The World of In-house Cleaning - All Comments

re: Now That It’s Built Green, How Is It Maintained?

Mike Gunderson — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:38:22 GMT

The concerns presented are quite valid. "Green" building materials unfortunately are not always the easiest to maintain.

Flooring for example is one area. There is a lot of linoleum being installed in "green" buildings, but linoleum presents numerous challenges in terms of maintenance.

When it comes to maintaining buildings whether they are "green" or not, the practice of stripping and waxing floors is one that should be looked at with great concern.

Conventional floor care products and methods require routine maintenance. With any routine maintenance, there is waste involved. With hard-surface floor care, waste is often extreme. For every gallon of stripper chemical used, as much as 20 gallons of water is used for dillution and rinsing. Conventional finishes must be scrubbed and recoated frequently causing more water to be used and dumped down the drain. And how about the amount of energy and number of pads required to buff and burnish floors to maintain the shine.

On average, every 50,000 square feet of hard-surface flooring in the country utilizes more than 1,100 pounds of chemical product, of which 15-18 percent is considered hazardous material. When it is all stripped every year, it gets poured down the drains.

By utlizing ultra-durable floor coatings, facilities across the country are finding their waste reduction to be quite significant. They are noticing improvements in indoor air quality and labor cost savings as well while giving up nothing in terms of appearance.

re: Now That It’s Built Green, How Is It Maintained?

Bob Croft — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:41:45 GMT

Agreed.

To go a step further: if a "green" building is not only environmentally friendly, but friendly to the health of its occupants, might you want to look at cleaning procedures?

Once the major initial off-gassing from building materials and furnishings (green or not) has occurred, the most significant ongoing impact the building environment will have on its occupants will involve Indoor Air Quality. One can address air circulation issues (oxygen supply, carbon-dioxyde removal) with proper A/C design. You can only remove respirable particles (allergins, for instance) with appropriate cleaning - HEPA vacuum filters, vacuuming rather than dust mopping hard floors, wiping rather than feather dusting, microfiber technology, and so forth.

Obviously, appropriate entry mats and Green Seal chemicals need to be part of the program as well.

Part of our program also involves monitoring IAQ periodically with a hand-held airborne particle counter, to verify (and quantify) what we're doing.

See my blog - cbnclean.typepad.com/blog - for a bit more commentary on the above.

re: If You're Gonna Clean, At Least Do It Right

admin — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:37:07 GMT

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re: If You’re Gonna Clean, At Least Do It Right

Bob Croft — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:50:25 GMT

Further thoughts on the above, from my blog:

"The Missing MSDS Book":

While inspecting buildings in preparing quotes for potential customers, I get a look at a whole lot of janitor closets used by my competitors. I could count on the fingers of one hand the MSDS books I've seen in those closets, including janitor closets used to store lots of chemicals. On the other hand, I do see a lot of unlabeled squirt bottles...

Given that the undocumented chemicals are in the customer's building, and therefore in his employee's workspace, it would be the customer having to deal with OSHA, and with the fines. Interesting, how many janitorial firms set their customers up for a fall, and how many customers are blissfully unaware.

re: If You’re Gonna Clean, At Least Do It Right

Bob Croft — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:02:00 GMT

Good points all. You could add to that:

1) Probably paying her as an independent contractor, without sufficient proof that she really is an independent business (offering similar services in the general market, etc.), so when audit time comes on workers comp or employment taxes, the building owner is likely liable

2) Safety and regulatory concerns - she likely has not had OSHA training, so is unaware of chemical labeling requirements, posting of MSDSs, avoiding mixing of bleach and ammonia...

3) No inspections, no fill-in for sick days, periodic work (burnishing, carpet cleaning, etc.) unavailable...One could go on.

re: Cleaners Should Also Be Educators

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:22:25 GMT

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re: Buyer Beware: Understanding Green Claims

fredmay — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:46:15 GMT

Certifications are certainly helpful but I wonder if they can also stifle creativity and bringing new products to market? I believe Green Seal charges upwards of $10,000 for each product certified and there are ongoing annual charges to keep your product certified. Maybe no big deal for the big boys but what about smaller companies wanting to be innovative with new formulations? Could this be why some manufacturers now have their products certified by an independent third party?

