I’m always on the lookout for something that could increase a building service contractor’s business. New products, new trends, new approaches. None of us wants to be so hidebound in our ways that we miss opportunities for growth.

We’ve been involved in an interesting project recently — one that may be the harbinger of a different approach to providing cleaning services to our customers. We started out being retained to evaluate the cleaning program in a government-run facility; then, it turned into recommending a protocol for a top-to-bottom “deep cleaning” in a 15,000-square-foot work area. The building is 10 years old and about 300,000 square feet.

The building has some unique attributes. The occupants, for the most part, are all environmental scientists. In fact, there’s just about every kind of “ologist” you can imagine working in this building. Some were not at all happy with the way their building was behaving. They were almost certain that every change in temperature, humidity or odor meant the building was contaminated.

These scientists were certain their building contained dangerous levels of dust and disease-causing microbials. They voiced their concerns repeatedly over the past 10 years.

The building owner began to think perhaps there was something to all these complaints. After all, these tenants were “ologists.” She wanted them to know she was taking their concerns seriously and intended to do something about it.

A risk-communication expert was engaged to develop a plan to handle facility complaints. The risk expert they hired specializes in group panic and fear. He determined there was a significant problem with communication between the building owner and tenants. Rumors were rampant. No one seemed to know what or if there was a problem.

The risk expert decided that rather than try to respond to one complaint after another, he would conduct a building survey to identify all the complaints and then systematically set out to address the cause, rather than the complaints themselves.

In response to the surveys, the facility made improvements in vents, controls, and air handling. A microbial study conducted by two respected scientists revealed no significant problems. Moisture levels were monitored.

A final element
The scientists occupying the building seemed somewhat satisfied. After millions of dollars in remediation studies, owner and occupants agreed that perhaps, as one final element, the building should be deep cleaned.

That’s where we got involved with the project. Just as he did with the remediation scientists, the risk expert asked two leading cleaning consultants to propose a cleaning plan. We were invited to propose a solution.

What did we propose that was different? We recommended they thoroughly clean the building from top to bottom. We proposed high- filtration, dry methods of cleaning as much as possible. When water was necessary, we advised using minimal amounts so dry times would be accelerated. We focused on the capture and relatively safe removal of pollutants from the indoor environment.

The BSC who was responsible for the building’s routine maintenance agreed to do the deep-cleaning project as a tag job. He attended a week-long training session to bring him up to speed on the cleaning protocol.

We began with backpack vacuums with four levels of filtration, including a special HEPA filter. Earlier studies in the building indicated the greatest source of dust was in furniture, fabric partition walls and carpet. We vacuumed all of them thoroughly, along with the ceiling tiles, going over each surface in at least two directions.

Every two hours, we emptied the vacuum microfilter, and bagged and tagged the contents. Even I was astonished at the dirt and dust we pulled out of the building. We also were concerned that the vacuums not blow dirt back into the building. The backpacks we used were tested at an efficiency rating of 99.97 percent for particulate as small as .3 microns.

We deep cleaned the restrooms using microfiber flat mops that minimized water use. Using exact disinfectant measures, we cleaned ceiling to floor. We even whitened the grout and removed hard-water deposits from chrome.

We cleaned carpets using a high- flow extraction process that pulled out 10 years worth of cleaning chemical goo. One observer remarked it looked like shaving cream was coming out of the carpet. Once the old stuff was out, we applied a pH-neutral enzyme cleaner with a dual counter-rotating-brush machine. Then we rinsed the carpets again thoroughly with the high-flow extractor. Finally, using a small, electric pressure sprayer we applied an anti-allergen soil encapsulator. Four steps. Three different machines.

The facility managers were so intrigued by our processes they invited their colleagues from other buildings to watch.

Was it worth the work? Before deep cleaning, the carpets were so filthy the building management was planning to replace them. After the job, they’re now reconsidering.

How can this experience benefit you? After the entire remediation process, with all the scientific measurements, the component tenants noticed and appreciated most was the deep-cleaning project.

All of the monitoring and measuring was probably trumped by a message from one of the building’s previously most dissatisfied tenants — “It just feels cleaner.”

One of the remediation workers noted if he had known he could make people happy just by cleaning thoroughly, he might have reduced or eliminated some of the other remediation efforts.

The question to contractors is this: how many buildings do you clean that have not had a thorough “deep clean” in five or 10 years? Is this a service you could offer your customers?

Facility managers and building owners might be interested to know that a great way to make a building more comfortable may be the one of least expensive. Instead of spending millions of dollars on remediation or remodeling efforts, a thorough cleaning can bring more visible results at a fraction of the cost.

Take your customers a copy of this article. Tell them what you can do. And remind them even a scientist relies on his senses.

John Walker is a regular Contracting Profits columnist. He is a veteran building service contractor; owner of ManageMen consulting services, Salt Lake City; and founder of Janitor University, a hands-on cleaning management training program.




POSTED ON: 8/1/2003