Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110

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Blowing more than those Winter blues away: a new way to use air movers

Many parts of the world are now experiencing the wrath of Winter. And facilities managers and building service contractors must prepare for these months, ensuring their facilities are clean, safe, and healthy.

In fact, proper preparation for the Winter season is probably one of the most important things managers and BSCs can do to ensure their facilities stay clean and safe. Among the steps that BCSs should take are the following:

* Make sure that building entrances are maintained to clean up snow, ice, salt, and soils as quickly as possible. Depending on the floor surface it will need to be swept, vacuumed and/or mopped.
* To help prevent the spread of soil, mop heads should be cleaned or changed frequently and the rinse bucket emptied after each cleaning.
* All building entrances should be regularly monitored to ensure that they are kept as clean and dry as possible.
* Plenty of 'wet floor' signs should be available and placed where needed, to help ensure the safety of employees and visitors.
* Additional matting should be put down in interior walkways, in and at elevators, and in first floor hallways to prevent moisture and soil from being walked upstairs on shoe bottoms.
* All snowblowers and tractors should be tuned up, fuelled and ready to be put to work to minimise the amount of snow tracked into the building.
* And for managers specifically, snow removal contracts for the season should be signed and sealed.

However, according to Debby Davis, Product Manager for Powr-Flite, managers and BSCs should take one more step to keep entry floors clean and safe, and that is placing air movers (dryers) at building entries.

Debby says the airflow over the floor, especially at key building entries, helps keep the floors dry. Further, the air does not need to be directed down toward the floor; instead, the air should flow over the floor.

"This keeps the floor as well as interior mats drier," she says. "The result is enhanced safety, which is so important during this time of the year."

Debby also advises against selecting large air movers for this task. "Some new systems are very compact but surprisingly powerful, and some can be 'daisy chained' for added air mover power. I recommend using these more compact systems."

T: 800.880.2913
E: [email protected]
W: www.powr-flite.com

16th January 2014