I have never met a custodian who said they found joy in failing at their job. Success is a human quest. Leaders must coach those they serve at finding their individual path to success.
Gabriel helps clients identify core problems, set meaningful goals, and formulate cost-cutting strategies for moving forward.
Here are a few
core problem issues...
1. Stripping and refinishing floors is not where to begin a custodial program upgrade.
If a floor finish has difficulty holding its shine, there is a much greater problem with the detergent than there is with the floor finish. A poorly performing detergent leaves soil-holding film that, when burnished, sends billions of airborne dust particles carrying many billions of germs into a facility's air handling system.
Upgrading a facility's floor finish program may be needed, but only after a residue-free cold water detergent is in use and working well.
2. Scuff marks are caused by bad chair glides.
What made the chair glides become the culprit, is the question everyone should be asking. If a floor is properly mopped or autoscrubbed using a high-performance, cold water detergent, left-behind soil residue film will not build up on the bottom of the furniture's floor glides.
The buildup to which I am referring looks like dirty gum stuck to the bottom of every glide on every piece of furniture in the problem area. The material is sticky, jagged, and hard. Just hard enough to rub into the floor's left-behind soil film and make severe scuff marks.
If the detergent used for floor care is not penetrating, emulsifying, and lifting 100% of the soil, there will be left-behind soil. Or, if mops, mop wringers, or autoscrubber squeegees fail to work well, soil will be left behind. Left-behind soil will continue to build up on the bottom of glides. And, scuff marks will continue!
Clean glides should be the rule.
If the best detergent is used in the coldest water, good tools, brushes, mops, wringers, etc. will get the job done as needed if washing practices are done conscientiously and as scheduled.
If floors are maintained properly, most every furniture glide will perform without incident. There is always that chance where there is a damaged glide that scuffs or scratches no matter how clean a floor is kept. Glides should be installed wherever the problem exists. Glides may also be used, on a clean floor, for sound deadening or easier furniture movement.
If every glide in a facility seems to cause a scuffing problem, the facility does not have a glide problem, it has a detergent problem!
To minimize or eliminate scuffing, I recommend that you buy a Cleaning Products Starter Kit from the ad below the ad at the left. In the kit are the detergents that will deliver residue-free floor washing. Guaranteed. Free training is available at our website or click here.
3. A disinfectant detergent IS NOT the key product for a safe & healthy facility.
Germs do not have stomachs and need to live in soil for a constant food supply. Nature assigns germs the task of converting soil back into the natural resources from which the soil was created. Gas (odor) is the byproduct of the process. If odors exist, germ-filled soil exists.
It is imperative to thoroughly remove soil. If a surface is without soil, it is virtually without germs. Airborne germs that land on a clean surface and find a way into our bodies are ably dealt with by our immune system. Germs make us sick when too many of them, from too much soil, invade our bodies and overwhelme our immune systems. A clean surface is sanitary.
Custodians need to focus on removing soil and not on killing germs. Disinfectant solutions are designed to kill airborne germs landing on a surface that gets washed clean BEFORE the solution is applied. That is the law. Once the surface gets contaminated by germs, protection no longer exists. The washing and treating process must be repeated before newly arriving germs can be killed.
As always, thank you for allowing me this visit.
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