Lodging Engineer
Keep in mind that when you begin monitor- and easily overcome the relatively minor down matts and your housekeeping is
ing the SCF of your floors, you want to take impact a natural floor finish may have. dusting and mopping. You have your
two sets of measurements. First, measure While a marble surface with a dull 50 grit team signing off that they have completed
the floor’s SCF in an unclean state and finish may have a higher SCF than a pol- the task assigned at the assigned time.
then again after cleaning and drying the ished glossy 800 grit finish, both will meet Sounds great. But in this market where
same test area. The difference of the two the VA 0.5 SCF requirement and both will financial reality has warranted and re-
measurements measures the impact your become slippery with the presence of a quired sharp cuts in staffing, we now have
housekeeping is having on maintaining the puddle of water or a lot of dust or talcum. to worry about whether the checked off
proper SCF of your floor and, most impor- tasks are being completed PROPERLY. If
tantly, your guest’s safety. not, we may be aggravating the
You want to see figures over
“Okay – it sounds so easy – manage problem that we are seeking to
0.5 and little difference be-
my dust and puddle water....?”
manage.
tween the two readings. It is Too much water – puddling the
recommended that the same floor – does not pick up the dirt
person take both measurements and that Any smooth surface will become slippery but, rather dissolves the dirt into smaller
the measurements be taken consistently (falling below 0.5) in the presence of dust, particles. When the dirty mop is dragged
from the same areas. Ideally, this should puddle water or oil. It is important to insure across the edge of the next tile, dirt laden
be done by an outside entity so that no your floor’s surface is clean, dry and free water is stripped off and deposited into the
claim can be leveled that the results were of dust. This is something you can impact recessed grout lines. The dirty water soaks
fixed or altered. The are several compa- immediately and inexpensively, but has into any open pores staining the grout.
nies that can assist in setting up a moni- several implications affecting your house- The dirt in the remaining dirty water now
toring program, but the least expensive keeping functions and training. For one, in the grout lines concentrates as the wa-
should be your floor maintenance partners reducing the frequency that you dust mop ter evaporates. In effect, the excess water
who should be monitoring their own results or damp mop your hotel’s floor means that has served to move the dirt from the top of
periodically. you will see a reduction in your coefficient the tile and concentrate it in the grout lines.
One can reduce the coefficient of friction
of friction as average dust levels are al- Eventually the tile grout lines will need to
on virtually any surface by simply adding
lowed to increase. A small thing but, a real be cleaned with an extraction system, in
water, oil or a layer of talcum or dust as
factor particularly on a dry dusty day with order to remove this concentrated dirt,
a non-adhered intermediary layer. In each
a local convention meeting going on that THEN you will need to seal the stained
case these materials serve as “lubricants”
results in your doors repeatedly opening grout to restore the natural grout color and
providing a means of allowing shoe soles
and closing. appearance, all of which costs money, and
to slide more freely across a floor. The Okay – it sounds so easy – manage my
all of which are avoidable with proper mop-
presence of these materials can equally dust and puddle water. You are putting
ping techniques and sealing maintenance.
PAGE 14 | Winter 2009 / 2010 | Lodging Engineer
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