SPECIALIST CLEANING
The need for Specialist Cleaning
Juan Camara, Specialist Services Director at Principle Cleaning Services, discusses why there is a need for specialist cleaning, and what’s involved.
Specialist cleaning can refer to any cleaning outside of the day-to-day tasks that commercial cleaning companies carry out. This is lower frequency work, normally provided by a separate operative or team with enhanced, task-specific training. Often, this will cover areas where more in-depth hygiene is needed, such as kitchen and washroom deep cleaning and other areas
where aesthetics are vital, such as reception floors.
What areas does it cover? There are many tasks in the cleaning world which can be called ‘specialist’. Typically, we think of out-of-hours work with equipment being brought in from outside specifically for the task. Kitchen cleaning, deep cleaning, the treatment and (sometimes) renewing of hard stone floors, the cleaning of curtains, blinds and ceilings, toilet deep cleans and IT desktop equipment hygiene: all fall within the realm of specialist cleaning.
No cleaning is off limits and specialist work can cover just about anything with the correct teams and processes. Reactive works following fire damage, specialist waste disposal, jet washing and graffiti removal are other specialist tasks carried out periodically.
Health and safety laws, training and PPE requirements over recent years have made other specialist services more niche but the principles remain: careful and detailed planning, highly trained, well-supervised staff and specific, suitable and well-maintained equipment, all sit alongside an audit trail of works successfully carried out.
In addition, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has created a requirement for better logging and recording of hygiene cleaning and flood and property clearing, with specialists now able to carry out this work. Finally, critical infrastructure sectors, data communication and healthcare all sit on Cleanroom ISO 14644 – Cleanroom Manufacturing Standards.
Do data centres require special cleaning?
This is becoming more of a requirement and it’s vital to have a specialist providing cleaning in these environments. Continuing the theme of auditing, proof of work and the effectiveness of the work is increasingly important, and gone are the days where minimum or zero moisture was the main requirement. The correct and most up-to-date equipment is vital – matching the data centres themselves, plus staff should be CNet trained. Typical equipment to enhance data centre work might be air particle counters and thermal image cameras.
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How often is this work needed?
Individual site occupiers can decide how often and when to have specialist work carried out. Frequencies vary and will depend on site requirements, for example kitchens might receive a monthly canopy clean and a full, deep clean twice a year, whereas data centres will be cleaned more frequently due to the critical need for cleaning and a periodic specialist clean under the voids will also be carried out.
In truth, specialist cleaning is provided where it’s needed. This might relate to aesthetics, but is more likely to result from the need for perfect hygiene and the protection and maintenance of surfaces such as marble, granite and terrazzo flooring and particularly to those areas that are under attack from the environment, including vanity units, heavily tracked floors and lifts.
What particular skills are needed?
Beyond the qualities required for most operatives – being suitable, well trained, properly instructed and correctly supervised – the skills which specialist operatives must have are task specific. Operatives must know how to select and handle cleaning products and understand how to use them safely.
This is all covered by the Safety Management Regulations and COSHH, but experience in specialist work is vital. Sometimes, a specific area of stone, for example, might need a slightly deeper treatment and even a revised process, and this is where the experience of the operative, the supervisor and the management team can make a difference.
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