It’s Never Too Late to Re-Evaluate Your Chemical Inventory

With all the new hard-floor, resilient and carpet cleaning products and methods on the market, it’s a good idea to take a step back every once in a while and assess chemicals and procedures.

Taking a closer look at how your current products and procedures are working can help prevent surface damage and even worse — injuries and accidents.

“Most companies find out they have a slippery floor when someone slips and falls on it,” says Russ Kendzior, executive director of The National Floor Safety Institute (NFSI), Southlake, Texas, a non-profit organization that’s just eight years old and has three years of experience in certifying cleaning chemicals. “Oil on the floor may look shiny and smell good, but it makes the floor slippery.”

A lot of cleaning products, says Kendzior, are designed to have a fragrance and a shiny finish. But that’s not what makes a floor clean.

It’s better to be proactive — not reactive — when it comes to evaluating chemical product formulas and performance. Unfortunately, an accident usually precipitates evaluation of cleaning chemicals and procedures. Sometimes this is the first time that the chemicals are looked at seriously.

To help cleaning managers choose the right floor and carpet chemicals, there are a few industry associations that certify chemicals for floor safety, effectiveness and environmental friendliness.

The performance test
The Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI) launched a chemical certification program in September. (To learn more, visit www.carpet-rug.org and click on the “seal of approval” graphic.)

The types of products that are certified under the program: spot removers and pre-spray, and in-tank cleaning solutions. So far, CRI has certified 20 products. The approved products are posted on the CRI Web site, along with photos of the products and manufacturers’ contact information. The Seal of Approval program tests carpet-cleaning chemicals for efficacy, resoiling, pH, optical brighteners and colorfastness to light.

Be careful of brighteners, which are designed to make a floor look cleaner than it actually is. “Over a period of time, if they accumulate, they will cause a yellowness,” says Carroll Turner, technical services manager for CRI. Brighteners also can affect fiber color, appearance and long-term performance.

In testing the products for certification, CRI uses staining agents such as mustard, ketchup, hot black coffee, grape juice, permanent marker, chocolate syrup, dirty motor oil and synthetic soil. The idea is that these substances are all capable of being toted around an office environment without question, but they are considered financially damaging if spilled or dumped on floors.

“Spots and stains can be removed if you have patience,” says Turner, adding that if a cleaning product is not within reach, then a good old-fashioned swipe of warm water and dishwashing soap, or vinegar and ammonia will get the floors looking spic and span again.

The environmental test
An organization called Green Seal has a certification program that tests products for their environmental impact.

“There’s a lot of push and excitement about green cleaning,” says William Griffin, president of Cleaning Consultant Services, Seattle.

The Green Seal logo makes finding environmentally preferable products easier when there are so many non-certified manufacturers adding phrases like “100 percent recyclable,” “green,” “environmentally friendly,” and “biodegradable” to their product packaging.

Griffin cautions purchasers of cleaning chemicals to be aware of “greenwashing.” Generally, greenwash can run the gamut from adding green phrases to product marketing when the product hasn’t been changed at all, to blatant untruths meant to purposefully hoodwink a buyer.

While at a recent industry trade show, Griffin observed a manufacturer’s booth that was showing off the use of nylon as an environmentally sound material.

“Last time I checked, nylon was a petroleum-based byproduct,” he says. He says many manufacturers are “jumping on the bandwagon” by slapping “green” stickers all over their products.

A test for walkway safety
The NFSI mission is to help prevent slip-and-fall accidents through education, training and research. The organization also certifies products for slip-resistance. Manufacturers submit products to the NFSI for testing. First, testers conduct a product assessment in the NFSI lab using the Universal Walkway Tester, a device that measures the slip-resistance of wet and dry surfaces. If the product meets the NFSI’s lab standards, the product is tested in real-world environments, such as U.S. postal offices and commercial office buildings, over a 30-day period. Of a product meets or exceeds minimum standards, it can be certified by the NFSI as “high traction.”

Kendzior looks for a 20 percent increase in slip-resistance from products as the 30-day period progresses.

“The whole concept took off,” says Kendzior. “It put us on the map. Imagine driving down the road and that there’s no stoplight. What we did is create the rules of the road.”

Of the 200 products that the NFSI has tested, about two out of three have passed, says Kendzior. All certified products can be marketed with the NFSI logo. Some manufacturers’ products fail the first time they are tested. Often manufacturers make product changes and pass on the second try.

Make no mistake — follow directions
Even certified chemicals can be dangerous or damaging if they are not used properly. First, make sure chemicals are paired with the right surfaces and use the right procedures by checking the label.

Turner has seen a lot of cleaning mistakes. He’s witnessed cleaning workers taking the wrong product off of a closet shelf or ordering the entirely wrong chemical for the application.

A common mistake people make after purchasing cleaning chemicals, says Turner, is to not follow instructions on the label. One step frequently missed: rinsing.

Chemical misuse is often a result of improper employee training, says William Griffin, president of Cleaning Consultant Services, Seattle.

“[Supervisors and managers] just point people in the direction instead of watching them closely,” Griffin says.

Not reading the product label also leads to chemical dilution mishaps.

“It’s pretty hard to mix [chemicals] right if you’re going by the glug-glug process,” Griffin says.

Another mistake: workers use products together that are not compatible, which can lead to dangerous chemical reactions. Cleaning with chemicals that shouldn’t be mixed also can damage building surfaces.