Cambridge ranks right up there with Waltham and Boston in terms of the volume of high-traffic commercial buildings. Flourishing industries have found a home in Cambridge, encouraging them to establish offices, warehouses, and even retail spaces. And all their buildings have floors with limited lifespans.
As a commercial cleaning company, we are often called on to help our clients extend the life of their flooring for as long as possible. Replacing floors gets expensive very quickly. So if we can help extend floor life by even a few years, our clients welcome the effort.
The best way to keep your floors looking good and functioning properly is to partner with a professional cleaning company. But if you would prefer to keep cleaning in-house, we can offer you a few tips for extending floor life.
Be Aggressive Against Road Salt
Road salt is enemy #1 across Cambridge, Waltham, and the entire Boston area. Road salt is a necessary evil because of the winters we get here in the Northeast. But it’s extremely hard on commercial flooring. If a company could do just one thing to extend floor life, it would be aggressively addressing road salt.
Road salt tracked in from outdoors scratches floor surfaces. It dulls finishes, causes discoloration, and even contributes to warping. Here’s how to keep it at bay:
- Utilize durable mats and runners at every entrance.
- Apply salt and ice melt outdoors only as necessary to minimize slipping hazards.
- Routinely clean floors with neutralizing products that break down salt residue.
It is also important to monitor floors for any signs of salt damage. Cleaning crews should look for scratches, stains, and dull patches. Immediately applying restorative fixes will minimize damage and extend floor life.
Schedule Floor Stripping and Waxing
Hard floors – which is to say those not covered by carpet – are finished with some sort of protective layer. The protective layer is usually a wax or wax-like product. Regardless, a floor’s finish will not last forever. It needs to be replaced from time to time.
This dictates that extending floor life requires scheduling floor stripping and waxing. For a high-traffic commercial building in Cambridge, this could mean doing the job every four to six months. Buildings with light to moderate traffic may only need annual stripping and waxing.
The job includes stripping off the existing layer of finish, cleaning the floor, and then applying a new layer. Stripping and waxing are typically scheduled during off hours, which can mean nights and weekends. The schedule may be inconvenient for the maintenance staff, but it’s hard to do the job properly when people are moving through the building.
Additional Best Practices
In Cambridge and throughout Boston, the two biggest priorities for extending floor life are addressing winter damage and regularly stripping and finishing floors. But there are other best practices that are worth paying attention to:
- Invest in cleaning products made specifically for your floor type
- Hire professionals to handle stripping and waxing
- Implement preventative maintenance (e.g., dust-proofing and sealing)
- Implement daily janitorial cleaning (sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, etc.)
During the winter months, spot mopping can help a great deal. Someone on the janitorial staff can take a wet mop from one entrance to the next to soak up water and salt. Spot mopping several times per day limits a floor’s exposure to the very things that can harm it.
Extending floor life in a high-traffic commercial building can be challenging. In a town like Cambridge, where commercial buildings tend to see lots of traffic, it requires the right procedures and a bit of diligence.