Category: Cleaning

Janitorial and Commercial Cleaning – The Definitive Guide

Janitorial Vs Commercial Cleaning

While cleaning is a simple process to define, there are significant differences between ‘janitorial’ and ‘commercial’ cleaning services.

Janitorial

Janitorial cleaning refers to routine, everyday maintenance seen in an office or building. This process follows the usual 7-step cleaning process applied to bathrooms and other such common areas. The small, routine duties of a janitorial cleaner are the following;

Restroom cleaning

Mopping and sweeping

Vacuuming

Disinfection and sanitization of touch-point surfaces

Changing garbage bags

Commercial Cleaning

The difference between commercial cleaning is the scale and frequency of the cleaning. Commercial cleaning tends to include larger, infrequent projects that require heavier equipment. An example would be the detailed-cleaning of a factory or industrial space a few times per year. The duties included are;

Cleaning grout

Powerwashing

Carpet cleaning

Waxing

Furniture

Step Cleaning Process

Regardless if it’s commercial or janitorial cleaning, both follow the same protocol. This protocol is known as the ‘7-step cleaning process’, which serves as a helpful guide for workers. The 7-step cleaning process ensures that surfaces are cleaned, sanitized, and disinfected so that surfaces do not accidentally become dirty.

Any misstep could lead to additional bacterial growth, which is the health-hazard intended to be removed in the first place. The 7-step process follows this order;

Remove trash

Dust in high places

Damp wipe

Stock and replace products

Dust mop / or sweeping

Walk-around and inspection

Wet mop the floor and place the wet floor sign

The Ultimate Guide to Success for Your Commercial Cleaning Business

The commercial cleaning industry is a fast-growing sector with ample opportunity for growth. Forecasts project an annual compound growth rate of 5.8% from 2015 through 2022 for this $50.4 billion industry. However, it’s also an industry with significant challenges that send many business owners into a pattern of lowering costs, and retroactively managing employee turnover.

This guide will gain a closer look into the state of the commercial cleaning industry today, including its projected growth and how key players within the industry secure business. Find insights around trends shaping the future of this industry, including evolving end-user expectations. Use this guide to learn about the challenges commercial cleaning companies face and potential solutions for breaking through the cycle of low-cost, low-quality services to become an innovator able to secure and grow a significant share of available business.

The State of the Commercial Cleaning Industry

Commercial cleaning is a big business today, and growing rapidly. One 2020 report put the commercial cleaning services industry at $50.4 billion in annual revenue. The clear forerunner here is the commercial segment, with a projected annual compound growth rate of 5.8% from 2015 through 2022. That healthy forecast was made before the global coronavirus pandemic created a higher demand, putting new emphasis on the importance of deep cleaning across a range of building environments.

Overview of the Cleaning Industry

The cleaning industry can be broken down into several segments, including commercial janitorial services, specialty cleaning services, and residential cleaning. As of May 2019, approximately 60,219 janitorial services companies employed 3.24 million people

cleaning professionals seem to provide similar services for their client bases. There is a predetermined scope of work that may involve vacuuming, sweeping and mopping; dusting; emptying trash; and scrubbing of hard surfaces.

Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Cleaning Company

When it comes to finding a new cleaning company, who do you choose, how do you find them? What questions should you ask once you have shortlisted cleaning contractors of interest? Let’s dig a little deeper and identify some things to consider and questions to ask when looking to hire office cleaning company.

Finding cleaners by area

If you live in the South East, you will require a company who can service your needs in that area. When searching on Google, bear in mind, it knows by default the area, in which, you are located.

What type of cleaning services do you require?

Firstly, be sure to distinguish between commercial cleaners and private cleaners. Quite often, companies offering cleaning services do not offer both, so be sure to specify whether it’s a commercial or domestic service that you require.

How long have they been in business?

Before choosing a company to work with, it’s worth identifying how long they have been in business to ascertain what kind of experience they have in the cleaning industry.

We have a few pointers which everyone should  consider when approaching a new cleaning contractor

Check their website and about us information

Check for a portfolio

Check for customer feedback / testimonials page

Ask for references if you feel it’s necessary

Look for any google reviews

Certainly for any companies dealing specifically with commercial cleaning services, they will almost always have a website which you can refer to and if they don’t, dig a little deeper to make sure they are a good fit for your needs.

