Clean Team


  • Hard Surfaces Adjoining Carpet Surfaces 
  • Transition areas where carpet and hard floors meet can be a challenge. It is very 
  • important to keep hard surface flooring clean in order to prevent the tracking of hard 
  • surface residues onto carpet.  Daily maintenance of hard surface floor coverings, such as 
  • vinyl composition tile (VCT), ceramic tile, wood and terrazzo floors, presents a greater 
  • challenge to the average maintenance staff than carpeted surfaces.   
  • Hard surface flooring must receive constant care because of its inability to hide soil and 
  • possible damage to the finish by dry soil.  Hard surfaces that have become wet due to 
  • spills, leaks or even tracked in moisture must be a constant concern to the maintenance 
  • staff, as well as the risk management staff.   
  • Daily maintenance of hard surface floors includes dry mopping, wet mopping and spot 
  • mopping.  Wet mops should be stored in cool dry areas to prevent molding.   Wet spills 
  • should be removed immediately to minimize falls and injuries.  High quality finishes 
  • need to be used.  Some softer finishes may track onto carpet. 
  • To avoid problems, observe a few common sense rules. 
  • During treatment of hard surface floors, whether stripping, finishing or 
  • maintaining, keep chemicals off the carpet.  Many of the cleaning agents used to 
  • maintain hard floors can cause damage to carpet. 
  • After wet-mopping maintenance of hard surfaces, dry completely before allowing 
  • traffic onto carpet to help prevent tracking of any residues of hard surface 
  • cleaning agents. 
  • When using rotary equipment on hard surfaces next to carpet, be careful not to 
  • allow pads or brushes to come in contact with the carpet and, thus, abrade the 
  • carpet pile. 
  • Do not set buckets or equipment used for the maintenance of hard floors on the 
  • carpet as residues on the bucket may cause soiling or staining. 
  • Spot-prone areas should be checked daily in order to remove spills before they 
  • attract dirt or become permanent.    
  • It is a misperception that carpet maintenance is more costly than hard surfaces.  As stated 
  • in “A Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Floor Coverings in School Facilities” cleaning and 
  • maintenance of carpet is cost-effective.

 


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