Do's and don'ts of flooring maintenance.

How do you maximize the appearance and longevity of your facility's hardsurface flooring (wood floors, resilient tile, etc.)? Largely, it is a matter of following the manufacturers' instructions for routine maintenance to prevent problems before they occur. Sounds fairly simple, right?

But what about the not so routine procedure -- e.g., stripping and buffing. How often are they needed? What equipment should you use? What about indoor air quality as you clean: are you really removing dust and other particulates from the flooring, or are you simply moving them from one surface to another?

Nursing Homes Managing Editor Laura Bruck posed those questions to two hard surface maintenance experts -- Allen L. South, president of SCS Associates, a Cochranville, PA company that provides consultation to building owners and operators on air quality issues; and Mike Eshleman, a technologist with Armstrong World Industries Commercial Floors in Lancaster, PA. Both share "tips from the industry" that are not so well-known, but may make you think twice about your present floor maintenance plan.

Allen L. South

"According to EPA data compiled over the past eight or nine years, over 75% of airdoor air quality problems are related to airborne particulates -- in other words, dust. The cleaning equipment industry has responded to this problem by investigating various cleaning methods that reduce airborne dust, many through HVAC operations with more efficient filtration systems.

"During my tenure as business manager for carpet care products for Dupont, we identified what we viewed as the main areas of concern with respect to indoor air quality and hard surface maintenance: 1) inefficient filtration on vacuum machines, 2) rotating stripping and buffing procedures that generate huge amounts of dust, and 3) hand dusters and floor mops that move dust around rather than removing it from the premises.

"After serving on the EPA Workshop for Indoor Air Quality, I began to work closely with the cleaning industry and the EPA on the above issues. Over the past several years, these issues have been addressed with some new technologies that are helping to maintain the appearance and longevity of hard surface flooring, while improving indoor air quality as it relates to hard surface maintenance."

Improved filtration systems. "In recent years, there has been a great deal of progress in the development of more efficient vacuum bags, providing facility managers with access to vacuum systems that will capture most of the dust picked up from the carpeting. As will be explained later, this technology, while designed for carpet maintenance, has also been incorporated into hard surface maintence equipment.

"The most notable of these high-efficiency filtration systems is Dupont's Hysurf bag, which captures dust with over 90% efficiency. Micro fresh bags, two-layer vacuum bags available from a number of manufacturers, are 78% efficient, and the efficiency rating for a single paper bag is about 60%. The differences these bags offer with respect to the amount of dust captured are so significant that, if you're planning to vacuum with a machine equipped only with a cloth bag (40% efficient), it's probably not worth vacuuming at all. In fact, if you've run out of the high-efficiency bags, postponing vacuuming until you've restocked is preferable to vacuuming with a less efficient system."

Active vacuum buffing machines. "Stripping and buffing floors dislodges vast amounts of dust and other particulates from the flooring and showers them into the air, creating the potential for a range of health problems made even more worrisome by residents' fragile state of health. While many of these machines are marketed as being equipped with vacuum systems, these systems are passive, meaning that a flow of air is created by the rotating pad and directed through a vacuum bag without an actual vacuum motor. With an air flow of only 5 to 8 cubic feet per minute, the passive vacuum system does little to capture the particulates the buffer dislodges from the floor.

"The solution was to develop a buffing machine with an active vacuum system, an actual vacuum motor with air flow of about 80 cubic feet per minute; this would greatly reduce the amount of dust thrown into the air.

"Ultimately, Surtec, Inc. developed such a machine, which was also equipped with a high-efficiency filtration vacuum bag. The combination of these two technologies permits users of the active vacuum buffer to largely eliminate the high levels of dust created by buffing machines (see figure).

"Today, several other manufacturers are working on developing buffing machines with active vacuum systems. Without such a system to capture and contain the material ground off the floor, the wisdom of floor stripping or buffing becomes questionable, especially in a health care facility in which patients are especially susceptible to the effects of airborne dust. If an active vacuum buffer isn't available, it's best not to buff at all. Simply dry mop daily, wet mop every few days with a good disinfectant in water, and avoid floor coatings that require spray buffing and future stripping."

Improved dusting technology. "Dusting with feather dusters or even oil-treated hand dusters moves dust around rather than removing it. Recently, a unique approach to dusting emerged with a microfiber polyethylene, non-woven structure that was later refined by Dupont and made into a highly efficient dusting cloth called the Dust Wizard. Eventually, floor mops were developed with the same process. Because the polarity of the polyethylene is opposite to that of dust, dander and hair, the cloths and mops attract dust and keep it in the cloth or mop until it is washed. A number of tests in critical manufacturing sites show a reduction in airborne dust of up to 76% when users switch from oil-treated hand dusters to the new polyethylene dusters."

Mike Eshleman

"The most effective way to maintain the appearance and extend the longevity of your facility's resilient tile and sheet flooring is to simply keep it clean, prevent stains and discoloration with prompt attention to spills, and make sure grit particles are removed or trapped in walk-off mats to keep them from being tracked over the floor. This type of practical, common sense approach is essentially the heart of floor care. With frequent polishing, your residents, staff and visitors never actually walk on the floor surface, and the life of your floors can be extended even beyond manufacturer claims. Polishing is, in essence, relatively inexpensive insurance in terms of keeping your floors protected and looking new.

"Unfortunately, what seems like common sense can fall victim to bottom-line costs. If the person responsible for interpreting that bottom line is knowledgeable about floor care, you'll probably end up with a cost-effective maintenance program that maximizes the appearance and durability of your flooring. If not, you may end up spending money for services you don't need or equipment that fails to meet your needs.