FACILITY MANAGER’S GUIDE TO COMMERCIAL CARPET CLEANING

Replacing your commercial carpet is expensive and it can be time-consuming— in other words, you lose productivity and income. While no carpet lasts forever, is there a way to make sure your carpet lasts as long as possible? There is. Regular commercial carpet cleaning can preserve your carpet for the long-term.

Facility managers need to understand two things: First, the building’s maintenance needs, and second, how to stay within budget while fulfilling those needs. One of the best ways to maintain the building and stay within your budget is to hire a cleaning company who can provide more than one service for you. A janitorial service that can also take care of your commercial carpet cleaning, window washing, hard floor maintenance, and help you out when you have construction clean up or an emergency cleaning need is… well, we’d say priceless, but prices are put on those things, and they are higher if you are working with separate companies for all of them.

Daily Carpet Maintenance

The daily maintenance of your commercial carpets is of the utmost importance, especially in high traffic areas. Vacuuming gets out dust, loose soil, debris, and fends off smells that might develop if the carpets are left dirty. Unfortunately, even if you vacuum every single day, you won’t get all of the dirt and odor out of the carpet. This is why it is important to schedule regular deep cleanings for your commercial carpet.

Interim Cleaning for Carpets

Interim cleaning is important to schedule throughout the year to extend the life of your carpet. A low-moisture method like encapsulation or spin bonnet will not only keep your carpet clean, but it will extend the life of the carpet, too. The number of interim cleanings you should schedule during the year depends on the amount and kind of traffic they experience. For example, ground floor carpets where many people come through day to day directly from the outside with dirt on their shoes might need an interim cleaning every quarter. The cubicles that are traversed primarily by the folks who work within them might just need an interim cleaning six months after the annual deep cleaning.

Deep Cleaning for Carpets

Once a year, it’s important that all the carpets in your building are deep cleaned. From the high-traffic lobby to the mostly-deserted conference room on the fifth floor, every carpet should undergo hot water extraction once per year. This is a highly technical process that blasts a combination of very hot water and cleaning agents into your carpeting, which removes any deeply-ingrained dirt and debris; then, seconds later, the machine will extract the water and the dirt, leaving behind a fresh, clean carpet. A professional cleaning company will be able to complete all the carpets in your building in a reasonable amount of time, ensuring little to no downtime for your business.

COMMERCIAL OFFICE CLEANING PRICES

The best office cleaning service providers have tonnes of experience in cleaning multiple commercial complexes over the years. They often provide a wholesome cleaning service. However, these services are available at a premium cost. Purchasing their services is not really an option for smaller offices.

We’ll recruit, train, and make sure both management and cleaning staff are fully understanding of your specification and agreements of the contract before work begins.

Window Cleaning and Flooring Services

The two components of your office that require more maintenance than others include the floors and windows. They are also responsible for most of the aesthetic appeal of the office space. With our specialised window cleaning and flooring services, you can save a lot of money on the overall office cleaning experience. Now, you don’t need to avail a whole suite of extra services just to get the windows and floors cleaned. In fact, get in touch with our team today to get a quote on customised window cleaning and flooring services.

End-to-End Office Cleaning Services

We also offer a wide range of affordable office cleaning services that take care of cleaning the office in an end-to-end fashion. You can save a lot of money on wholesome commercial cleaning prices by purchasing a one-stop cleaning package from us. Our cleaning services help you maintain an extremely hygienic work environment that boosts employee morale and reduces absenteeism. A clean office will also help you increase the productivity of your employees by providing them with a fresh environment to work in.

Deep Cleaning Services

The cost of commercial cleaning often shoots up with an increase in the depth of the cleaning services. The deep cleaning services often cost a lot more than conventional surface cleaning service.

Things you should know about carpet cleaning

Most stains should be removed in the general cleaning process.

Some stains that contain tannins, dyes, acids or caustics may not come out in the general cleaning process and may require specialized stain removal treatment. Unfortunately, some stains cannot be removed from carpet no matter what chemicals or cleaning processes are used. Not all carpet cleaning services are the same. The results of a carpet cleaning service depend on the skill of the technician, the time taken, and the chemicals and equipment used. The ‘wet-sheep’ smell that occurs when cleaning wool carpet is primarily caused by an off gas from the   natural sulphur in wool when wool gets wet. This is natural and dissipates when the carpet dries.

