Hydrogen peroxide cleaners

I've seen a lot of data and have one acquaintance who owns a janitorial supply distributor and dumped all his other chemical lines in favor of hydrogen peroxide - simpler, safer, greener - etc.

We called several distributors in our market and they were all to lazy to work with us - and our collective spend is one of the largest in our market, oddly enough.

We finally found someone hungry enough to work with us and are testing some commercial cleaning products.

Bob

Red Stains in carpet

Normal carpet cleaning chemicals work pretty well on everything except red stains and iron stains (rust from the metal feet of a chair or table that was placed on moist carpet would be a common source of rust stains)

Red stains are of two types :

- Organics like fruit juices, red wine (probably most common) and tomatoes

- Non - organics like red dyes (including dyes added to apple juice to mike it look like a more expensive juice ) and medicines.

A ) Get a specialized red dye spotter targeted for whichever type of stain. janitorial supply distributors, many carpet stores, possibly Home Depot or Menards, and many better hardware stores will stock these.

B) Follow label instructions.

C) I'm told that the old "steam iron and a clean white cotton cloth" means of wicking the dye out of the carpet is no longer absolutely necessary - but that it still helps a lot. Any application of heat will speed up the action of most carpet cleaning chemicals, and the instructions may suggest a variety of ways to apply heat.

Bob

Wood floors - and bamboo - how to maintain them.

We don't clean a lot of wood floors. Generally, in commercial buildings they are in low traffic areas (tho some restored older buildings downtown have them thruout) like VP offices.

Usually we only need to mop them with clear water. Sometimes we add a little vinegar or some very mild form of acetic or citric acid if the floor is a little dirtier. I don't know any reason why you can't use detergents instead of acids except that I suspect the ph of wood finish is different than the ph of vinyl floor finishes and ceramic floors. My understanding is that this chemical inconsistency leads to streaking, hence the acid wash. Might also strip the finish over time.

Bob

Hepa - filter vacuums - defined.

High Efficiency Particulate Air - = HEPA

Rated at or better than 99.97 collection of particles down to .3 microns in size.

Not going to get virus' out of your indoor air - but will take the allergen level down a bunch - captures most molds, yeasts, and bacteria.

We are standardized on HEPA filter vacuums going forward - they are about 30% more expensive than standard commercial cleaning vacuums, but this is the way the industry is going so we might as well get ahead of it. We still have a lot of " legacy" older vacuums out there - but new accounts will get the HEPA filters, we require it for all medical facilities and areas where there might be compromised immune systems.

Since carpet tends to hold allergens, regular vacuums can at least theoretically degrade the indoor air quality by pulling the allergens out of the carpet, not catch them in their filters, and push them out in the air for us to breathe. Which, if you've ever walked behind a poorly maintained commercial vacuum will be no surprise to you. I'm not normally very sensitive to dust, but that will do it for me - sneezing fit ahoy.

If you are really serious about particulates - say in a manufacturing clean room or a surgery room janitorial project - you can also move up to ULPA filters - 99.99 % effective down to .2 microns. These will actually capture some virus'.

Bob

Carpet Cleaning - Time, Heat, Chemical and Agitation.

These are the 4 variables in cleaning a carpet.

The more time a chemical has to emulsify or encapsulate soil the higher the percentage of the soil will be transferred from carpet to chemical and removed from the carpet.

The more agitation, the more likely the chemical is to actually meet up with the soil and have a chance to emulsify or encapsulate it.

The more heat, the shorter the time it takes for emulsification and encapsulation to happen.

Similarly, very hot water can work in moderate soil situations with no chemical at all

The more chemical, the more soil that can be captured and removed with some combination of these 4 variables.

Dry methods use agitation, time and chemical in small amounts.

Extraction uses chemical, agitation and time.

Truck mounts often use only heat, but can use chemical and agitation in highly soiled situations.

Bob

Carpet cleaning - Shampooing, detergents, and resoiling

No such term as "shampoo" is in current use in commercial cleaning.

Generally, old time carpet "shampoos" were detergents.

We use both detergents and solvents.

Solvents are volatile and evaporate - so if you don't extract them completely - no harm.

Detergents must be thoroughly extracted to remove all residue as the residue will hold any dirt that gets tracked on afterwards - "resoiling " - the carpet.

Your daily vacuum cleaning won't break this bond so the dirt will stay in the carpet with the chemical and you will have defeated the purpose of cleaning the carpet in the first place.

Bob

In house employees versus contractors - how to decide.

Commercial cleaning really got started about 50 or 60 years ago. Before that almost all buildings were cleaned by janitors who were employees of the building owner.

Some still are - hospitals most notably, nursing homes usually, some specialized type buildings also still employ their own janitors.

Overwhelmingly tho, commercial buildings are cleaned by independent cleaning companies like ourselves.

Not for the reasons most people think. The perception is that commercial cleaner wages are so much lower that this is a pure cost of labor outsourcing decision - similar to sewing garments in China or Mexico.

Rarely true - for some big companies the hourly rates would be way above the rates contractors pay janitors - but hardly the majority.

The main reason for using a commercial cleaning contractor is supervision. A building owner must create a separate supervisory and purchasing and recruiting competence to deal with a separate janitorial workforce working a different shift performing a function that is outside their core competency.

First, cleaning is most efficiently done when the building is vacant - hence the need for a separate supervisory and recruiting architecture.

Second, cleaning is a repetitive, but not quite assembly line manufacturing process - namely it requires decision making about what needs cleaning and what doesn't to be performed efficiently - unlike an assembly line where every work element is handled exactly identically. Janitor work is more like construction - and one of the reasons those construction trades get paid a lot is that they have to make decisions as well as have strong backs.

Reinforcing the need for dedicated supervision - not just adding janitorial to the supervisory duties of a manufacturing foreman.

We've converted perhaps 1000 in house crews to Coverall accounts over the last 20 years - and on average we've seen a 40 % reduction in labor hours - 60 % plus increase in efficiency with contract supervision.

Usually with better outcomes / cleaner buildings - always with at least equivalent outcomes.

The cost savings come predominantly from efficiency.

Ecolab, 3M, Advance and Tennant are all companies in my market that have substantial expertise in cleaning (they manufacture the cleaning equipment and cleaning chemicals we use). They all use commercial cleaning contractors - does that tell us anything ?

Security is the other issue we frequently hear.

In house employees actually appear to commit more crimes than contract cleaning employees.

Repeat - using your own employees reduces security - doesn't increase it.

In 20 years I haven't seen a violent or property crime committed by a cleaning contractor employee severe enough to make the papers. Not one. I've seen at least a dozen committed by in house employees - and remember there are probably 3 times as many contract cleaning employees as in house janitorial employees.

I've seen two such instances - one an embezzlement - in the last 60 days by in house janitorial employees.

By the way - which is usually easier to fire - an employee or a contractor ? We have a situation with a customer in Prior Lake as we write this where one of their employees slipped thru their screening process with a prior rape conviction. Litigation is expected to take months. And lots of legal fees.

Enough on the security issue.

Finally "control" - I hear that having your own janitorial employees gives you more control. You either have much better control of your employees than I do, or are delusional. Probably delusional - refer back to my discussion at the beginning of this piece on the issues with supervising employees outside of your core competency on a shift where you generally don't have a lot of management people present. In theory this may be true, but my office isn't in theory - it's in Bloomington.

'nuff said,

Bob