Types of Commercial Carpet Cleaning Products

July 20, 2011 By

Commercial carpet cleaning products ims inc. dallas

There are products available for a "DIY" commercial carpet clean, but don't hesitate to call on the experts when needed

Keeping carpets clean and looking their best takes regular maintenance and cleaning. Commercial carpet cleaning companies in Dallas utilize a variety of cleaning products and solutions in order to keep carpets looking their best. Not all carpets require the same treatments, since not all are subject to the same traffic and conditions. Knowing what is available will help you to decide which carpet cleaners are best for getting, and keeping, your home or office carpets clean. If a “DIY” cleaning isn’t what you’re after, contact IMS, Inc. for superlative carpet cleaning in the Dallas area.

Rust Remover Rust is notoriously hard to remove from carpets. These stains cannot typically be removed by standard processes and products. Rust removers work by transforming the molecules of rust into a transparent, aqueous solution that can then be easily mopped up and removed.

Carpet Protector After carpets have been cleaned, a carpet protector can be applied. Carpet protector solutions provide a layer of protection, repelling dirt and preventing stains from occurring. Carpet protector products contain different active ingredients. If possible, use the one recommended by the manufacturer of your specific carpet.

Defoamer Defoamers are regularly added to cleaning solutions in order to eliminate the foam that these soaps can form. Foam can be difficult to clean and can leave behind soapy residues. Foam can also clog up carpet cleaning machinery, making them less efficient at doing their job.

Citrus Boost There are various citrus based booster products that be added to a cleaning solution to help increase their ability to break up grease, oil and dirt. There are many types of citrus boosters on the market, some based on orange oil and others on lime or lemon oil.

Solvent Various solvents are used by commercial carpet cleaning services to remove stains resulting from tar, gum, paint, make-up and grease. Solvents are able to break up oil and grease so that it can be removed during the cleaning process.

Stain Remover Specialized stain removers will need to be used to remove tough, soaked in stains. When liquids are spilled and are not cleaned immediately, they soak deep into the fibers of the carpet, becoming very difficult to remove. Stains caused by red wine and liquids that are made with red dye can be particularly challenging to remove, necessitating a special red removal product.

Pet Products Carpets that are in homes or offices where pets live will soak in pet odors, making them smell musty over time. If your carpets have been urinated on by pets, the odor can be especially hard to remove. A special solution containing enzymes will be needed to adequately remove pet odors from carpets.

Discuss your carpet cleaning needs with the IMS Dallas commercial carpet cleaning division to ensure the right products are used. If you have concerns about what is used on your carpet, be sure and mention it when speaking with us. Great looking carpets depend on choosing the right carpet cleaning products and the right commercial carpet cleaning service.

IMS Inc. in Dallas has been cleaning carpets for nearly 20 years, pioneering techniques and acquiring loyal clients for their precise and thorough work. Call IMS at (214) 351-9390.
Filed Under: Green Stone Restoration and Carpet Cleaning Tagged With: , ,

Serpentine Marble and Black Marble Polishing and Maintenance

July 13, 2011 By

by Jason Johonnesson, IMS Inc. co-owner:

Black Marble Serpentine IMS DFW

Black marble and serpentine marble both require expert handling in order to polish and restore them

In Texas, especially the Dallas and Fort Worth area, you know this is oil country, and all throughout Texas there are lots and lots of geologists and I am not one of them. I’m not going to get hung up in a lot of geology lessons. I’m just going to tell you what’s important when we talk about these two stones. And that is that even though these are called marble, serpentine marble and black marble, they are not actually marble. They are made of different stuff and formed in different ways. They don’t react the same to polishing. The maintenance is slightly different. These are more expensive to maintain than a standard marble, but not as expensive as granite. Serpentine is very hard stone, very difficult to polish, but it keeps a polish quite a long time. The black marble is very soft and it loses its polish very quickly. The good thing is it’s very easy to polish.