Stain Protection

Carpet cleaning does not remove the stain protection applied to carpets by the manufacturer or your carpet cleaner. Wear and tear is the primary reason stain protection coatings break down. It is sometimes best to have a carpet protector applied to the traffic areas on your carpet before your stain protector reaches the end of the warranty period to maintain stain protection. It’s not needed when your carpet is still relatively new. But over time and heavy use the traffic areas can benefit from an added treatment.

Final Step

Carpets should be groomed after cleaning to ensure that they dry quickly and that the pile sits in the same direction (not falling to the side).

Beware of cleaners who will not Warranty their work

Carpet cleaners are legally required to warrant their workmanship. If you are not happy with the carpet cleaning service provided, call the carpet cleaning company and they should offer to return to re-clean the carpet free of charge. If your carpet cleaner does not return to re-clean your carpet,

Regularly Clean your Carpets

Regularly cleaned carpets last longer and look better than carpets that are rarely cleaned. Cleaning helps remove the abrasive soils in your carpet pile that wear away at the carpet fibers when the carpet is walked on.

Carpet Cleaners That Will Banish All Your Spill Worries

The joy of getting new carpet can be short-lived if you have pets, children, or even a lot of visitors. Even if you manage to get everyone to remove their shoes before entering the house or forbid non-clear liquids from leaving the kitchen, accidents can — and do! — happen, leaving your once-clean carpets soiled. Luckily, with so many wonderful carpet cleaning products on the market, worrying about dirtying your carpets is a thing of the past. Your only problem now? Is deciding which of the best carpet cleaners to choose!

What’s the best way to clean carpets?

You don’t have to rent a big machine every time you want to deep-clean your carpets. There are several effective and inexpensive ways to get them sparkling with less cumbersome methods

Carpet-cleaning vacuum cleaners that use water and special detergent work magic on dirty rugs. Or, if you don’t have one of these machines, a splash of a good carpet-cleaning solvent in a bucket of water, a carpet brush, and some elbow grease will do wonders to zap dirt and grime away in no time.

For accidental spills, there are spot stain removers that are as simple as spraying on, rubbing into the carpet, and wiping up with a paper towel. Alternatively, dry powder cleaning products can work in two trouble-free steps — sprinkle on and hoover up!

There are also special carpet cleaners for pets. Did Rex do his business on the carpet again? Less-than-savory stains can be eradicated quicker than you can say “bad dog” with a great odor-eliminating product.

Cleaning Guide

UNBELIEVABLE LOW PRICE.

To some degree, all of us are attracted by low price because we want to work within a budget. But some carpet cleaners use price as the bait for their false and misleading advertising. They offer a cheap price then, once they’re in your home, they pressure you into buying “add-ons”.  It’s as if you were buying a car and found that the dealer was charging you extra for the tires and the steering wheel. Carpet cleaning is not as cheap as some unethical carpet cleaners would like you to believe.

BAIT AND SWITCH.

Dual-process carpet cleaning describes the process of shampooing or heavy preconditioning, followed with hot water extraction cleaning. Unfortunately, unethical carpet cleaners often use dual-process as a bait-and-switch technique. Here’s how it’s done: First, they “bait” you with a basic cleaning (single process) at an unbelievably low price. Then, when you call, they try to “switch” you to more expensive dual-process cleaning. If you don’t fall for their switch and choose their basic service, you’ll likely receive poor workmanship using little or no chemical and they will not guarantee their work.

UNSUPPORTED CLAIMS. “THIS CLEANING METHOD IS BEST”.

You’ll read this in almost every ad. You’ll hear this from virtually every carpet cleaner. Remember this: the method that’s best for you is the method that achieves your goal. If you want a method that cleans thoroughly, then a method that only cleans the surface isn’t the best for you. So, before you choose a carpet cleaner, identify your objectives. Then select the method that best reaches those objectives.

OUTDATED BELIEFS. “HOT WATER DAMAGES YOUR CARPET.”

Years ago, many people believed this was true because their carpets were damaged by “operators” who didn’t know how to properly clean using hot water. But today, we know that is false. By washing and then rinsing your carpet with hot water, your carpet is thoroughly cleaned, in the same way that a person who showers and then rinses off the dirt and soap will be much cleaner than the person who takes only a sponge bath. Obviously, each carpet cleaner will be biased toward his or her own method, and each method does have advantages. So I suggest you look to what carpet manufacturers say. Shaw Industries,  the largest carpet manufacturer in the world, recommends only hot water extraction cleaning with a truck-mounted equipment, used by firms that are IICRC Certified.

