The definition of a floor is "the inside bottom surface of any room." If you are in a room, you will be on a floor. Gravity will take care of the rest as, ultimately, everything ends up on the floor.

The floor maintenance industry has traditionally been divided into two camps: carpet and hard surface. As a result, floor maintenance equipment took two separate evolutionary paths. Brooms, mops and scrubbing machines were not well adapted for cleaning carpets, and upright vacuums with beater bars and hot water extractors were not well adapted for hard surfaces

My daddy used to say, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is probably a duck. The wood flooring category of hard-surface flooring constitutes a growing segment of our industry, but is it all actually wood?

The world is finding more and more uses for clay flooring these days; porcelain tile lobbies, ceramic tile restrooms and quarry tile kitchens being the obvious examples. With this expansion come the inevitable problems associated with maintaining them.

Recently, after one of my classes, I was asked by a student if I would go out and take a look at one of his accounts. Marcellus was very concerned that he would lose the account and, by extension, the potential for more buildings from this particular manager.

My first experience with sand-free or low-abrasion maintenance for wood flooring occurred early in my career, in a public building on the national register for historical buildings.

Recently I received a call from an individual concerned about her terrazzo lobby. She said that no matter how much they stripped the floor, it retained a blotchy appearance. She was concerned she may have damaged the floor and would not be able to fix it.

One of the biggest challenges for floor maintenance technicians is identifying the floor coverings they will be working on. 

Every floor has a maintenance life cycle comprising initial maintenance, daily/routine maintenance, periodic maintenance and restorative maintenance.

Many maintenance programs include the use of aqueous (water-based) seals and finishes or seal/finishes. When continually exposed to dirt, grit and sand, the floor finish is scraped away almost imperceptibly. Without floor maintenance, the erosive effects would eventually wear through the polish and, ultimately, begin to erode the flooring.

Green has arrived, and there is not much chance of getting the genie back in the bottle. It is here and you better believe it’s impacting your business. The question is, what are you going to do about it?