June 19, 2020

Top of the Class Floor Cleaning

Top of the Class Floor Cleaning

Outshine industry standards to prevent the spread of viral contaminants in schools through best practice floor cleaning.

Schools across Australia are implementing a range of new hygiene protocols to ensure the ongoing safety of students and staff during the return to full-time, face to face learning.

Best practice floor cleaning can:

  • Further improve the level of cleanliness of your school
  • Provide peace of mind for teachers, students and their parents
  • Free up cleaners time to spend on additional tasks like cleaning and sanitising high touch areas.

Download our guide to find out more,
and look through our recommended products.

Hard Surfaces – Scrubber Dryers

Safe Return to Face to Face Learning

Schools across Australia are implementing a range of new hygiene protocols to ensure the ongoing safety of students and staff during the return of full-time, face to face learning.

Kids Touch Everything! Contaminated Floors Can Spread to Hands and Other Surfaces

The Department of Health (DOH) recommends commercial businesses wet-clean minimally touched surfaces such as hard floors when they are visibly soiled (1.) 

However, we all know that kids touch everything! Contaminants from the floor can easily be kicked up by shoes and on balls during sports or transfer to hands from sitting down or placing belongings like school bags and lunchboxes on the ground.

Best Practice Hygiene & Peace of Mind for Students, Parents and Staff
Best practice is to clean floors daily with a scrubber dryer and when visibly soiled. This not only provides a more hygienic school environment, but it also provides peace of mind to teachers, students and their parents. While mops spread contaminants around, the fastest, most effective way to clean hard floors is with a scrubber dryer. In fact, studies show scrubbers significantly reduced microbial counts, compared with mopping, and produced
an affect that persisted for at least a week (2.)

 

Improve Floor Cleaning Productivity to Free Up Cleaners Time to Spend on Additional Tasks

 As part of the safe return to schools, the DOH has stipulated several additional cleaning activities for schools including frequent cleaning and disinfection of a number of high touch surfaces, objects, and play equipment, bin emptying and toilet cleaning during the course of the day.

Scrubber dryers can help to relieve time pressure as they can generally get floors clean 4 times faster than a mop. By improving productivity for labour-intensive floor cleaning, cleaning staff have more time available to work
on other tasks.

Recommended Scrubber Dryers

Nilfisk School Floorcare Guide - Hard Floors

1. Australian Government Department of Health, 2020;
Environmental cleaning and disinfection principles for COVID-19.
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/05/
coronavirus-covid-19-information-about-routine-environmentalcleaning-and-disinfection-in-the-community.pdf
2. L.F. White et al. August 2007; International Journal of
Environmental Health Research. A microbiological evaluation of
hospital cleaning methods

Carpeted Areas – Vacuums & Carpet Extractors

HEPA Filtration is Key for Maintaining Air Quality While Cleaning Carpeted Areas

For carpeted areas, it’s important to use a vacuum daily to capture potential contaminants. A vacuum with a HEPA H13 filter captures and filters contaminants including viruses up to 0.3 micron (1 micron is 1 thousandth of a millimetre) out of the environment, with 99.95% filtration efficiency. After they’re removed the HEPA filter will prevent them from exiting the
vacuum through exhaust air. Carpet extractors can be used periodically for deep, restorative cleaning.

Recommended Vacuums

Other Maintenance Equipment

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