"On that cautionary note, the following tips are intended to allay some common misconceptions and to suggest some cost-effective ways to get the most from your flooring in terms of appearance and durability."

Automatic floor machines. "If you don't have one of these, get one, and if you can't get one, hire a cleaning contractor that uses one! Automatic floor machines put down the cleaning solution, scrub the floor and pick up the solution, leaving a clean, dry floor behind you. This eliminates the risk of falls on wet surfaces, and keeps highly trafficked rooms and hallways up and running without the need to cordon off areas for cleaning. The only job these machines don't do is polishing. Unfortunately, there is no short-cut to applying polish and letting it dry, but this can be done on a spot basis during low traffic periods.

"While many a facility manager has considered purchasing an automatic floor machine, they are sometimes dissuaded from doing so because they are under the impression that the machines are too large to be of any use in areas as small as patient rooms. In fact, these machines come in a variety of sizes, from large machines that clean hallways in just a few passes, to much smaller machines that are ideal for more confined spaces. They are also invaluable in busy areas where prompt spill and grit control isn't always possible.

"The cost of these machines is as variable as the available sizes. While they are by no means inexpensive, they require only periodic maintenance and occasional changes of pads or brushes and, in general, are an excellent investment, both monetarily and with respect to staff time."

Floor stripping. "For reasons unknown, there seems to be a renewed desire among facility managers to strip floors every few months when, in fact, most floors can -- and should -- go several years without the need for stripping. Stripping is not only expensive, but in the case of vinyl tile flooring -- especially a relatively new installation -- can be extremely detrimental and shorten the life of your floors.

"Newer vinyl tile flooring takes a while to become `walked in'. There is a joint around each tile, and the only thing that keeps moisture from getting down into the joint and under the tile is keeping moisture to a minimum for the first few years, and applying polish which will get into the joints and create a seal that should last for a long period of time. Stripping does not allow this process to take place and therefore exposes the tile to potential damage from moisture. As I have indicated, polishing and careful maintenance, on a reasonable schedule as recommended by the manufacturer, will allow you to go years between needed strippings."

Floor machine pads. "There are various grades of floor machine pads available for buffing, scrubbing and stripping. Unfortunately, the tendency is to want the job done as quickly as possible, and that often translates into the use of a product that does much more harm than good. When stripping becomes necessary, many people opt for the most aggressive pad available, a pad known as a `black, thin-line' pad. This grade of pad is harsh enough to grind glass and, on a vinyl floor, it grinds through the polish and gauges away the flooring surface, potentially doing serious damage. (Under the microscope, the surface of vinyl flooring stripped with these pads resembles the Grand Canyon!)

"Armstrong never recommends the use of these pads for its floors. Instead, we recommend the use of a much less abrasive pad, such as the 3M green pad or its equivalent."

Gloss versus glare. "The concern over high-gloss floor surfaces and their tendency to create glare that may contribute to disorientation and even falls is a very real one in the nursing home. Fortunately, you don't have to choose between shine and safety. Several manufacturers offer polishes that produce shine without giving the appearance of a high-gloss, wet surface, and the same result can be obtained by using polish and simply not buffing or burnishing."

Pads vs. brushes. "It's important to keep in mind that, as styles change and products follow suit, we must rethink the technologies used to care for those products. Floors with textured surfaces are a case in point. These are becoming increasingly popular in health care facilities and even offer a solution to the glare problem. But floor machine pads, a long-time favorite for cleaning and buffing, are not the best choice for textured surfaces, since they merely glide across the `high spots' of the textured surfaces. If the concrete subflooring has a defect that produces its own `high spot' in the flooring -- a relatively common occurrence -- the pad can literally grind off the texture of the flooring surface.

"Brushes for burnishing or cleaning are a far better choice to maintain the texture of this type of flooring. The bristles of the brush deflect upward and downward into the high and low areas of the surface, allowing for effective and safe cleaning or buffing. While not inexpensive, these brushes generally last a long time."

"No-polish" floors." Some types of flooring come with a `no-polishing-needed' claim. While that claim may be true, the purchaser needs to keep in mind that there may be a trade-off in the form of a substantially lower level of appearance. The no-polish claim may also be accompanied by a claim of monetary savings. But in reality, it is the daily maintenance, and not the occasional polishing, that ends up being more expensive in the long-term."

Manufacturers' instructions. "Flooring manufacturers take great pains to develop detailed instructions intended to keep their product at peak appearance and performance as long as possible. Great efforts are also made at making those instructions as easy to follow and understand as possible.

"Ironically, however, the person actually caring for the floors rarely sees those instructions, or even knows they exist. At the very least, the person in direct supervision of floor care should have access to the manufacturer's recommendations, since following them is perhaps the most important thing that can be done to maintain the appearance and longevity of your flooring.

"My way or no way." It's human nature to grow accustomed to a certain way of doing things and to continue to do a job in the way in which you feel most comfortable. But when that way of doing things isn't necessarily the best way, problems can develop.

"Flooring maintenance contractors may, for example, be accustomed to using floor machine pads for every floor of every facility, even when the flooring manufacturer explicitly calls for the use of brushes. Left to their own devices, contractors and in-house workers will, like most of us, revert to their own way of doing things, the way that makes them feel most comfortable. The solution is to diplomatically, but firmly, make certain that your floors are cared for as recommended by the manufacturer."