So, both of these stones, although called marble, are not truly marble, and you have to a take a different approach. If you have someone working on your stone flooring that is not really experienced with all the different types of natural stones, and they attempt to treat this as though they would a normal marble floor, you’re not going to be happy with the results. These take quite a bit of special knowledge. They might be a little more complicated than probably any other stone that we work on, maybe even a little more complicated than most granites. So these are your serpentines and your black marbles, really they’re in a category all their own, and in a lot of floors you see these as inserts. For example you’ll have a limestone or a marble and these are just inserts within there, and that leads to a lot of complications, many complications, because you have two different substrates that have to be maintained two different ways. Without a true expert who doesn’t know what they’re doing you’re not going to be able to maintain that original look as though it was installed on its first day.

For nearly 20 years, IMS Inc. has pioneered natural stone polishing, restoration and maintenance. To have your marble, granite or other natural stone cared for, call IMS at (214) 351-9390.
Filed Under: IMS Corner: Stone Floors, Carpets and Helpful Tips Tagged With: , , ,

Taking Care of a Natural Stone Floor: The Three Most Common Questions—Part One

July 7, 2011 By

By IMS co-owner, Jason Johonnesson

Anytime I meet with a facility and building manager or engineer about a natural stone floor, such as granite, travertine, limestone or marble, the 3 most commonly asked questions are:

  1. What do I need to do to maintain my natural stone floors?
  2. What do I need to tell my janitorial provider to do to keep them clean?
  3. What do I do about scratches on my stone floor?

I’ll be tackling each of these questions in three subsequent articles.

First, “What can I do as a manager or engineer to help keep this floor maintained?” They want to take responsibility for their floors and need to know what to do. I tell them the best thing they can do to help their floors is prevention.

Stop It At The Door

Floor Mat Natural Stone Floor

Purchasing a polypropylene fiber mat can help keep a natural store floor clean by capturing particulate and oil matter

The thing that destroys a natural stone floor or causes it to wear, whether it be granite, serpentine, marble or other stone, is dry particulate matter such as grit, sand and other things on your shoes that get walked into the building. Most people in office buildings are wearing leather shoes and leather shoes with grit on them is just like sandpaper.

On top of that, you have the migration of oils. Often people walk in from outside or from the parking garage with oils and dry particulate matter migrating into the building on the bottom of their feet. You’ll have a very rapid rate floor wear if you don’t have anything in place to prevent that from happening. So the first thing a facility manager or engineer needs to do is install a decent matting system at all entrances to the building. Once again the two things you want to stop is dry particulate matter and the migration of oils.

Just about any type of walk off feature such as a matting system, carpet, or grates can stop dry particulate matter. This is the easy part since any type of textured surface will walk that off the dry particles, but to stop or inhibit the migration of oils takes something a little different.

In particular you want a mat made of polypropylene fiber which is coincidentally the cheapest fiber that can be purchased. These mats are perfect outside building entrances since it is made from an oleophilic fiber—meaning it loves oil. It has a very high affinity for oil. So, as your shoes come in contact with the mat, the oils on your shoes would rather stick to the fibers in the mat rather than your shoe. Just make sure you don’t purchase a matting system that has been treated with fluorochemicals such as Scotch Guard or 3M because the oils aren’t going to stick to it.

Facility/building managers and engineers want to regularly purchase and replace their big, old, cheap polypropylene mats. These can be purchased at any building supply store. If you do this you are ahead of the game and already saving your building money.

Clean Exterior = Clean Interior

The second part of step number one is to keep the exterior of the building as clean as you can with a good power-washing system. There are plenty of power-washing contractors out there and that’s their job—to keep the oily areas and parking lots as clean as they can, but be wary with professional power washers. There are good ones and bad ones.

The City of Dallas has decided to come down pretty strongly on people abusing storm drains. The way Dallas regulation reads is only Mother Nature can use storm drains. People are not allowed to use them in any way. You are not even allowed to put tap water down a storm drain.

