For more reasons than one, it’s important to make a concerted effort to maintain your flooring investment just like any other piece of equipment in your facility.

Creating a floor maintenance schedule is about much more than making sure your floor stays looking sharp – it’s also about protecting your investment, customers, and employees. Poorly maintained floors can deteriorate quicker shortening their lifespan. Regardless of the texture on your floor, if not cleaned properly, it can present a slip hazard.

Here are 3 quick tips on how to start the process of creating a cleaning schedule:

1 – Write it Down
In the first couple weeks you’ll discover what works and what doesn’t; things such as time of day, duration, and other equipment that should be cleaned and added to the schedule will all need to be fine-tuned. Create an actual schedule. Put pen to paper and get the ball rolling.

The first step is always the hardest but the sooner you put a cleaning schedule into action the better it will be for the life of your floor. Once you’ve got some experience with what works for your facility you can integrate the schedule into something more formal.

2 – Put into Action
Don’t wait for the dirt and grime to be visible before taking action, prevent the build-up from happening in the first place. It’s recommended that your floors are cleaned every day that they are in use. Less frequent cleaning schedules result in a buildup of dirt and foreign matter which can affect the look and service life of your floors. Do not expect employees to clean in their free time or when things are slow. When cleaning is treated as an afterthought or second priority, it becomes just that.

Make cleaning an expected part of your employee’s schedule. By adding cleaning responsibilities as a consistent part of daily tasks, it will motivate them to do a good job knowing that they will be the same person cleaning that floor the next day. There are also options to utilize incentivized cleaning schedules which use merits like ponts or Employee of the Week honors to get employees involved. Giving employees certain sections of the facility to clean creates a fun and friendly competition to see who keeps the best area.

It’s important to delegate a certain amount of time each shift to proper cleaning of equipment (including your floor). By incorporating time for cleaning, no one needs to cut corners on any of their other duties in order to maintain a clean workspace.

3 – Be Prepared
There’s nothing worse than hyping a new cleaning program and then not having the necessary equipment needed! We recommend several tools to properly clean your floor, including a deck brush and a rotary floor machine. Stocking the cleaning agents needed is another important part of preparing for the launch of your new cleaning schedule.

Inventory of these cleaning products should be managed just like any other need-to-have item on your shelves. We recommend heavy-duty floor cleaner for most areas.

What might be the best way to clean one floor, doesn’t apply to all. For example, if you have Vinyl Composite Tile (VCT) in one section of your facility, those floors need to be stripped and waxed while resinous floor systems should never be stripped or waxed and instead only require a rinsing and drying process to rid them of dirt and grime. It’s important that you understand the needs of each floor type in your facility and provide your employees with the manufacturer’s specifications on how to clean them correctly.