re: Buyer Beware: Understanding Green Claims

cferling — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:21:12 GMT

in my business i have nearly eliminated all chemical whether green or not by using microfiber sponges and microfiber rags...I still use green toilet cleaner/disinfectant and green mopping solution

re: Buyer Beware: Understanding Green Claims

cferling — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:21:01 GMT

in my business i have nearly eliminated all chemical whether green or not by using microfiber sponges and microfiber rags...I still use green toilet cleaner/disinfectant and green mopping solution

re: Janitors Fight For Their Jobs Among Overwhelming Odds

angeldeeof3 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:06:45 GMT

I personally have run into issues with the too frequent employee roll-over within the outside service contractors which I have been familiar with. Each new face is then trained by another worker, and not always to the extent they should... In-house workers have my personal vote. We may need to shake things up from time to time to be sure that we are getting our money's worth and that long term employees don't get complacent and well, less industrious? But I believe it adds security and quality. When some workers are only getting a few bucks an hour, they care about quality WAY less than the in-house workers that would get a decent benefits package. If they get fired, "temps" could just walk a few blocks over to the next temp. agency / outside service cleaning company and put in an application.

re: Janitors Fight For Their Jobs Among Overwhelming Odds

Brian — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:31:25 GMT

Interestingly enough, when the cleaning crew is outsourced, the same folks usually come to work in the facility, they've just had a drastic pay cut. Ironically, the cleaning staff is usually comprised of local folks, paying taxes to the public entity they serve.

When replaced by a contractor, there is a profit motive, and those profit dollars removed from the local economy are now sent to a for-profit firm located "somewhere else". In rural areas "somewhere else" usually means "out of state"....leaving the now poorer locals to fend for themselves, all under the guise of "saving" money..haha.

re: Janitors Fight For Their Jobs Among Overwhelming Odds

seanwebb08 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:12:37 GMT

Out sourcing not always the key rethinking in house and some adjustments keep it in house

re: Janitors Fight For Their Jobs Among Overwhelming Odds

prenticejune — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:41:37 GMT

When you bring in a cleaning service, some are not trustworthy, instead of in-house cleaners that people trust and know. Sometimes saving money isn't the best

re: Janitors Fight For Their Jobs Among Overwhelming Odds

Chris Arlen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:28:16 GMT

The time has come. Accountability for in-house support services is now front and center due to outsourcing.

(Full disclosure: I'm a sales & marketing consultant for janitorial contractors. But I'm not solely on the contractors side. Read on.)

When the purpose of an in-house support service (like custodial, or Information Technology for that matter) is no longer being served as well as it could from another source, it's time to rethink options.

Outsourcing is an option.

The last decade has seen outsourcing enter K-12 education, but it's been rather slow. The politics were too dicy. But now the current recession has leap frogged much of that and may make school districts jump to outsourcing imprudently, rather than through careful consideration for everyone involved (ie school districts first working with their in-house custodial to lower costs).

That said, many custodial programs are a legacy. They're from a time when local taxes financially supported high custodial wages and benefits. Unfortunately that's not the world today, re: GM, etc.

Now, in-house services have to/should justify the value they deliver against the resources spent.

Demonizing outsourcing is not going to make it go away. Nor should in-house services all be outsourced.

I believe the conversation and focus should be on how best to serve the customer (whether the server is in-house or outsourced).

Your excellent article "Fighting the Good Fight" was spot on for points 1 through 4. It showed what in-house services must do to ensure their survival. But not all custodial departments are that flexible, responsive or creative - and those are the ones that will be outsourced.

I disagree with point 5 in that article about presenting negatives against contractors. From a sales stand point you should never try to discredit your competitors. Only point out your unique and valued benefits you deliver. Some sales trainer once said "When you're slinging mud, you're only losing ground".

I hope all service employees (in-house or contractors) increase their wages and benefits. Because that means the service proposition is valued.

Unfortunately, all those employees must rely on their leadership to lead. For the fortunate employees with pragmatic, open-eyed leaders, such as those in your article, they have a better chance of keeping their jobs during the transformation that's underway from a legacy model to a current, value-based service.

re: Stimulating Green: Is Cleaning Left Out?

EZ2BME — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:23:00 GMT

DId you notice on the 60 minutes interview at the Oval office the cleaner was using a feather duster!!! How non green can you get!! Anyaway, I need assistance from ssomebody on Day Cleaning CLass A Multi tenant office....anybody with experience out there that can help me?? Didn't California have to go to day cleaning with the energy crisis a few years ago?