It is a strict violation—they will fine you. The true professional power washers have recovery systems and will block the storm drain(s) so the water cannot run down it. Since the water from storm drains flow directly into our lakes it’s obvious if you are power washing oily areas you will have water with chemicals in it going right back to our lakes. So a good professional power washing program with a good power washing vendor along with a polypropylene mat system would be the role the building manager, facility manager or building engineer would play in step number one, which is prevent the dirt and oil from entering the building to begin with.

In part two [to be published], we’ll be discussing the role of the janitorial company in maintaining a natural stone floor, and why they should “just say no” to mops.

For nearly 20 years, IMS Inc., a Dallas-based and internationally renowned company has provided commercial and residential carpet cleaning, natural stone restoration, concrete polishing and flood and water damage restoration. To arrange services for your office building or home, call (214) 351-9390.

Filed Under: IMS Corner: Stone Floors, Carpets and Helpful Tips Tagged With: , ,

Commercial Carpet: Fibers and Cleaning

June 30, 2011 By

In the commercial industry, the most common fiber we find is nylon fiber. There are some of the more high-end suites that might have wool, but mostly what we find is nylon. There is a surge of polyester on the market but it is not dominant in the commercial industry yet. Right now it is still nylon. Most everything that a commercial carpet cleaner is going to encounter is going to be nylon, unless you are in some lower end spaces where you are going to have a polypropylene or some of the really industrial stuff, but typically in an office building it’s nylon. Nylon is the fiber where you have the floor chemical treatments and the acid dye blockers and the stain protection which is very, very good these days. It is very difficult to stain this fiber with its protective qualities, but also, it doesn’t take a whole lot to mess it up either. Nylon is going to be the most common type of fiber that you’re going to come across.

Wool you have to be even more careful with because with wool you have to be very close to neutral in your pH on your products. If you start getting beyond eight pH and you’re in questionable territory, wool has a cuticle, much like the cuticle in your fingernail. That follicle, that hair, is covered in a cuticle. If you use something that is too high in pH that cuticle dissolves and you have essentially felted the fiber. All of its natural stain resistance provided by its cuticle is now gone. So, you have to be very, very particular with wool, but both wool and nylon require special training. You do not want just any old Joe Carpet Cleaner walking in there attempting to clean rug with some high-potent powder cleaning chemical that he popped in his tank. You don’t want that.

Need expert carpet cleaning? For nearly 20 years IMS Inc. has been using cutting-edge carpet cleaning technology in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Call (214) 351-9390.

Filed Under: IMS Corner: Stone Floors, Carpets and Helpful Tips

IMS Inc: A Carpet Cleaning Primer

June 24, 2011 By

IMS co-owner Jason Johonnesson gives a detailed explanation of carpet cleaning, and the best methods of carpet maintenance for Dallas-area businesses and residences.

Home Office Carpet Cleaning IMS Inc

Whether it's home or office, knowing how to clean the carpet is vital. IMS Inc. has nearly 20 years experience. Call on us for your next carpet cleaning job.

When talking about carpet maintenance there are so many types of cleaning procedures out there. We’re not going to cover all of those. We are going to reduce it down even simpler to its lowest common denominators, and that is high moisture cleaning and low moisture cleaning: When to use each one. There are times when high moisture is more efficient and works better and there are other times when low moisture does. I will give a few examples. High moisture always works better in a residential setting. That does not mean that it does not work well in a commercial setting. It does. But it works better in a residence because almost always residential settings have padding.

High Moisture Carpet Cleaning

High moisture extraction relies on vacuum and you have to have a lot of vacuum power through the carpet. Residential carpet has a layer of padding or cushion underneath it that allows air to pass through. You can get a lot more vacuum lift in a residential setting. Commercially the carpet is glued directly to the concrete. There’s not any airflow through concrete, so you only have the airflow through the carpet fiber only, not through the actual backing. So extraction has its limitations but it’s still an effective cleaning system commercially, it’s just not as efficient as it would be for a residence.

