Driving Cleaning Performance in Schools with Daily and Diversified Use of Spray-and-Vac

Some existing tools present opportunities for success beyond their normal use and offer enhanced cleaning performance. Kaivac’s Spray-and-Vac, a popular tool for restroom care in schools and universities, is an excellent example.

Workers may see these machines as only useful for period deep cleaning. However, they are actually best used for daily restroom cleaning. Furthermore, workers can use them in a surprising number of diversified applications.

Performance in Daily Use

ISSA’s 612 Cleaning Times Book cites labor time for traditional restroom care as 2.5 minutes per fixture. By contrast, a qualified operator using a Spray-and-Vac, reduces labor time to one minute per fixture.*

*Work loading of labor to clean a restroom is based on the number of fixtures it contains. That number is a proxy for the overall size of the restroom and the estimated labor to clean it (e.g., per ISSA, a 10 fixture restroom would require 25 minutes using legacy methods, but 10 minutes using No-Touch Cleaning).

A major school district on the coast of Central California has two Kaivacs per high school. They use the Kaivac Spray-and-Vac every day to clean restrooms. ‘No-Touch equipment is more efficient than manual methods, safer for employees, and enables a cleaner restroom,’ says the district’s director of facilities and operations.

Bottom line: Daily cleaning with Kaivac is faster and better than older methods.

Plus, you will get better cooperation from the public if you clean restrooms every day. When you establish a high level of clean, it fosters the ‘clean syndrome’ and respect for the facilities. This is similar to the Disney parks.

Disinfecting Performance

It’s a challenge to comply with EPA use-labeling disinfectant dwell time requirements with a trigger sprayer. You might need to squeeze a sprayer trigger 60 times to dispense enough liquid to do the job. On the other hand, the Spray-and-Vac ‘gun’ set to a coarse spray setting can do it in one pass.

If you you need to repeatedly pump a trigger sprayer to get proper dwell time, it creates ergonomic and aerosol-inhalation concerns.

Conversely, the large-droplet spray from a Spray-and-Vac applicator quickly wets the surface and reduces inhalable fine airborne droplets.

Floorcare Performance

Kaivac also delivers enhanced cleaning performance for restroom floors. With Spray-and-Vac, you apply only clean, not dirty solution to the floor. A pressurized rinse at up to 500 psi provides agitation. Instead of spreading soil around like a rag or mop, you extract it with a vacuum. This even works on porous surfaces like grout.

The vacuum even reduces odors normally caused by bacteria and chemical residue. Not to mention the reduction in the risk of slips and falls when the floor is left dry and residue-free.

On floors, mop water tends to deactivate the active ingredient of disinfectants, whereas spray-and-vac applies only clean viable solution, rinses, suctions off the liquid holding soil and microbes in suspension, and does a better job.

Sustainability Performance

Newer Kaivac systems such as AutoVac Stretch, recycle the grey water then vacuum it off floors producing cleaner results than mopping while reducing water usage.

Diversified Cleaning

Spray-and-Vac is ideal for school kitchen floors with ceramic or quarry tile, as well as shop areas and ceramics classes with tile or concrete floors.

Furniture is another diverse cleaning use. During summer deep cleaning, staff can take school furniture outside to clean it. Kaivac is ideal for this as it offers high pressure but gentle agitation that is strong enough to clean thoroughly but not damage washable furniture.

It’s also great for summer stairwell cleaning. You start at the top of the stairwell, and using the Kaivac applicator and a long hose, you force all the dirty water down the steps, then vacuum the dirty solution.

Spray-and-Vac also works as as standard equipment for cleaning athletic areas.

Per the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), it is important to clean athletic areas and training facilities properly to help prevent community-associated Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (CA-MRSA), and other ailments transmitted by skin contact with wrestling mats, treatment tables, locker room benches, and floors. NATA reports 56% of all infectious diseases among athletes occur from skin contact with contaminated surfaces. (National Athletic Trainers’ Association Position Statement: Skin Diseases, 2010)

Kaivac Spray-and-Vac is ideal for athletic areas, especially cleaning and disinfecting wrestling mats. The system rapidly cleans, disinfects, rinses and dries the mat surface to prevent skin exposure to infectious agents or chemical residues.

Conclusion

Understanding the versatility, capability, and customer benefit of optimizing the use of one’s tools – e.g., Kaivac machines – is a mark of a true professional. It’s also an opportunity to improve cleaning for all the right reasons—driving processes that provide enhanced performance, productivity, and healthier indoor spaces.