In today’s commercial environment, restrooms are an opportunity. Retailers and restauranteurs use them to extend their brand, gain customer trust and insure repeat business. Bad restrooms hurt business, as some 94% of adults will not go back to an establishment with a dirty restroom. But restroom pride is not just for retail and foodservice establishments. Dingy, smelly facilities are unacceptable anywhere: medical buildings, offices, and schools too. That’s why a “start clean stay clean” maintenance approach is the best way to maximize your restroom investment.
High End Real Estate
Yes, restrooms are an investment. “Looking at the per-square-foot cost, the restroom is the most expensive part of our restaurants,” says Mike Snyder, senior director of development and facilities for the Dallas-based Corner Bakery Cafe chain in an article in Restaurant Development + Design. He estimates that upgraded wall, ceiling and floor finishes add $10,000 to the overall costs, but even no-frills restrooms are expensive. Plumbing, ventilation, partitions and a variety of costly fixtures add to the price tag.
Not only are they expensive to build, restrooms are expensive to maintain. They must be deep cleaned daily and, depending on use, stocked and spot cleaned several times a day, adding hourly costs to you bottom line
Restore No More
Sometimes cleaning schedules fall by the wayside and the results are costly. A restroom floor that hasn’t been properly cared for might benefit from restorative maintenance but you will pay a premium. Vinyl tile floors must be stripped and re-coated. The process is harder for ceramic tiles with grout. Porous or rough tiles will require more work to clean than smooth ones. The grout, however, will be challenging no matter what. Grout is extremely porous, holds on to dirt and bacteria and is the prime source of unpleasant odors. Hiring a contractor to clean grout lines or replace it all together will eat into the bottom line.
Start Clean Stay Clean
Regular cleaning is the only way to keep restrooms looking and working their best. But the most robust maintenance schedule is meaningless if your staff cleans with tools that leave soils behind. Cotton string mops, for instance, deposit soiled water back into grout lines causing unpleasant odors and discoloration. They also leave a dirt line, also known as the five o’clock shadow, on restroom walls and partitions. Choose a no-touch cleaning system instead. Technology like this removes soils from floors, fixtures and touchpoints and leaves surfaces dry and looking as clean as the day they were installed.
Click here for more on how to maximize your restroom investment.
Amy Milshtein
Amy Milshtein covers design, facility management and business topics for a variety of trade publications and consumer magazines.
Her work has won several awards, most recently a regional silver Azbee Award of Excellence.
She lives in Portland, OR with her family and Clyde, a 15-lb tabby cat. Once an avid hiker, these days she finds herself on the less-challenging -but-still-exciting 'creaky knees' trails.
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KaiVac 1750 No-Touch Cleaning® SystemWhen it comes to restrooms and other heavily soiled areas, nothing beats Spray-and-Vac cleaning. Kaivac’s No-Touch Cleaning systems are built for extreme soil removal, empowering workers to clean hygienically without touching contaminated surfaces. Plus, it cuts labor, chemical and equipment costs. Achieving great, consistent results is easy with these patented systems. Simply apply automatically diluted cleaning solution to fixtures and floors in a low pressure fan spray, and then rinse surfaces and floors with always-fresh, clean water. The built-in power of the indoor pressure washer flushes soils out of grout lines and tight places that mops can’t reach. Finally, just vacuum the floor dry -- completely removing soils, moisture and contaminants from all surfaces, grout lines and crevices, leaving the floor virtually dry and soil free.The Kaivac 1750 is perfect for areas large and small. It boasts a 17 gallon fresh water and a 17 gallon recovery tank. The system is powered by a 500 p.s.i. pump and a powerful 3-stage wet/dry vacuum.
KaiVac 2150 No-Touch Cleaning® SystemWhen it comes to restrooms and other heavily soiled areas, nothing beats Spray-and-Vac cleaning. Kaivac's No-Touch Cleaning systems are built for extreme soil removal, empowering workers to clean hygienically without touching contaminated surfaces. Plus, it cuts labor, chemical and equipment costs. Achieving great, consistent results is easy with these patented systems. Simply apply automatically diluted cleaning solution to fixtures and floors in a low pressure fan spray, and then rinse surfaces and floors with always-fresh, clean water. The built-in power of the indoor pressure washer flushes soils out of grout lines and tight places that mops can't reach. Finally, just vacuum the floor dry -- completely removing soils, moisture and contaminants from all surfaces, grout lines and crevices, leaving the floor virtually dry and soil free. The original No-Touch Cleaning system, the 2150 is designed for larger restrooms and facilities. It has a 21 gallon fresh water and a 21 gallon recovery tank. The system is powered by a 500 p.s.i. pump and a powerful 3-stage wet/dry vacuum.
OmniFlex™ Spray-and-VacWhen it comes to cleaning restrooms and other heavily soiled areas, nothing beats Spray-and-Vac cleaning technology. And the OmniFlex approach offers a cost-effective and easy way to get there. Just purchase a preconfigured 500 psi Spray-and-Vac system, or combine the 500 psi OmniFlex Pump System with the Wet Vacuum and the Trolley-Bucket for the ultimate cleaning experience. Modeled after the original Spray-and-Vac system, Kaivac’s No-Touch Cleaning® machine, the OmniFlex system is built for extreme soil removal. It empowers workers to clean hygienically without touching contaminated surfaces. Plus, it helps cut labor, chemical and equipment costs.
OmniFlex™ SUV™Say goodbye to the traditional janitor’s cart. The Lithium-ion powered OmniFlex™ SUV™ is the first practical whole building mop replacement ever developed. In fact, it’s a true all-in-one system that not only replaces mops and buckets, but also wet vacuums, dust mops, and in some cases, even autoscrubbers. Plus, it reduces trash volume by up to two-thirds with its integrated trash compactor.Most important, it gets floors and other surfaces really clean, really fast. The ultimate in Crossover Cleaning, it combines high speed push-behind cleaning for large areas with the precision and flexibility of a vacuum wand for smaller or congested areas, tight corners, or grouted floors. The result is a compact cart that‘s three-four times faster than mopping and 30-60 times better.
