The building services industry is being pushed into the 21st Century by technology that allows hand-held devices to measure bacteria, moisture, air quality and surface slickness, making the days of quick smell-and-sight quality control inspections a thing of the past. 

Hand held measurement devices finally provide the cleaning industry the capability to definitively measure how successful it is, says Peter Sheldon, vice president of operations for Boca Raton, Fla.-based Coverall Cleaning Concepts.

“What we have done for the last 150 years is say, ‘Oh, that looks good to me or smells clean to me,’” Sheldon says. “It finally brings a standard that we have to perform to.”

The increased emphasis on measuring “clean” has been driven by the healthcare and education industries due to their high-risk environments. Pressure has also been applied to the cleaning contracting industry by outbreaks of infectious diseases, Sheldon says. 

“The ambiguity of the word ‘clean’ is no longer good enough for these high-risk type of environments,” he adds. “We need to be able to prove that we are effectively capturing or killing soils or materials that could make those people sick.”

Devices can help prove the effectiveness of building service contractors’ tools and systems, be used during on-the-spot quality control inspections and can be used as a training aid to audit and evaluate procedures and staff. 

“You have to clean effectively and you have to be able to prove it,” Sheldon says. “No more can you bait and switch. You have to meet specific criteria. The reason it’s not so big is because not so many customers out of healthcare and education have embraced it. But I think it’s a movement and I think it’s going to continue to drive our business.” 

ATP measurement

One of the most popular measurement tools are ATP hand-held devices. These measure adenosine triphosphate, the universal energy molecule found in organic material; the less ATP contamination detected, the cleaner a surface is. The user swabs a surface with an enzyme reagent, to provide a light reading of the bioluminescence created. The device is a light meter, and is able to detect the amount of light given off by the reaction — the more light, the more ATP present.

“We use it to hold people accountable when someone feels that their building is not being cleaned to a certain level,” says Todd Haddock, vice president of sales and marketing at AHI Facility Services Inc., Dallas.

The company also proactively shares results with customers just to let them know how effective the cleaning is.

ATP devices, like any other tool a BSC purchases and uses, are investments and should be treated as such. The BSC needs to be committed to training and regularly using the devices, which can call for challenging procedural and cultural changes throughout an organization.

AHI, according to Haddock, touts the environmentally friendly cleaning supplies it uses and procedures it follows. The company uses ATP devices to back up its claim that green cleaning is as effective as traditional cleaning. 

Another reason why AHI uses ATP devices is to ensure its employees are not exposed to dangerous materials such as bacteria more than they have to be. Sick employees, Haddock explains, puts a strain on the company’s ability to service buildings and contain costs. 

AHI, with 1,000 employees in 13 states, evaluates cleaning processes and procedures through quality control inspections at least every 30 days in every building it cleans. Not every building gets an ATP test with those inspections, however, Haddock says. Those are administered at the judgment of the inspector.

Moisture detection

Another type of device being used by BSCs are moisture detectors, which can pick up heat, or the lack thereof, through infrared. Because surfaces and areas that are moist tend to be cooler, these devices can point users to dampness, which can be indicative of mildew or mold. 

“If you have a solid wall that is showing coolness, that tells you there is a potential moisture problem there,” says Allen Rathey, president of InstructionLink/JanTrain Inc., Boise, Idaho.

Taking moisture measurements on a regular basis may help building service contractors in the future, when they may need to prove they are not the cause of a mildew or mold infestation. 

“Moisture is one of those contaminants that we need to be able to detect because we could be part of the problem,” Rathey says, adding that it is still difficult to prove causality in many cases. “From a proactive standpoint, it’s so much better to know what your processes are doing.”

Floor safety

Slip resistance measurement devices are also finding their way into the hands of BSCs, especially those who service retail and high traffic facilities. These devices help BSCs validate that they are being responsible, not negligent and ultimately responsible for a fall. 

“They create a documentation that someone has bothered to take measurements to check for relative slip resistance and to take corrective steps if they found a slippery surface,” Rathey says.

The American National Standards Institute, or ANSI, has set forth a test method that calls for most hard floor surfaces to be wet when tested. The best slip measurement devices are automated rather than manual, since each user may pull the device differently, causing distorted readings.

Other floor devices being used take gloss meter readings. 

“Someone may say that (the floor) looks shiny to them and someone else says they don’t think it’s that shiny. We have had quite a few contracts where they have required specific gloss meter reading averages over a set period of time and we have to perform to that standard,” Sheldon says.

Protecting IAQ

A small percentage of building contractors are also using indoor air quality (IAQ) devices, which count the particles in the air within a certain area. One of the challenges in using an air quality device is the fact that air is fluid, making it difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of contaminants. 

Although a reading could render a high count of a certain pollutant, it could be coming from an outside source like a construction site or it could be caused by vents and ducts that have not been cleaned rather than being the result of a BSC’s work.

Contractors using particle counters should take outdoor and indoor measurements in several places to get a baseline reading. They then should run their vacuums and take another reading with the intention to get benchmark measurements to which they can compare future tests. 

By experimenting with and learning how to properly use particle counters, it allows BSCs to truly go beyond simply cleaning and positively impact asthma and allergies, Rathey says.

Rathey suggests BSCs experiment with meters and testing devices on their own, so they become familiar with patterns that may emerge and whether cleaning is truly effective.

All measurement devices provide a value proposition that contractors can offer when attempting to gain more business or to educate their clients on what the cleaning job they are doing or needs to be done.  

“What measuring can be verified and what’s measured allows you to establish a value that before you were unable to establish,” Rathey says. “The big picture is that it is a way to establish value beyond just (saying) we clean your buildings and make them look good and smell good. Now you can say, ‘We can do it healthier and do it cost effectively.’”

Brendan O’Brien is a freelance writer based in Greenfield, Wis.




POSTED ON: 4/26/2010