Low Moisture Carpet Cleaning

What has become very popular in the last ten years, especially commercially, for many reasons, is low moisture cleaning. Low moisture cleaning has its benefits. First of all you don’t have to rely on airflow. You don’t have to worry about it being glued directly to the concrete. Also, in most office buildings, they have automatic air conditioning and heating systems that close down around seven or eight o’clock at night. They are turned off so you have no more airflow in the building. If you’re using high moisture cleaning method there is a possibility that it might not be dry the next morning because there will not be airflow all night. With the low moisture system it’s dry in minutes and you just don’t have to worry about it. Also the low moisture cleaning system is very, very effective at removing spots. That has to do with what we call “wick back.”

What is Wick Back?

First, I will describe what wick back is, or what the wicking effect is. It gets its name from the wick in a lantern. If you dip a wick in an oil lantern and you ignite it, you start it with a lighter, as it burns it will draw oil from below, because really it’s the oil that’s burning and not the wick. It’s an upwards motion and as the flame burns the oil is being sucked out of the lantern. The same thing happens with the carpet. If you add a lot of moisture to a spot it may sink that spot and over the next few hours or maybe even couple of days as that moisture evaporates into the environment the actual stain itself will be wicked up to the tip of the fibers and could look even worse than it did before. At least before when you saw it, most of that spot was deep in the carpet and you only saw half of it. Now it’s all up on the tip of the fibers and it looks very dramatic. That is the wicking effect. Any type of high moisture cleaning system has a lot of potential for wick back. The more thorough you try to be, the more moisture you use, the more possibility you have of wicking. Often times with high moisture cleaning you have to go back the following day to remove the spots that wicked up from the night’s prior cleaning. With low moisture you never add that much moisture so you never have the danger of the wicking effect to begin with.

With the low moisture system you are using way less moisture so the chance of wicking is greatly diminished. What has become popular or more commonly sought with the carpet maintenance programs is viewing low moisture as the interim form of cleaning and the high moisture as the annual form of cleaning. Many carpet manufacturers want to know that their product is extracted with the high moisture extraction, hot water extraction system at least once a year. So typically, to make sure that you’re not voiding a warranty, you will have it extracted once a year, and every cleaning in between that time will be low moisture cleaning for appearance, spot removal, where the soils converge into traffic patterns. Low moisture systems are very, very good for staying on top of that, followed by an annual deeper high moisture water extraction.

Summary

So that’s become sort of the norm in the last ten years is to use low moisture cleaning as interim maintenance whether you’re on a quarterly program, semi-annual or even monthly, and then a once a year hot water extraction. We offer whatever system anyone wants. If you want all extraction we can provide it. If you want all low moisture all the time, which some do, we can provide that. Any type of cleaning program, if your carpet has special needs or it has special instructions, every carpet manufacturer has special instructions and guidelines, if a specific cleaning system is recommended, we do them all. But the most common by far is a low moisture interim maintenance followed by an annual high moisture extraction.

IMS Inc. can handle any type of carpet-cleaning and has nearly 20 years experience handling carpets in the Dallas Fort-Worth area. Call (214) 351-9390 today for a fast quote!

Filed Under: IMS Corner: Stone Floors, Carpets and Helpful Tips

A Look at Marble: Its Composition, Cost and Value as a Natural Stone Floor

June 20, 2011 By

Marble Gloss Restoration IMS Inc

Marble can be a beautiful, glossy floor surface

Marble is probably the most commonly used natural stone, with granite maybe being a close second, travertine and limestone third. Composition-wise marble is exactly like limestone in that they are made out of the same material, basically lime, but marble has gone through some different processes. It has been heated much more and compressed much more. That’s why it is a bit denser than your average limestone and it comes in a wide variety of colors. It has some trace minerals that when it goes through the heating process results in some different colorations. You can get marble in a wide variety of colors that limestone just doesn’t come in, much like granite—just a huge spectrum of colors, from reds to almost black and green. And marble will achieve a deep, deep gloss. If restored properly, marble can have incredible clarity and perception of depth. It is a very glossy material.

Price wise, as far as maintenance cost goes, it’s in between a limestone and a granite. It still has to be maintained pretty frequently like a limestone, as opposed to granite which is very infrequent maintenance. It’s a bit denser than limestone so the cost is more, so the maintenance price is probably right in between limestone and granite.

