Flooring: Maintenance Matters Post-Installationtest

By Dave Lubach, Associate Editor

February 2015

The levels and patterns of foot traffic into and through a facility can influence a manager's decisions in developing flooring maintenance plan. Managers should schedule interim maintenance every three to six months for areas with lighter traffic levels, every three months for moderately busy areas, and monthly for high-traffic areas, says Will Engel of J+J Flooring Group. Restorative cleaning schedules should adjust as traffic dictates.

"Pick the right products for the level of maintenance you want to do," McPherson says.

Taking precautions to protect the floor leading up to installation is another important step for managers.

"Depending on the type of flooring you use, make sure furniture rests or chair protectors are wide enough and smooth enough not to damage the floor," Saker says. "Depending on the floor that has been specified, get a good feeling if the floor needs to have protective polish on it. If it's a non-polish floor, make sure it is correctly prepared and maintained. A good example is, if you are using VCT, it is very important to have those protective coatings that require polish and that those coats of polish are applied before you initiate the installation."

Engel says managers should consider implementing a floor maintenance program that includes these four steps:

• effective walk-off and track-off mats to capture soil entering the facility from the outside
• daily vacuuming and trash pickup
• interim, light maintenance that focuses on appearance.
• annual restorative maintenance

"The interim and restorative maintenance can be done either in-house or contracted out, and it has to be budgeted either way," Engel says. "If it's done in-house, we recommend that the in-house technicians be certified and have proper training and that the equipment purchased is new and up to date and maintained properly."