Page 1 - 2018-02-CFR Volume 113 -The Magic Of Interim Maintenance Procedures - February 2018

By: Dane Gregory

In the first two articles on flooring maintenance, the concentration was on soil prevention strategies and
routine maintenance procedures. These two strategies are paramount for keeping your commercial
flooring in top shape, and just maybe keeping it in the building for an extended period of time. But make
no mistake about it, the money shot for commercial flooring maintenance is the procedure between rou-
tine and restoration. These methods are called interim or periodic procedures.
With soil control or routine removal, WE ARE GOING TO MISS
SOME SOILS!! By missing soil coming in from outside, or
missing soils using routine procedures the buildup begins and
if you wait, at all, it may be too late to save the flooring from
early replacement. Or at the very least, it will cause the flooring
to look tired, worn or just plain dirty.
Soils can find ways to elude even the best types of mainte-
nance equipment. They fall deeper in crevices on LVT and
LVP products and in between tuft bundles and arrive at the pri-
mary backing in carpets. The routine dry soil removal on ce-
ramic and stone products use flat tools like dust mops and
Swiffer’s to drive dry soils into the grout valleys. Now just add a
wet cleaning process like auto scrubbing or damp mopping and
we will turn dry soils in the grout to MUD. Good luck getting that
out with additional routine sweeping!
Interim maintenance services go just a little deeper than routine
services, with tools and equipment that go just a little faster than
restorative processes. This is a pivotal time in the maintenance
of your commercial flooring. Without the interim process, soils
are allowed to build up to dangerous levels. (Dangerous for the
flooring longevity, look and customer perception values.) Interim
maintenance services need to also be strategically employed in
areas of high soil concentration, ie., entrance areas, elevator
lobbies, high traffic areas, reception areas and so forth.

See Page 6 for Exciting New Press Release from Wagner Meters! February 2018
1 Commercial Flooring Report