HOW TO USE CLEANING MACHINERY

The popular idea is that a new business needs to spend a large amount of investment capital on various types of machinery to aid the cleaning. Well do you? You fit the machinery to the job, not the job to the machinery. If you have many small areas to clean, then the answer is probably not. If you have a very large area to clean then yes you may well. One scrubber drier should be better than many buckets and mops in time and save quite a bit of money just in wage costs. However to each his own

VACUUM CLEANERS

Buy the best you can and look after them. Uprights are never a good idea, buy canister vacuum cleaners with HEPA type filters.
For areas with little room to move, try using a BACK PACK VACUUM CLEANER. This is ideal for stairs, aisles, but not so good in areas where there is much very fine dust. This dust you will want to keep well away from you and our experience is that you may not want to carry the weight of the vacuum cleaner around with you for very long. Weight plus dust that is. For most of your work, you should consider the effort of hauling a CANISTER VACUUM around. "Hauling" is the word if you buy one which is unsuitable to the type of work you need it to do.
The bigger the vacuum cleaner the heavier your work will be. Not necessarily faster if you cannot handle the machine. It pays to look around at the type of work you are expected to do - if you have acres of carpets then you will need a bigger machine but this may not be as fast to use as a smaller one, which will need emptying that much more often. Where there may be need to remove excess water, get a WET/DRY VACUUM CLEANER. This one machine is used in conjunction with a floor squeegee on hard surfaces to remove the solution off the floor.

HOW TO USE A VACUUM CLEANER

Push and pull basically! Except that your return should be at 90 degrees to your first move. Start in the corner of the area and work outward. You pull in your previous work so that one area overlaps the former as you slowly move outward. You can also work in squares, so that one "square" is completed before you start another. This is the method you use in large areas - generally anything over and above the average room size.

VACUUM CLEANER MAINTENANCE

They need the filters washing out or changing (if the filter is the paper replacement type). Blockages should be attended to before the motors burn out - and they only ever burn out due to negligence. Other than keeping them clean -ish, very little maintenance is required, but it depends on what sort of dusts you are handling. Very fine such as plaster dust, means more care than possibly just household dust.

SCRUBBERS and SCRUBBER / DRIERS

A SCRUBBER is an upright machine with an extended moving plate with a brush attachment. You use one of these on a floor which has has a soak in detergent solution or stripping solution (for vinyl stripping). They are not a replacement for detergent., but make cleaning difficult surfaces such as concrete, somewhat easier. Your floor should be wet and you work the solution into the soil. Now leave the solution to work and then squeegee the solution up or wash it off with a pressure washer.

A SCRUBBER/DRIER has a vacuum attachment to dry the surface off. You will not be able to use a high foam detergent in this so you may need to add a de-foamer to your usual detergent. You use a scrubber/drier for maintenance cleaning, and you need to clean the brushes and areas underneath the machine regularly - if not it all goes back over your cleaned floors. Do not expect a scrubber/drier to be particularly fast in operation - floor squeegees in the hands of a good worker will be much faster and probably more thorough, but in large areas this may not be an option. Scrubber/driers are always very expensive to buy - so if you really do need one on an occasional job use a hired one. They are usually expensive to hire as well! If you buy one be very sure that your contract is secure - at least to the value of your equipment.

SCRUBBER and SCRUBBER / DRIER MAINTENANCE

Take a hose pipe and wash the brushes and the underneath of the machine regularly, for example after each use. Also ensure that any vacuum drier parts and the detergent pump are also cleaned by running clean water through it. Keep the collection tanks cleaned out. Many of these machines are stand alone and rely on batteries for operation. Check that these are kept fully charged and that the terminals are kept cleaned. You should believe just how dirty these machines get all over. Also check that the brushes are not too worn down. They are a rigid nylon which does wear down eventually, depending on the surfaces you are using them on and how often they are used. You can tell when these need replacing, because the quality of work will be poor.

FLOOR BUFFING MACHINES / BURNISHERS / POLISHERS

You use these machines to put a shine on a floor. You will need a high gloss finish on the floor first to get the required gloss. If you have a satin finish then dont expect to get a high gloss. These machines range from small polishers for a house to high speed burnishers which can buff 25,000sq.ft. Per hour, you can even buy a sit - on burnisher.
Never use a buffing machine to clean a floor, although that is what is usually done, and you will need one with a dust extractor. You should ideally use a buffing machine after washing a floor. Buffing machines use one of several pads:
Black for stone or terrazzo floors
Red for vinyl
White for more delicate surfaces. For woodand marble use a sheepskin pad. The rule of thumb here is the darker the pad, the coarser it is. If the flooring is not smooth, then it becomes even more necessary to use a scrubber first, and always use cleanpads.

Now here is a lecture.

Too many people think their cleaning problems are solved by a buffing machine but in the main these are a waste of time, keep your floors washed first. To produce a shiny finish takes time and wears down your floor.
So you will need to keep replacing the seal. Only terrazzo needs constant buffing and marble and wood only need an occasional buffing with a sheepskin pad to keep them bright without any damage. On the other hand, we have seen too much damage caused, and time wasted by using a buffing machine. It is unlikely that a daily buffing is needed on any floor, however it is entirely dictated by how much use the floor gets.
You can tidy up a floor with a buffing machine after washing and drying it, but in areas of very high gloss, is it really necessary every day? You will get swirl marks if you have used too much wax on the floor, and you will certainly get swirl marks if you have used too coarse a pad. Buffing machines cannot get right into corners and you will rapidly see a build up of dirt in these areas, which has to be removed. Keep uppermost in your mind that on most floors the over - use of a buffing machine will imperceptibly or even perceptibly damage the floor surface, whether it is an unsealed or sealed floor.

MAINTENANCE OF THE BUFFING MACHINE/BURNISHER

The pad should be removed and washed out after each use. The weight should be taken off the board when the machine is not in use, otherwise the machine gets damaged. The dirt sticks to the pads and next time you use the machine, you put it right back on to the floor. This is another reason why the floor gets damaged with these machines. Simply running water through the pad could save the floor!
Some models are propane - driven and that raises a question of use in an area of re -cycled air as in an enclosed shop or retail area. Propane will burn to produce carbon monoxide and this has to be removed in an enclosed area. It is toxic to users. So if you are cleaning enclosed areas, either use an electric -driven burnisher or use a fume -extractor while you are using the burnisher. You will need a large burnisher only if you are spending a long time on much flooring. They are very expensive to buy.

CARPET CLEANING MACHINERY

This can be an all -in - one shampooer with wand extractor, or can be an extractor with a bonnet cleaner. Or it can be as large as a truck - mounted machine. Take your pick. They are only ever as good as the detergent you use. So cheap detergent will produce cheap results.
A smaller machine uses a wand to apply the detergent, and then you suck up the detergent and the soil with the wand. Lo and behold! the carpet is clean.
A bonnet will scrub the carpet, when the detergent is applied, without damaging the pile, and then the detergent and soiling is removed with the wand or similar extractor.
Either of these systems should take out 80 - 90% or moisture from the carpet.
Further drying can be done with a dryer.

MAINTENANCE OF CARPET CLEANING MACHINERY

Always keep it clean. Keep the extraction tanks well washed out and always rinse out the pump for the detergent. The reason for this is that a build up of detergent within the pump when not in use will shorten the life of the pump.