Many parts of the country are now experiencing the wrath of winter. And facility managers and building service contractors (BSCs) must prepare for these months, ensuring their facilities are clean, safe, and healthy.
 
In fact, proper preparation for the winter season is probably one of the most important things managers and BSCs can do to ensure their facilities stay clean and safe. That is why this month's Powr-Flite Trouble Shooter focuses on how to prepare for winter's wrath.

Among the steps that BCSs should take are the following:

    •    Make sure that building entries are maintained to clean up snow, ice, salt, and soils as quickly as possible. Depending on the floor surface it will need to be swept, vacuumed and/or mopped. 
    •    To help prevent the spreading of soil, mop heads should be cleaned or changed frequently and the rinse bucket emptied after each cleaning.
    •    All building entries should be regularly monitored to ensure that they are kept as clean and dry as possible. 
    •    Plenty of "wet floor" signs should be available and placed where needed to help ensure the safety of facility workers and visitors. 
    •    Additional matting should be put down in interior walkways, in and at elevators, and in first floor hallways to prevent moisture and soil from being walked upstairs on shoe bottoms.
    •    All snowblowers and tractors should be tuned up, fueled and ready to be put to work to minimize the amount of snow tracked into the building.
    •    And for managers specifically, snow removal contracts for the season should be signed and sealed.

However, according to Debby Davis, product manager for Powr-Flite, managers and BSCs should take one more step to keep entry floors clean and safe, and that is placing air movers (dryers) at building entries. These air movers push air over the flooring instead of having to direct air down towards the floor.

"[Moving air over floors] keeps the floor as well as interior mats dryer," she says. "The result is enhanced safety, which is so important during this time of the year."
 
Davis also advises against selecting large air movers for this task. "Some new systems are very compact but surprisingly powerful, and some can be 'daisy chained' for added air mover power. I recommend using these more compact systems."