YOU SHOULD WAIT AS LONG AS POSSIBLE BEFORE CLEANING YOUR CARPET.

NO.  Dirt is an abrasive, like sandpaper. Every time you step on your carpet, you grind dirt into the carpet fibers. This cuts your carpet, just as if you had used a knife. This cutting causes your carpet to wear out faster. A dirty carpet will not last as long as a clean carpet. The longer you wait to have your carpet cleaned, the more damage you do to your carpet and the faster it wears out.

The Best Ways to Get a Spotless Carpet Without a Steam Cleaner

If your house has carpet — plus kids or pets — then you need to know how to deep clean your carpets without a steam cleaner. Because let’s face it, mud and red fruit punch are not a good combination, especially if you want to keep your floors looking clean.

But the tricks behind knowing how to deep clean carpet stains are not necessarily common knowledge. That’s why we asked the experts to answer one very important concern people commonly have: how do you deep clean your carpet the best way possible?

How to Deep Clean a Carpet Without a Steam Cleaner

chief hygiene officer at Pro Housekeepers, knows a thing or two about deep cleaning a carpet. She offers up this method that uses a vacuum cleaner plus baking soda or dish soap.

Here are the steps for how to clean your carpet without a steam cleaner:

Get a bucket of warm water and your preferred cleaning tool ready.

Vacuum the entire area you wish to clean to get rid of dirt and dust.

If using baking soda, sprinkle the stain until completely covered. If using dish soap, measure the stain’s size, and use 1 tablespoon per 6 to 8 inches of stain.

Swoosh it around until you see bubbles.

Using an old brush, toothbrush, rag, or towel, gently scrub the stain with warm water.

Do not completely soak the floor, just make it wet enough to scrub away the dirt/stain.

Turn on any fans, or open nearby windows to allow carpet to air dry.

Once dry, vacuum again.

How to Deep Clean Your Carpet Without a Machine

Buying or renting a machine to steam clean your carpet is not the only way to get the stubborn stains out. If you have a mess to clean up but you don’t want to run to the store for a steam cleaner, you can definitely deep clean your carpet without a machine. The good news is, if you have a vacuum, you can get the job done.

What Is the Best Method of Cleaning Carpets?

Homeowners often don’t realize that shampooing isn’t necessarily the best method of cleaning carpets in their home, and that they have more options for rug cleaning than ever before. Some carpet cleaning methods involve a light and affordable rug cleaning, whereas other methods are a better choice for removing tough stains and ground-in dirt and debris.

The best method of cleaning carpets is usually steam cleaning, which removes over 90% of dirt and bacteria from carpeting. Dry cleaning carpeting is also effective for ensuring carpets are ready for foot traffic as quickly as possible.

To ensure that you keep your home’s carpets and area rugs as well as all other flooring materials in good condition and looking their best, note a few important differences between carpet cleaning methods as well as some tips for keeping floors as clean as possible. You can then discuss your choices with a carpet cleaning company near you when it’s time to have your carpeting and floors cleaned by a pro!

Note the most popular carpet cleaning services you might choose for your home so you can better understand the pros and cons of each choice:

Hot water extraction or steam cleaning uses hot water applied to carpet fibers with a high-pressure wand. The hot water and pressure both work to dissolve thick dirt, mud, dust, and other debris from carpeting, allowing it to be extracted easily. Steam also “fluffs up” matted carpet fibers so that your home’s carpeting looks fresher and feels softer underfoot.

Carpet shampooing uses specialty detergents applied with lots of water, just like shampooing your hair! Rotating brushes might scrub the shampoo into the carpeting and help loosen dirt and debris. Clean water is used to extract the shampoo, until the carpets are clean and free of residues.

Carpet dry cleaning uses a special powder detergent or similar chemicals, applied with a small amount of water. A rotating brush pushes the powder into the fibers and a specialty extraction tool then removes the detergent along with trapped dirt and debris.

Foam cleaning carpeting or encapsulation is often used for especially filthy carpets. A specialty foam is applied to carpeting where it then begins to bubble and expand; this expanding foam traps dirt and debris, bringing it to the carpet’s surface. Steam extraction then removes the foam and trapped dirt.

Bonnet cleaning uses a specialty carpet cleaning machine with a type of thick towel or bonnet over the front. This bonnet rubs rug shampoo along the surface of carpet fibers, and the shampoo is then extracted along with trapped dirt and debris.