Every business needs to be clean. If you are a business owner or anyone who owns properties, you have probably contracted with a cleaning company over the past year. If so, then you’ve done a good thing because the cleaning companies are the ones that show how well your business is run. Scuffed floors, trash all over the place, and streaky windows do not give people the impression that your high-value business is actually high value.
If you are interested in running a cleaning company yourself, you will need to know the ins-and-outs of how to clean various floors you will be dealing with. There are many different types of carpets, tiles, vinyls, linoleum and many different other forms of floor that require specific care in order to keep them long lasting and in pristine condition. If you can show these landlords and business owners that you can clean their floors, then your reputation will spread far and wide and business will be much easier for you. But first, you need to know the basics of floor cleaning.
Floor cleaning basics
Before you begin to clean the floor you need to know what material you are working with. Is it vinyl? Is it tile? Is it carpet? Once you determine what material your floor is, you will then be able to determine what cleaning supplies and chemicals you may need to use to clean it.
Carpeting
Carpets will always require vacuuming regularly. The amount of time between the intervals depends on what kind of environment your carpet is in. If you own a small office, you will probably need to vacuum only once a week. If you have a hotel or another high traffic business and you will need to vacuum everyday. Carpeted floors also require an occasional scrubbing using a floor cleaner and a high-powered floor scrubber for the whole floor.
Wood Floors
One thing about wood floors is you have to be very careful about using water on them. Too much water can warp the wood and cause problems with unevenness because of the wood’s water absorption potential. Best thing to do is to use hardwood floor cleaner for small spots, and sweep the hardwood floors regularly.
Vinyl and laminate
Vinyl and laminate use many of the same rules as wood does. Do not use excess water on vinyl as the water can get underneath where the adhesive is and loosen it up. Same rules apply to laminate flooring. Laminate expands with the use of too much water. With these floors regular sweeping and light mopping is all that is necessary.
Floor cleaning machines
There are a wide array of floor cleaning machines that have different sizes and uses depending on the particular size of the job. There are floor sweepers, floor scrubbers, and floor buffers. Each of these different cleaners as different types of brushes and chemicals that it uses. You need to find the specific brush for the floor that you are working on. Sweepers are good for picking up dust and dirt, while buffers are better for harder floors that have a natural shine. There is an array of devices, and each is made for a specific task. When you are first starting out it’s okay to use smaller hand-held machines until you can afford bigger ones, or your job requires the larger ones.