FLOORCARE & MAINTENANCE
The Holy Trinity
Matt Dodgson, Director of cleaning and catering supplies firm ICS, explains how floorcare is integral to health and safety as he recommends his key three products to help avoid injury.
With 90% of injuries in the workplace resulting from slips and trips, adopting the right procedures with floor cleaning is absolutely critical.
The HSE actually state that contamination is implicated in almost all slip accidents, this can be anything from a floor which has been left damp to poorly fitted mats.
Cleaning regimes have to be well thought out and adhered to otherwise employers could be facing claims or long term staff absences following an injury.
The most effective cleaning procedures require a good management system where people are comprehensively trained, areas of high risk identified and the correct cleaning products and equipment are used.
Key things cleaners need to bear in mind are ensuring they are using the right amount of cleaning products, allowing detergent enough time to work on greasy floors and maintaining their equipment so it remains effective.
In my opinion there are three key products currently on the market that can help to avoid these issues. The first is the Vileda Ultraspeed Pro mopping system. With the microfibre technology it picks up fantastic amounts of dirt, leaves floors damp not wet and the pads
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can be laundered 200 times, so it represents fantastic value in the long run. The other unique aspect is the safety mop pad that can be fitted, which is one of very few products capable of effectively cleaning rough Altro safety flooring, which is a massive bonus especially in kitchen/ manufacturing environments.
The second of my key three is ECOLAB’s Wash’n’walk. It’s a fantastic concentrate that contains enzymes that break down the fat and grease on the surface and the grouting in between tiles. It does not need to be rinsed off afterwards and does not require hot water to activate the enzymes, which from a sustainability point of view helps to save water and energy. The results are clearly visible for the customer to see after a couple of days and it has been scientifically proven to increase slip resistance, leaving you with a much safer surface to walk on.
My final product is the WipeOut pad for scrubber dryers from TASKI. The pad is an open cell melamine foam that can remove extremely stubborn marks and stains with incredible ease without scouring or damaging the surface of the floor. It doesn’t require any chemical to work, just simply ensure that the pad is damp before you use it. While it’s not designed for everyday use it is a great problem
solver that I would recommend everyone kept to hand.
While this cleaning process is going on the public should be warned which areas are wet and limit access to floors which are in the process of drying. This doesn't just mean putting up a sign – it could mean shutting off certain areas in a building and cleaning in sections, or cleaning at a time when the building is not in use. It seems obvious yet so many don’t follow these basic steps. This is less about cleaning techniques and more about having processes, management and training in place. There should be reporting procedures in place and staff available who will spot clean quickly where there have been spillages while supplying alternative routes for people using any area where a hazard has been identified.
This may all sound like overkill or simple common sense when it comes to something as seemingly simple as a floor, but the fact is that slips and trips are still costing employers roughly £500million a year and wet floors and obstacles are the major culprit. It's worth investing a bit of time, and it really doesn’t require that much, in getting things right to potentially make major savings and avoid hassle in the long term.
www.icsliverpool.co.uk 45
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