Keeping classroom floors clean is challenging. No matter what kind of flooring there is, kids are, well, messy. They eat at their desks, they don’t wipe their feet carefully when coming indoors, and the floors in schools take a beating.
Nevertheless, there are things you can do to make it easier to keep both hard floors and carpeting cleaner in classrooms. So, here are our suggestions.
Regular Scheduled Maintenance
If you’re not strict about maintenance, you should be. Floors need to be cleaned at least once on every school day. Classrooms that are near entrances might need it more than that.
The dirtier the floor is, the harder it is to clean. The harder it is to clean, the longer it takes, and the harder it is on personnel and equipment. So, it’s good business to clean classroom floors frequently and keep them as clean as possible.
Bare Floors
Instruct the staff to remove or pile up as many desks, chairs, and obstacles as possible before attempting to clean the floors. Cleaning around 30 desks and chairs is just about impossible.
Mats
Make sure there are mats at all school entrances and exits. If classroom floors are getting very dirty very quickly, then add mats to the entrances of classrooms. Even if kids aren’t careful about wiping their feet, mats are designed to remove dirt and water from the bottoms of shoes, and mats will help keep most of the dirt from entering the classroom.
In order to be effective, dirty mats need to be washed regularly and changed out for clean ones. That means you need more than one set. Good-quality, commercial floor mats last a long time and will go a long way to minimizing dirt tracked into the room.
Vacuums
Make sure you’re using commercial vacuums that are in good repair. Great suction is fabulous, but it’s not enough. The vacuums also need clean filters to trap small particles and keep them from becoming airborne.
Vacuum bags need to be changed often. A vacuum will perform better with an empty bag than a full bag of dirt.
Don’t skimp on vacuum maintenance. If your staff tell you the vacuums need work, then get them fixed. Vacuuming with a vacuum in poor condition is a giant waste of time.
One of the big reasons to keep floors clean is because dirt, pollen, and dust that is not removed can become airborne, reducing the ambient air quality.
If floors are carpeted, vacuuming will be more effective if it is done twice in two different perpendicular directions.
In the case of hard floors, even if they will need to be washed, they will still need to be either vacuumed or swept first. Sweeping is quieter and throws up less dust into the air, but vacuuming might be faster.
We want to help you have clean floors because clean floors are safer. Dirty floors have less traction and are more slippery, which contributes to slips, trips, and falls, and cost the school money that would probably be better spent on other things.
Do you have other questions? We have been providing sales and installation of commercial flooring products to the following market segments for over 35 years: Corporate, Education, Hospitality, Government and the commercial real estate community. It’s easy to contact us, and we’re happy to help. You can always call us at (301) 762-2000 or email us at sales@eaglemat.net for more information.
