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Floor Maintenance: Chemical Considerations

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This is Chris Matt, Managing Editor of Print & E-Media, with Maintenance Solutions magazine. Today's tip is understanding the chemicals for flooring maintenance.

Chemicals form the cornerstone of a floor-maintenance program, and the costs of these chemicals are on the rise. Cleaning crews can protect the flooring material by removing soil and contaminants and applying coating chemicals.

When looking strictly at chemical costs, managers often believe they can effectively cut costs by buying bargain-price chemicals. This is a common mistake managers make because they do not fully understand floor-maintenance chemicals.

Most managers view cleaning chemicals as generic, but as with all products on the market, cleaning chemicals include performers and non-performers. Departments waste many labor hours using non-performing chemicals they expect to work. The real cost of floor maintenance is in the labor.

Managers also can reduce chemical costs by purchasing concentrated chemicals or incorporating proportioning systems. Concentrated chemicals deliver more cleaning power with less packaging, and proportioning systems reduce chemical use by providing precise measurement for the chemical-to-water ratio.

One major cost component of hard-floor maintenance programs relates to coating chemicals, and these prices also keep increasing. Again, buying more generic floor finishes might seem like a cost-effective decision. But in the long run, these finishes have a tendency to break down, ultimately costing more in labor to restore and maintain an acceptable appearance level.

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flooring , floor maintenance