CARE OF HARD FLOORS Keeping down costs (continued) as cleaning,” he said. “Even on manually cleaned areas we recommend periodic buffing and polishing to keep the cleaning properties and aesthetics at a high level.” He believes there will be an ongoing need for traditional floor care. “This is because there are millions of square metres of older flooring in buildings all over the world, and these have traditional maintenance requirements,” he said. Group product manager of Nilfisk’s floor care division Jean-Pierre Lebrun says parameters such as location, environment and traffic all have an impact on the cost of cleaning and maintaining hard floors. “It also typically costs more to maintain a high-shine surface than it does to maintain matt flooring,” he said. “It is important to choose the right floor material depending on the location and traffic since with the right floor material comes easier cleaning and maintenance.” He believes that many floor manufacturers tend to consider the total cost of ownership – including the cost of maintenance - when developing new products. “They ask chemical and machine producers for professional cleaning advice so that they can provide cleaning information on the documentation,” he said. He believes proper maintenance to be worth the money since it significantly increases the life of the floor. “It is far cheaper to maintain a floor than it is to change it, and it is more difficult to clean a floor that has been poorly maintained,” he said. “Also, if the floor surface is of poor quality this can become a safety issue.” Nilfisk offers a range of scrubber dryers, single disks and burnishing machines for use on most common hard floors. Granite can work out to be among the least expensive floor surfaces to maintain according to Kärcher training Instructor Sebastian Nann. “Its acquisition cost is high, but it is very low cost thereafter because it requires neither basic cleaning nor care and lasts for up to 40 years,” he said. “Care of wooden floors is much more expensive than that of stone floors which require no special care whatever.” He says stone floors and tiles cost less to look after because costly coating and decoating is not required for long-term
protection. “However maintenance cleaning requires more or less the same input and expense on any hard floor because there is no difference in the cleaning methods used,” he said. Latest floor coverings on the market include linoleum, PVC and elastomers with a permanent polyurethane coating, says Nann. “Depending on the quality of this coating the user can dispense with both basic and maintenance cleaning for a number of years,” he said. Another new flooring material is enomer, a chlorinefree thermoplastic. “The advantage of this material is that it so robust that it requires no coating and needs only maintenance cleaning,” said Nann. He believes many floor manufacturers carefully consider the cost of maintenance when developing new types of flooring. “This is a key purchasing criterion for customers who take into account the total cost of flooring over its life cycle,” he said. Spending the extra money on properly maintaining a floor is well worth the expense, according to Nann. “Coating is worthwhile because the floor will otherwise be unserviceable and need replacing within a few years,” he said. “In terms of cost per square metre, replacing a floor covering is always much more expensive than regular cleaning and care. “And if a floor is not cleaned and cared for regularly the cleaning costs will increase. On a wooden floor for example, the dirt will become ingrained in scratches and be harder to remove.” He says customers can maintain their floors more economically by renewing the coating before it is totally worn out and before the floor covering beneath it is already damaged. “Essentially there are two systems: the first is to use spot care film renewal in badly-worn areas such as in lobbies where only the most noticeable scratches and spots are renewed,” he said. “The other system is top-stripping in which a thick care film is applied to a floor covering in five or six layers. With a special pad such as the Kärcher S 65 brush head the top layer of care film is removed using only water and a new layer is applied.” He claims this method to be eco-friendly because no detergent is required and the drying time is particularly short which
Parmi les planchers durs, quels sont ceux dont le nettoyage est le moins onéreux ? Le bois coûte-t-il moins cher à nettoyer que le marbre, et une surface brillante est-elle d’entretien plus difficile qu’un revêtement mat ? ECJ se penche sur les frais de nettoyage et d’entretien de chaque type de plancher dur.
Welche Hartbödenoberflächen sind mit dem geringsten Kostenaufwand zu reinigen und zu pflegen? Ist beispielsweise die Reinigung von Holz billiger als die von Marmor, und ist die Pflege einer Hochglanzoberfläche schwieriger als ein Bodenbelag im Mattfinish? Das ECJ betrachtet die Reinigungs- und Pflegekosten der verschiedenen Hartbodentypen.
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means the floor can be walked on again soon afterwards. ”In addition, the user saves the time required for a thorough basic cleaning.” When using the right tools, most types of hard floor surface can be cleaned easily and at low cost according to Hako’s application technology trainer and consultant Klaus Serfezi.
Wood most difficult “However in most cases, the decision as to which type of flooring is used is not only based on the cost of cleaning and maintenance,” he said. “It is often the optical appearance that influences the decision rather than more practical and sensible factors.” He agrees with other manufacturers that wooden floors are generally among the most difficult to clean. “Water has to be used in carefully measured amounts in order not to cause damage on these types of floors,” he said. High-shine floors also tend to be harder to maintain economically than matt alternatives, adds Serfezi. “This is because cleaners often use unsuitable products or too much detergent on shiny floors,” he said. “This produces smudges that need to be laboriously polished afterwards whereas with matt floors the streaks are less visible and are therefore often tolerated.” Hako offers a range of scrubber dryers that are said to improve cleaning efficiency. The company’s AquaControl system is claimed to produce water and detergent savings of up to 50 per cent while its AquaForce system requires no cleaning chemicals. Serfezi believes the type of machinery used to maintain hard floors can have a significant impact on cost. “When buying a cleaning machine, customers often focus on the initial procurement costs,” he said. “However the cheapest machine equipped with low-cost features is not always the right machine for the task. “Today more than ever, buying a cleaning machine requires competent application-technical consultation and expert recommendation on the type and class of machine that is most suitable for the task in hand.” Quali sono le superfici dure per pavimenti con i costi più bassi di pulizia e manutenzione? Il legno è più economico da pulire del marmo per esempio, e la manutenzione delle superfici superlucide è più difficile di quella di un sistema di pavimenti opaco? ECJ prende in esame le implicazioni dei costi di manutenzione e pulizia per ogni tipo di pavimento duro.