Most marbles are moderately absorbent to moisture but not very absorbent when compared to limestone. It’s always good to do a water test on marble. We’ve seen in many situations where some marbles are so sensitive that even tap water can etch them. That’s kind of something you would want to know before you select that material. Put a few drops of water on there, let it sit for ten minutes, wipe it off. If the shine is removed where those drops were it’s not a good material for you to select. Although that’s rare with marbles, it is out there and it does exist. That is, some very moisture, acid or pH sensitive stones exist, but for the most part this is the most commonly used and by many thought to be the most beautiful natural stone used in commercial real estate.

IMS Inc. is renowned in the industry for pioneering methods of cleaning, restoring and handling natural stone surfaces. Call them at (214) 351-9390 to get a quote.

Filed Under: Green Stone Restoration and Carpet Cleaning Tagged With: , ,

IMS, Inc. Commercial Carpet Cleaning and Expansion into Flood Restoration

June 15, 2011 By

An interview with Larry Johonnesson, founder of IMS, Inc.:

The most amazing thing about IMS is that my son got in the business with me. I really didn’t expect that to happen. I did expect my wife to be in business with me because she is brilliant when it comes to the financial area and as an administrator. So, I knew I had good team with my wife, but I had no idea about my son.

My son Jason is one of the smartest guys I have ever met, so I expected him to go into some other area. Of course I should have known better because he never mowed grass to make a living in the neighborhood, he cleaned everybody’s carpets! That’s how he made his money early on, and he really became good.

He had an engineering mind, he was well educated, and when he joined me IMS was no longer just Larry’s company. It was really becoming a co-founded company at that point with family as my partners. It has been the best partnership I have ever had.

Where he’s strong I’m not as strong. Where my wife is strong, I am not as strong. I definitely had a vision at the beginning, but had no idea that it was going to be my family creating that vision, but it worked out that way.

We now have lots of employees that have been with us for a very long time, and as a family owned and operated organization we are at the top of the game. I have several competitors tell you that they’re better, and they may be in a marketing sense and maybe in a sales sense, but there’s no one that I have found that can hold a candle to what we can do technically for people.

We are here for our clients. We want to protect the assets and the moneys they spend on carpets and stone. Because of this, we have developed several other delivery divisions that deal primarily in the commercial industry.

IMS Inc. Flood Restoration Water Damage

IMS Inc. expanded into flood restoration to help protect its clients assets

For example, one of our divisions was created because we needed to help protect the assets of clients that had flood or water damage. Although we were not a flood restoration company at the time and there were already restoration companies with lots of equipment in the area, our clients were unhappy with their service. So, we quickly started offering flood restoration services to help our clients protect their assets.

Jason, my son, and I really got into what it took to be professional in that area. We’re not primarily a flood restoration company, where we have thousands of pieces of equipment sitting around. However, we have bought and paid for hundreds of pieces of equipment that are necessary because we had to protect the assets of our clients.

Our customers certainly come first and foremost in our business. I happened to grow up in an era where a handshake meant something when you agreed, and of course nowadays it’s all written word and that’s good, too, but my handshake is still more important than a signed piece of paper. It’s the honesty in which we do our servicing.

IMS Inc. is available for flood restoration and water damage jobs in the Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Call us at (214) 351-9390.

Filed Under: IMS Inc. Flood Restoration and Water Damage Tagged With: , , ,

Commercial and Residential Carpet Cleaning Overview

June 7, 2011 By

IMS Inc. Commercial and Residential Carpet Cleaning

For nearly 20 years, IMS has been cleaning carpets in and around Dallas, Houston and throughout Texas.

IMS is a Dallas-based commercial carpet cleaning company that takes pride in bringing out the very best in your carpet.

As carpet cleaning professionals that use only IICRC (Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification) approved cleaning methods, we know that every carpet cleaning situation is unique.

