Ensuring Floors Look Pristine

When people enter a building, one of the first things they see is the floor beneath their feet. And whether they intend to or not, they make snap judgments about the facility after just one glance. While most people can't tell if a facility disinfects properly or uses color-coded tools to avoid cross-contamination, they can quickly assess the cleanliness of the floors. Dirt and scratches may make them wonder what else is neglected.

"Floors have first-impression power," says Mike Griffin, sales manager at San-A-Care Inc., Waukesha, Wis. "If you can make your floors look great, people assume your whole facility is clean."

To keep hard-surface floors looking new, clea ing personnel use floor machines and autoscrubbers outfitted with various pads. While they represent a small portion of most janitorial budgets, floor pads are still an important part of a jan/san distributor's offerings. In fact, there have been many technological advances recently and new types of pads introduced in just the last year.

With change, however, comes the possibility of confusion and mistakes. While most building service contractors and in-house cleaners have plenty of experience with floor pads, even pros can get it wrong — and errors can be costly. Distributors can save their customers time and money by helping them avoid three common mistakes.

Improper Pad Selection

Using the wrong pad can cause relatively minor problems, such as a cloudy finish or superficial marks, which can be remedied by re-doing the job. It can also create irreparable damage, such as using a too-aggressive pad on a rubber or soft vinyl floor.

"Different pads are intended to be used with different machines for different functions," Griffin says. "You need to match the aggressiveness to the job at hand. It needs to be aggressive to do the job properly but not so aggressive that it will damage the floors."

Manufacturers have simplified the pad selection process with color coding: The darker the color, the more aggressive the pad. For example, a black pad is very coarse and designed for stripping, while a soft white pad is intended for daily use. While the colors are nearly universal for low-speed machines, there is less uniformity with high-speed equipment (one manufacturer's tan pad may be the same as another's aqua pad).

Improper pad selection typically happens with new or poorly trained cleaning personnel. It can also occur if or when a facility switches to a new distributor. That's why distributors should ask new customers which pads they used previously and educate them on any differences in color coding with the new line.

Where many end users go wrong with pad selection is picking a favorite and sticking with it no matter what.

"It's not a matter of which pad you like the best, it's which one will do the best job on your floor," says David Collins, vice president of marketing and training at Gem Supply, Orlando, Fla. "You'll never know that if you don't try a variety of pads."

Perhaps a less-aggressive pad would suffice for most cleanings. Or maybe pads should be swapped seasonally as conditions change. A rainbow pack can help a user determine which pads work best.

"We sell those to someone who is having problems and tell them to play with them," Collins says. "They need to experiment with various pads to see what does best with their particular machine at that particular time on their particular floor finish."

Customers with a "we've-always-done-it-this-way" mentality are also unlikely to take advantage of pad innovation. They may be using an antiquated variety of pad when a newer one could do the job better.

"A lot of them just default to what they've always used and don't know there are some better options now," says David Martineau, sales manager at Central Paper Products Co., Inc., Manchester, N.H.

One recent improvement is a pad that functions like a brush. This pad helps janitors avoid another common mistake — using a pad when a brush is needed.

Uneven and grouted floors require a tool that can get down into the crevices. Too often, janitors go over all floors with a pad, which only skims the top of the floor removing superficial dirt.

"We don't sell enough brushes," Collins says. "A 20-inch brush may cost a couple hundred dollars vs. a box of pads for $25. The customer's concern is price therefore the cheapest thing for him to do is to keep buying new pads rather than investing in the correct product."

Shopping Price

Buying based on price, not performance, is an all-to-common mistake, distributors say. Trying to save money upfront is shortsighted; cheap pads cost more in the long run than their higher-quality counterparts.

While a well-built stripping pad can cover upwards of 50,000 square feet if it is rinsed and cared for, a cheap black pad is unlikely to cover even 10,000 square feet.

"You will buy five of those cheap pads and five of them is a lot more money than one quality pad," Collins says. "But basic black pads are still the number one choice for stripping because they are cheaper upfront than high-quality pads."

Cheap pads also don't work as well as quality materials, which means it takes longer to maintain the same amount of flooring. Labor is 80 to 90 percent of the cost of any job and by far the most expensive line item for any contract or in-house cleaner, while materials are often 10 percent or less.

"Why try to save a couple of dollars on the 10 percent side when it costs you a lot more on the 80 percent side," asks Griffin. "Get the best quality pad you can buy and save more on labor."

For example, distributors can recommend an expensive maroon pad that can strip floors without chemicals. Even though the pad costs significantly more than a traditional pad, end users will save money by buying fewer chemicals and needing less time to complete the stripping process.

"We educate our customers that buying a higher-end pad will save you in the time that it takes to get the job done and that's probably why we sell more of the better pads than cheap ones," Martineau says. "Without that education, it's hard for a customer to pay $24 for something they think they can buy for $11."

Procedural Problems

After choosing the wrong pad for the job and buying cheap materials, most other pad mistakes involve how they are used.

Without proper training, a janitor can use a pad incorrectly, leading to waste and possibly damage to the floors. For example, mounting a pad incorrectly can cause premature wear on the pad and swirling on the floor.

End users often need training on how long to use a pad. If they don't use both sides of the pad, they are wasting money. If they use the pad too long, however, it may no longer be effective. Worse, if they overuse it to the point of driver bristles poking through the worn pad, the machine can scrape and damage the floor.

"Keep a pad for its useful life and then replace it," Griffin says. "If it's obviously soiled beyond cleaning, if it's not functioning properly anymore, or if it is thinner than half of its original thickness, it's time to change it."

It is also important to remind cleaning personnel to remove a pad after use to avoid costly mistakes.

For example, if someone leaves a black stripping pad on a machine at night, the results could be disastrous when the next user sets out to buff or scrub the floor.

Training should also include reminders about cleaning floors before using a machine with a pad. Burnishing a dirty floor will only move dirt around and could even scratch the floors.

Finally, users often use a stripping pad when it's not needed, Collins says. Scrubbing and re-coating floors is often sufficient and can save time and money.

To scrub and re-coat, distributors recommend using the least-aggressive pad that removes enough finish to get to a base that's clean and clear. For example, a black pad may eat through all five coats of finish on the floor, while a green pad removes only the top two layers that have scratches or embedded dirt.

"Don't assume that you need to remove all the finish that you already paid to put down," Collins says. "It's also a matter of labor. It takes four times longer to strip a floor than to scrub and re-coat. Unless you have a dirt sandwich, you should only need to strip a floor every four or five years."

Becky Mollenkamp is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. She is a frequent contributor to Sanitary Maintenance.