The Newest, Best Way to Care for Your Commercial Floors (part 2 of 2)

In my last blog (Is This How You Care for Your Floors?) I discussed and compared costs for the two most commonly-used approaches to floor care: preventive and reactive. I also said I don’t recommend either. If you use either approach—and you probably do—you may be spending more money than you need to and your floors are aging sooner than they should.

Fortunately, there is a third approach…

As a building owner, facility director, or property manager, you know how important your floors are. They set the tone for your building’s interior appearance, and they’re one of your largest investments. As such, you want them to look new for as long as possible. You also want them to maximize their return on investment. This approach accomplishes both.

Predictive maintenance, the newest approach to floor care, began around 2000 and has grown in popularity. The idea behind it is simple: Your floors are unique, so if you follow the manufacturer’s recommendations, they will retain their beauty for as long as possible.

By using this approach, you’ll avoid the disadvantages associated with the other approaches. First, the predictive approach will extend the life of your floors. Second, it will retain your manufacturer’s warranty. Third, not only will it keep your floors from showing signs of improper care, it will also make your floors look as good as they did the day they were installed. Fourth, it’ll cost you less—much less—than it would have if you used another approach.

I used this example in my last blog and I’ll use it again to show the difference between the predictive approach and the preventive approach. Assume your building’s first floor has five times as much traffic as its fifth floor. It makes no sense to clean them equally as often, but if you’re using the preventive approach, this is exactly what you’re doing. Floors should be cleaned according to their traffic patterns, so floors with heavy traffic should be cleaned more often than floors with light traffic. In this example, by using the predictive approach to clean floors strategically, we’d clean the first floor five times as often as we’d clean the fifth.

This seems like a common-sense approach to floor care, so you might assume that most floors are cleaned this way. They’re not. After more than 20 years of caring for floors across Kansas City, we’ve found that less than 10% of commercial floors are cared for in this way. What usually happens is, a floor-care provider uses the same chemicals, the same equipment, and the same cleaning techniques on all of their clients’ commercial floors.

Fortunately, we’re not like most floor-care providers.

We don’t use a one-size-fits-all approach. We specialize in predictive maintenance. Our industry-certified technicians use Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI)-approved chemicals and equipment. They also use Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)-approved cleaning procedures and techniques that are recommended by your floors’ manufacturer. This simply means you’ll receive an unmatched level of care, your floors will last longer, and your building’s indoor air quality will improve. Keeping your tenants and their visitors in good health.

This table compares costs on a 500,000 sq. ft. building:

If you want to know more about predictive maintenance, or if you want floors that look new and maximize their return on investment, contact us to schedule an appointment.