like oil or coolant also seeps inside and thus, leaves permanent patches on the floor.

 “Industrial Vacuum Cleaners remove dirt by suction, avoiding friction on the floor thus reducing damage to a great extent,” says Rajiv Ranjan, Regional Head, Forbes Professional- Cleaning Technology. “All hard surfaces are different in terms of durability, longevity, resilient power and porosity. So, each one of them will require a different schedule of vacuuming. Vacuuming is a must, without which the next process of cleaning like scrubbing, drying and mopping are compromised as the dirt gets scrubbed to the floor and gets stuck on it due to moisture.”

While vacuuming hard floors, the floor tool must be chosen as per the floor. A hard bristle would scratch the polished floor, so a tool with soft bristles or only with soft padding will be most suitable. A hard bristle may work better for industrial floor due to the type of dust / dirt accumulation, but might not suit wooden flooring or say high gloss polished marbles. Some of the industrial vacuums will have large fixed, wheeled floor tools which will be least suitable for hotel or commercial areas where marble, granite or tiles are used but will be best for concrete, mosaic or cement surfaces. For wet cleaning, the cleaner must have good quality of rubber strips rather than brushes for optimum performance.

“Frequency of vacuuming hard surface will depend on the amount of traffic and the kind of traffic in that area. A shopping mall with high footfall will require vacuuming twice or thrice a day, whereas for offices, vacuuming once a day is sufficient,” adds Ranjan.

“When very large floor spaces need to be routinely cleaned the simplest way perhaps is using a Scrubber Drier to get the best results. Some large scrubber-driers have ride-on capability and do the job of a steam vacuum cleaner by simply running over affected areas. They also combine the ability to collect litter with steam, detergent and a vacuum. The largest of these machines is capable of cleaning an area up to 6000sqm area in a single hour,” states V Balathandayutham, Manager- Product Support, Roots Multiclean Ltd.
 

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