Modern restroom cleaning practices help ensure your facility is profitable and healthy for all building occupants.
Commercial Facility Restroom Cleaning Tips
Public and commercial facility restrooms tend to be rather hit-or-miss when it comes to cleanliness and disinfection quality.
More often than not, the issue isn't with the intent or the quality of clean the restroom receives when scheduled, but with the high amount of traffic and types of use.
People use restrooms for all sorts of things, like blowing their nose, or for emergencies when they are ill.
Coughs, sneezes, air-blown hand dryers, and toilet plumes launch every form of bacteria conceivable into the air, where it spreads to every surface, including us, especially our hands.
There is also the issue of dirt and soil that is tracked in on shoes from the outside which, when combined with tile and water form into mud, leaving a less-than-sightly appearance.
Fortunately, several recent technologies have been released onto the market to simplify cleaning and sanitation while ensuring occupant health and satisfaction--something that can have a profound impact on the success of a business.
As of December 2010, 86 percent of adults in the United States equated the condition of a restaurant's bathroom with the condition of its kitchen, according to cleaning industry website CleanLink.
The site also states that 75 percent of U.S. adults wouldn't return to a restaurant with a dirty bathroom
Removing Soil
It is vital that dirt or soil, grease, and other filth be removed first, and with the correct products.
Disinfectants make lousy cleaners and degreasers, and grime impairs the efficacy of the disinfectant, rendering the labor pointless.
Combination cleaner-disinfectants require a spray-and-wipe technique that doesn't allow for a sufficient laytime to actually kill anything.
Consumer-grade cleaning products are expensive and insufficient for the purposes of cleaning commercial restroom facilities with high volumes of traffic.
Commercial cleaning products can be useless or dangerous if improperly diluted, unnecessarily waste natural resources, and pollute the environment, leading to a host of additional health issues.
The single best method for cleaning a restroom is to:
- Combine color-coded microfiber towels and mops with the two-bucket cleaning method.
- Dilute a pre-mixed, green certified cleaning product pod into the appropriate volume of water.
- Wear gloves and goggles just in case, and finally.
- Scrub the entire room, top to bottom, starting with the most fouled area first, leaving the floor for last.
The combination of the color-coded microfiber towels and mop heads prevents cross-contamination while eliminating waste.
For a very high-traffic restroom, scrub the floor weekly with a vacuum scrubber--less for lower-volume traffic facilities.
Removing Germs and Bacteria
Depending on the nature of the facility the restroom services (schools, hospitals, restaurants, or office), certain disinfectants may be more preferable than others, while some environments maintain strict guidelines and regulations.
Ideally, especially where children are commonly present, and outside of a healthcare environment, the use of an EPA certified Category IV disinfectant can be easily applied after cleaning through the manufacturer recommended application method--typically a spray bottle.
In these cases, thoroughly misting the surfaces from top to bottom, starting at the part of the room furthest from the exit, and working your way backward out of the room should suffice.
Where these types of products are not allowed, or where your organizations budget allows for more expensive equipment, electrostatic disinfection appliances can simplify the task and shorten the amount of time and labor required to complete the job.
This approach is especially beneficial in healthcare facilities and doctors offices.
Allow the solution the manufacturer recommended laytime to ensure maximum efficacy prior to entry.
In the event that the disinfectant leaves a toxic residue, as is the case with bleach, wipe down the leftover residue.
References & Resources
Takeaway
Facilities occupants are deeply concerned about the cleanliness of the restrooms they use.
How concerned?
According to a nationwide survey conducted by the Bradley Corporation:
- Approximately 75% of those surveyed felt a dirty bathroom indicated poor management.
- Nearly 66% stated that a dirty restroom lowers their opinion of the company, shows the company doesn't care about their customers and leaves the impression the organization is sloppy and lazy, and;
- 64% stated that they would think twice, or never patron the business again if they felt their restroom was poorly maintained.
Source:
If you would like to learn more regarding proper restroom cleaning practices, or the financial benefits of outsourcing your facilities restroom cleaning needs–contact us today for a free quote!
In Bakersfield CA, call (661) 4373253
In Fresno CA, call (559) 206-1059
In Valencia CA, or Santa Clarita CA, call (661) 437-3253
