I SEE AROUND SO MANY DIRTY FLOORS…
Do I only see them or do you see them too?
Eugenio Cagna
Interclean Show 2024 takes place precisely at the end of my personal professional journey which lasted over 30 years, 10 of which with KlinMak and after about a year during which our company has embarked on the adventure of floor scrubber-dryer models with a vibration system (which we have named SCS ; square cleaning system).
The cleaning takes place not through the rotation of rollers or discs (1 or 2), but through the vibration of a rectangular plate and an appropriate cleaning pad. The capacity to remove dirt from the floors by this system is considerably higher than the two known systems indicated above. The reason is quite simple: the vibration of the oscillating plate, especially with certain pads (melamine, sectorgum, microfibre, etc.) not only acts on surface dirt, but also, and above all, on the dirt of the porosities (invisible microcavities) of the floors (all-all-all).
The dirt from “traffic” is continuous and “tremendous” in its action: it completely covers surfaces continuously; in the eyes of people it appears as uniform dirt, therefore “clean”, in reality from our point of view, and therefore we do not pay attention to it. We notice it if we move a piece of furniture or if we use the critical eye.
In the year of testing with the vibration floor scrubber-dryer I learned that dirt is no joke. It always keeps moving forward every day, it leaves no escape. Especially with the variable weather.
The vibration “flushes” it out and bothers it a lot. Moreover, the consumption of water or solution, if with detergent, is very modest; not much is needed, sometimes not at all. But a little doesn’t do any harm in most cases.
But let’s come to us: I only see dirty floors. At airports, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, pharmacies, shops, schools, banks, post offices… wherever there is passage, indeed traffic, with people walking on floors carrying dirt from outside into the premises, everywhere!
Now I observe and “care for” it, before much less, if not at all.
But at this point I asked myself the question: is it only me who sees it or does everyone see it?
My professional background does not help me in the answer, if I only see it, it will be because I pay a lot of attention to it, whereas it doesn’t bother most people. But if everyone sees it and everyone does not intervene then the situation becomes serious and introduces two other very challenging topics.
You may tell me: “I know my coffee bar is dirty, but I don’t know how to clean it. I know this hospital is dirty, but cleaning it well costs a lot and my client does not pay me for the service, nowadays at the lowest possible cost”.
So we are faced with three scenarios :
- I don’t see the dirt and I don’t do anything,
- I see it, but I don’t know how to clean it,
- I see it, but I don’t clean it well because they don’t pay me enough, but I know how to do it well.
According to the Maslow Hierarchy of needs’ scale, cleanliness is linked to living standards, it is in first place in the famous pyramid, but it seems that this pyramid has now been overturned and is now in last place in everyone’s interest. Perhaps we have not understood well that hygiene (cleanliness is one of which) must come first together with tidiness. It is no coincidence that it is said : he had a house/office… clean and tidy.
However, I wonder if the Service Companies also know all the dark sides of cleaning, forgive me, or all the techniques for caring for floors and surfaces in general at the highest levels. Service companies should in fact be the ultimate cleaning experts. I think they are, but unfortunately they also clash with the harsh reality of procurement and with the famous downtrends, resulting from the constant reduction of costs, especially in the public administration. But that’s not all.
And yes, cleaning represents a damn COST. A vicious cycle.
Moral of the story: either we realize that Cleanliness is a very serious matter and we all have to deal with it or we won’t get anywhere. All we have left is the dirt. But not only at home, where we are all constantly encouraged by manufacturers of various cleaning machines, but especially in common or public places! Let’s talk about professional cleaning. We talk about hygiene, we talk about avoiding diseases and various contaminations, we talk about feeling good in environments because they are clean.
So dear customers (hospitals, banks , post offices, schools, shopping malls, airports, etc… hundreds of places), stop cutting costs where instead you need to increase them to live better!
Let’s try to clarify one point : The example comes from above, if the State does not pay for the clean and sees it only as a cost, it means that it has not yet understood the value of it, and this is serious.
In Italy there is no school for cleaning, half a million people work in this sector, but who cares. A 2-year specialisation in hotel management or surveying would be enough and the game is done either as a specific specialisation.
But there is a lack of professors, cleanliness experts… Indeed.
The technical solutions are there, we have been preaching for 10 years :
- floor scrubber-dryers must be dual-brush as better than mono-brush, for maintenance or surface dirt.
- the scrubber dryers must be originally designed and manufactured to use Lithium from the start, rather than being modified.
The advantages are enormous: weight reduction, greater handling, fast charging and very high charge cycles, practically eternal,
- the Hepa filter to avoid contaminating the environment after drying,
- the controls and adjustments of liquids (water and detergent),
- of washing or suction powers (unnecessary waste of energy when not needed) etc…
Traffic dirt can be eliminated and it takes some time before it reforms. But it must be eliminated with constancy. I urge professionals to question themselves and not to be carried away by trends or the low costs of machines (the Amsterdam fair was an explosion of robots, Chinese manufacturers or machines that “scrub” the floors… a word to the wise is enough), but to understand how to clean quickly and well.
Only opposing objectives, if achieved, allow a profound reduction in costs and the optimization of the economic result.
We think of the vibrating floor scrubber-dryer as a valuable aid in the cleaning of everyday floors, where the dirt is deep and the double brush where the dirt is superficial. That’s it.
We think that there are innovative technologies and methods and let’s not stop at always using the usual machinery.
Let’s think about the fact that if you don’t do a maintenance cleaning, sooner or later you’ll have to do a deep cleaning, which is much more expensive.
A biased point of view that makes sense. KlinMak is here.
We do not paint the floors yellow…
