The Fruits Of Your Labor

The month of April brings with it many things, the least of which is our annual CM/Spotlight: Hard Floor Care.

To help you achieve floor care excellence in 2012 and beyond, we have tapped some of the leading authorities regarding equipment, chemicals, processes and theory.

In addition to the content herein, the following are 10 quick tips from Buckeye International Inc. to help you get the most out of your floor care investment:

1. Well-maintained entrance mats can capture up to 70 percent of all the dirt that enters a building
2. Always mop or autoscrub a floor prior to burnishing; never burnish a dirty floor
3. When stripping a floor, the surface must remain wet while the stripper is allowed dwell time
4. When stripping a floor, it is important to tape off areas that you do not want the stripper to touch, remembering that a combination of tape and cardboard works well
5. On older or unusually worn tile, two coats of a stain-resistant sealer are recommended prior to the application of finish to help protect the floor
6. Large areas should be stripped in stages to make the job more manageable
7. Save leftover stripper to clean the wringer from your finish bucket, which will help keep all mop wringers in good condition
8. Plastic liners are recommended for your finish bucket because they prevent contamination of the floor finish
9. Rayon or rayon blend mops work best for finish application
10. To prevent floor finish buildup around the edges, do not apply finish wall-to-wall on every coat; instead, stay six inches from the wall on intermediate coats.

As always, we encourage correspondence — conversations amongst readers on our various social media forums and letters to me, the editor — to perpetually keep the conversation alive.

Like any organization, we have core competencies: There are some things we do well and other areas where we may fall short.

But, unless you communicate your happiness or dissatisfaction, we have little insight into what it is we can do better.

Although the editorial staff at Cleaning & Maintenance Management magazine still wears gloves when cleaning, we all have fairly thick skin.

In other words, we are receptive to constructive criticisms.

By now, you should know that we have Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn pages and a community Bulletin Board, all of which allow for commenting.

If you wish to send us praise — through a telephone call, e-mail or otherwise — please do so.

Conversely, if you have a suggestion for a story idea or would like to see us doing something with increased or decreased frequency, voice your opinion.

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Send comments or thoughts on this topic or any other article that appears in CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management^® magazine, to ABaunee@NTPMedia.com.