WINTER FLOOR MAINTENANCE TIPS FOR BUILDING MANAGERS

Advice On Cleaning & Maintaining Floors In Winter: Are Your Floors Ready For Winter? Dealing With Ice Melting Compounds PROTECT & CLEAN YOUR FLOORS Use The Auto Scrubber, Double-Scrub Procedure Dealing With White Powdery Residue... Expert Advice For Professional Building Managers & Janitorial Floor Cleaning Staff. The Dobmeier Winter Floor Cleaning Guide Will Help You Maintain Your Floors In Winter Download Your FREE e-Book (PDF Format): The Dobmeier Winter Floor Cleaning Guide

OVERVIEW - CLEANING & MAINTAINING YOUR FLOORS IN WINTER

Are Your Floors Ready For Winter?

Ice Melters and wet heavy soil loads during the winter months will damage your Floor Finish more quickly. So more aggressive, and more frequent cleaning will be necessary:

• Put down a quality finish and protective coating. Your floors will still need more cleaning, scrubbing, and recoating.
• This increased maintenance will require more time and an increased stock of cleaning supplies. So, plan ahead, stock products, and deploy correct cleaning processes to help maintain the look and appearance of your floors in winter.

Dealing With Ice Melting Compounds

SALT - Based Ice Melters

• Enter your building when combined with ice and snow in the treads of winter footwear.
• As the snow melts, it deposits salty liquid that can flow into the microscopic scratches that exist in your floor finish.

CALCIUM CHLORIDE – Based Ice Melters

• Are corrosive when in solution, damaging your floor finish.
• Create a fine, white powder when the water evaporates (often mistakenly described as “floor finish powdering”).

PROTECT & CLEAN YOUR FLOORS

Deploy Scraper-Wiper Entrance Mats both outside and inside your entrance, and run them further into your building.
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Use The Auto Scrubber, Double-Scrub Procedure:

• Make your first pass by applying cleaning solution and scrubbing but not picking up.
• Make your second pass by scrubbing and picking up.

This procedure provides a longer contact time for improved cleaning, and also increased scrubbing to clean away the stubborn winter soils.

However, the combination of winter soil and more aggressive cleaning will abrade your floor finish more rapidly, so watch your floor closely and prepare with an increased stock of cleaning supplies.
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Deploy Wet-Dry Vacuums and Clean Your Auto Scrubber more often to remove damaging debris, residues, & bacteria.

DEALING WITH WHITE POWDERY RESIDUES ON FLOORS & MATS

Do Vinyl Composition Tile (VCT) Floors In Your Building Develop A White Powdery Residue Appearance?

If so, the simple answer is to apply Diversey DIBS Neutralizer, Conditioner, & Odor Counteractant cleaning solution:

• Add 1 Diversey DIBS pellet for every 3 gallons of water.
• Allow this solution to dwell on VCT flooring for 10 minutes.
• Pick up the cleaning solution with your Auto Scrubber on “Vacuum Only” mode or using a Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner.
• After this application, clean floors normally.

Do Your Entrance Mats Develop A White Powdery Residue Appearance Due To Ice Melter Being Tracked In?

Tracked-in salt crystals or ice melt pellets that are left on your entrance mats need to be neutralized and removed:

• Mix a Diversey DIBS Neutralizer & Conditioner cleaning solution by adding 1 DIBS pellet for every 3 gallons of water.
• Prespray DIBS solution onto the affected areas on your mats using a pump-up tank sprayer or spray bottle, and allow the solution to dwell on the mats for 5 minutes.
• For High Traffic Areas Agitate the DIBS sprayed areas using a 175 RPM Rotary Floor Machine equipped with a nylon carpet brush or a plastic bristle deck brush.
• Remove the emulsified soil and spent cleaning solution with a Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner.
• Water rinse and extract the cleaned entrance mats with a Carpet Extraction Machine or Wet/Dry Vacuum Cleaner.
• Position floor fans in your entrance area to speed dry the clean, but damp, entrance mats.

How Clean Is Your Facility - Is It Dobmeier Professional Clean?

For Help Or Advice On Professional Floor Cleaning Equipment And/Or Supplies
Call Your Dobmeier Janitorial Floor Cleaning Expert At 1.800.870.2006
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