Building service contractors may have a variety of floor-care machines — scrubbers, burnishers, strippers and anything else needed to clean hard floors. All of these machines may be needed to clean one particular job site.

Contractors need to make sure they pick not only the correct machine for the job, but also the right size. Too large of a machine may become cumbersome, but too small may be inefficient.

When dealing with floor-care equipment, “size” usually refers to the width of the cleaning path. Big machines are able to cover wide swaths, and naturally, smaller ones can clean closer to corners and in narrow pathways.

Not all BSCs may be able to afford multiple sizes of each machine; a small company may only have one scrubber to clean several buildings. Whether a company has one machine or many, choosing the right size for the space, user and cost is essential.

Big machine, small space?
There are three basic ways to clean or finish hard floors — a large machine, a small machine and a mop and bucket. Each are appropriate for different types of spaces.

For example, large machines are perfect for cleaning buildings with wide, open spaces, such as warehouses and gymnasiums.

“The wider the base, the more area you cover,” says William Engle, owner of Wolf Enterprise in Hammond, Ind. “Therefore, productivity goes up and costs go down.”

However, a wide-path machine will probably be too big for other spaces, such as office buildings and schools. If contractors only have the need for one scrubber or burnisher to service many accounts, they might be better off sacrificing some productivity and using a smaller machine.

To clean narrow areas and corners of a job site, BSCs will eventually need to work manually, with a mop and bucket. This is regardless of original equipment size — some nooks and crannies are just too small for any machine to reach.

But using a mop and bucket to clean wide areas usually isn’t a good idea, says Faruk Atasever, founder and president of UHS Floorcare Systems, Oakville, Ontario.

“Employees would rather use a machine than a mop and bucket,” says Atasever.

Atasever’s company cleans a number of supermarkets. He needs efficient equipment that will reach behind deli counters and in between checkout lanes, places large machines won’t reach, but places that would take too long to clean using mop and bucket alone. More time would be spent emptying and refilling mop water than actually mopping. But, by making extensive use of a small machine, his workers can clean roughly 98 percent of the store before switching to a mop and bucket.

Smaller size equals smaller costs
Opinions are divided on whether a bigger or smaller machine saves labor over time, but one money-saving area in which the smaller machines win is replacement parts.

“Cost for replacement parts are high for a large machine, especially replacement brushes,” says Todd Didier, president, Didier Cleaning, Inc., Port Washington, Wis.

The expensive brushes will break down faster than floor pads, but you can’t put the cheaper floor pads on some large machines, he adds.

Atasever’s small machines use smaller, less costly pads than larger machines do. The smaller-pad machines are also easier to load and maintain.

Larger, battery-operated machines also use up their fuel faster and therefore, can have greater downtime due to recharging. Replacing dead batteries can be another large expense.

Downsize discomfort
Many floor-care machines have automatic drive, making them easier to handle than those of the past. Even the biggest walk-behinds can be maneuvered successfully, with practice. However, bigger machines still require more strength on the part of the operator.

“You need to muscle them around,” says Didier.

A smaller machine will have a center of gravity with more depth to it, so you won’t have to lean into the machine as much, adds Engle. Constantly applying force when cleaning will increase worker fatigue — especially if the floor is very dirty.

“If you have a bad floor with a lot of blackness, you really have to lean into the machine because of the wide center gravity,” says Engle.

A larger machine also may take more getting used to. Using a larger machine takes more “driving sense,” says Didier. Because the machine is wider, an employee is more apt to run in to obstacles he or she can’t see. Operators need to be more aware of the things around them.

Getting a good handle on the machine will come with experience, says Engle. For beginning employees or for first-time use with a new machine, take precautions.

“Put the employee in a wide-open area with any machine. The first time they use it, either they will let go of the handle and it’ll spin around, or they go zooming around [with the machine],” Engle adds.

Whether a building service contractor has floor-care equipment available in multiple sizes, or he only has one, he still will have to match the correct machine to the size of the job. Even though a contractor may be tempted to use, or purchase, a large machine because it will cover such a large area, the time it actually takes to clean the job site with all its nooks and crannies might change his mind.




POSTED ON: 8/1/2003