In commercial settings, the carpet is directly glued to the slab. This makes vacuum lift difficult and high moisture extraction desirable only as an annual restorative cleaning process. During interim periods, we recommend low moisture extraction because vacuum lift is minimal. The kind of low moisture extraction method we use and how often we use it depends on the carpet type.

Low moisture cleaning works especially well for commercial carpets because current technologies allow most carpets to dry in less than one hour. This means that cleaned carpets can be used within half an hour to two hours. And if you have a 24/7 business, your carpet can look, feel and smell fresh with minimal disruption to your operations.

Low moisture cleaning methods are based in technologies that gather dirt and oils and transform them into larger dry particles that can then be removed. Our process includes:

  • Combining green cleaning agents with water and spraying that solution onto the carpet surface. The moisture present activates the cleaning agents so that they interact with the soil in the carpet.
  • Using a rotary floor or rotating brush machine to work the cleaning agents into the carpet and loosen the dirt. The agitation of the brushes causes the detergent to encapsulate the soil as it dries.
  • Vacuuming up the dried cleaning agents and soil to leave your carpet looking like new.

Low moisture carpet cleaning offers many advantages. Not only does it make good environmental sense, it’s also cost effective. We also specialize in very low moisture carpet cleaning that uses less water and leaves an even smaller carbon footprint.

Of course, between IMS cleanings, stains and other accidents will happen. To help you maintain that just-cleaned look, we offer the following tips.

  • When you soil your carpet or spill liquid on it, gentle scrape or blot the affected area immediately.
  • Do not rub the soiled area, since that could spread the stain.
  • If you use any spot cleaning fluid, be sure to test the effects of that product on your carpet in an inconspicuous place to guard against possible damage or discoloration.
  • Work the spot cleaner from the outside of the stain toward the inside to avoid spreading the stain. Do not rub the stain, but do blot up excess moisture.
  • Use a clean white bath towel to dry the carpet and brush the carpet nap back up to its upright position.

If you can’t remove the stain, just give us a call: we’re there to serve you. For over 20 years, it’s been about carpets that aren’t just clean, but standout IMS spotless.

Filed Under: Green Stone Restoration and Carpet Cleaning Tagged With: , , ,

Green Solutions in Carpet Cleaning and Building Maintenance

June 2, 2011 By

Jason Johonnesson IMS Inc.

Jason Johonnesson, co-owner IMS Inc., along with his father Larry, have dedicated themselves to providing leading-edge environmentally friendly cleaning and restoration solutions

With so many commercial carpet cleaners to choose from in Dallas, it’s good to know that one—IMS—not only cares about the environment, but also the health of anyone who comes into contact with the work it does.

Long before being earth friendly was mainstream and the U.S Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program was in place, IMS Inc.’s Larry Johonnesson put a premium on using only the safest cleaning agents available.

“He was always reading labels,” recalls Johonnesson’s son Jason, current IMS president and founder of the firm’s Natural Stone Restoration Division. “He would not allow anyone to use percoethylene or trichloroethylene because he knew they were cancer-causing chemicals.”

Johonnesson was so adamant about using non-toxic cleaners that he often took his concerns about client and employee health to extremes.

Says son Jason, “Even if [cleaning solutions] had coal tars, which are in perfumes, colognes and other fragrances, he would do whatever he could to find products that didn’t have those in them. And coal tars aren’t even a known carcinogen.”

The way his father figured it, extra additives—even those that made for a pleasant smell—were potentially hazardous. Clean meant clean, pure and simple.

“He didn’t want there to be any lingering odors whatsoever. This is because he felt that there [would also be] lingering things in the air that people [would] breathe in,” Jason explains.

The elder Johonnesson’s foresight paid off long term. The solvents he used in the high moisture cleaning he did as a carpet cleaning professional in the 1980s are the same ones his company uses today, only now they bear official green certification. And every product IMS has adopted since it began doing low moisture work in 2004 is also green-certified.

In keeping with his father’s progressive vision, Jason Johonnesson has worked hard at making sure the Natural Stone Restoration Division of IMS is also as earth-friendly as possible.

“Most of the work with natural stone is mechanical since we use diamond abrasives, he says. “But the final [phase] involves a crystallization polish, and there are some hazardous chemicals involved.”

Environmentally safe, cost-effective alternatives to this polish do exist. But IMS clients often choose go with the non-green solvent because the earth-friendlier version doesn’t produce as glossy a finish. Moreover, LEED does not yet offer incentives for making a green choice where natural stone floor restoration is concerned.

“But the point is that in stone, at least we have those options,” says Johonnesson. “And no one else offers that.”

For nearly 20 years, IMS, Inc. has been at the technological forefront in natural stone restoration, carpet cleaning, concrete polishing and flood damage restoration. Call (214) 351-9390 to speak with a specialist.

Filed Under: Green Stone Restoration and Carpet Cleaning Tagged With: , , ,

Is Your Janitorial Service Correctly Maintaining Your Natural Stone Floors?

March 28, 2011 By
IMS Stone Floor Cleaning and Maintenance

With proper preventative care, including janitorial, your stone floors will remain glossy

Have you ever looked at your natural stone floor and wondered if it is being maintained correctly? How do you know if your janitorial service is correctly doing their part to keep the floors maintained?

“What do I need to tell my janitorial service? What guidelines do I need to give them so they can do their part?” It’s an important question because keeping natural stone clean is probably the most important part of stone maintenance. It is even more important than the role that IMS plays, and if the janitorial firm is not doing its part it can make our job very difficult.

The first thing we like to explain to people is, don’t think of it as a natural stone floor issue, but a grout cleaning issue. If your janitorial service is cleaning the grout, and you are on a grout maintenance program, the stone will be cleaned as a byproduct. So, what you really need to think about is keeping the grout clean.

Too often, we go in to see a natural stone floor and the stone doesn’t look too bad, but the grout is so contaminated it’s black. You look at the baseboards and there’s contamination four to six inches up the baseboards. Obviously, people aren’t walking on the baseboards so the question is how is it getting contaminated?

The biggest problem in cleaning natural stone addresses mopping and answers the second question. We like to say, “Just say no to the mop. No mop and slop.” Just looking at a mop makes you wonder, “How can this clean five, ten, twenty, thirty thousand square feet of natural stone flooring and how can it possibly clean grout.” Grout is not much different from the concrete in your driveway. So would you use a mop to clean the concrete in your driveway?

A mop’s ability to actually extract and remove soil from the floor is pretty poor. I’m not going to say mops do not have their role. They are great for removing spills or maybe getting in very tight areas you just can’t get larger equipment into, but as far as it being a tool to actually do nightly cleaning of large areas, they do a very poor job.

What happens is the janitorial service comes in to mop an area and the grout, not being flush with tile, is being sloshed with lots of moisture that’s emulsifying the soils and being deposited in the grout. Over a period of time that is what causes the grout to turn black. We call it cross-contamination.

To make matters worse, the mops then come in contact with the baseboards and surrounding vertical surfaces. That cross- contamination gets applied to those walls. Sometimes, we are asked how these areas get so filthy. It’s cross-contamination from the mop.

Lobbies in office buildings can be pretty large and the analogy we like to use is you wouldn’t use a weed eater or trimmer to mow your grass. You would use a lawn mower. It just makes sense. It’s the same when cleaning a building’s lobby and public area—you want to use the appropriate equipment.

My suggestion is always eliminate the mop, say no to the mop. Don’t allow anyone to use a mop for anything other than touch up cleaning, spill cleaning or maybe some fine detail cleaning, but as far as using it for large areas, just say no. Mopping as part of nightly cleaning contract should be eliminated because it cannot clean grout and definitely is not going to keep the natural stone clean either.

In the janitorial world, as with many service companies, labor is the largest expense. So why wouldn’t you want to reduce your labor. Your equipment cost is not as much as your labor cost and any decent class A office building should have an automatic floor scrubber. Large areas should always be cleaned with automatic floor scrubbers. It’s really the only real way to keep the grout and stone properly cleaned.

Filed Under: Stone and Marble Cleaning Tips Tagged With: , , ,
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