It can be tempting to just use a mop and bucket for hard floor areas where there is high foot traffic, lots of dirt, or larger than 200 square feet. This is because the equipment is cheaper and it takes less training.
However although it can seem easy in the short term, in the long term the results are not as good. This is because most cleaners can put all their weight into the mop for a short time, but never day in and day out to really achieve what a scrubbing machine can achieve.
Often the people who are tempted to use a mop and bucket instead of a machine, are those that have not had to do the job themselves over a long period of time.
The machines work well because they are motorised and their weight really digs into the dirt.
As a result a floor scrubbing machine is needed for the sake of the job as well as the cleaner.
Learning to use them
This is a handy guide, however please make sure you receive sufficient training from a person who has knowledge and experience using such a machine.
It needs a person who has practical experience and knowledge of the machine, to show a new person how to use it.
For safety reasons and to learn how to use it properly, a person should not use these machines if they have not shown by such an experienced person. Also that the new person should not use it by themselves until the experienced person has verified that the new person is up to using the machine by themselves.
A good janitorial cleaning materials supplier will show you how to use the machine.
If used incorrectly they can fly across the floor with great force and hurt someone.
After a few minutes a person should be able to do it with someone else next to them, but it takes about an hour until they will be good enough to do it by themselves.
Used correctly and after a bit of practice, it takes very little effort to use these machines as they balance on the pad, if someone is having to push or is tugging the machine they are not balancing it correctly on the centre of its pad.
The machine should be held with both hands on both handles, the following is said as an analogy so this can be easily understood that must never be done in practice. Balanced correctly it could be used with the operator having one finger on the controls. However this is said is just to put a point across and the operator must have both hands on the handles, so can resolve any situation that may happen.
When the pad is balanced, by gently pushing it one way, the moving edges of the pad will mean the scrubber is moved for the operator. So the operator does not need to push it, just gently tilt the machine which is on the moving pad.
If feels like, when the operator tilts the cleaning pad, the moving pad moves the machine for the operator.
This is a bit like how a surfer tilts the board to go in a different direction, just by gently leaning on it.
Lifting the machine handle up, it tilts the disc forwards and the machine goes to the right. This is because the rotating disc then touches the floor more at the front and makes it go right.
Letting the machine handle drop down a bit, it tilts the disc backwards and the machine goes to the left. This is because the rotating disc then touches the floor more at the back and makes it go left.
This can also be done to make the machine go backwards and forwards.
This is why it takes around an hour to learn, because the operator has to be able to balance it, so it does not go all over the place. Like anything this takes time and practice.
The smoother the surface, the easier it is to balance the floor cleaning disc. A surface such as a reclaimed wooden floor is almost impossible to buff clean, because the disc grabs and is moved around by all the bits sticking out of it. As a result it is impossible to balance it, so the edges of the disc touch the floor and it flies off in different directions.
Need to be really careful of this as the machine has enough power and force to break someone’s leg!
About the machines
Scrubber machines last for 3-4 years if used 8 hours per day, every day. They of course last even longer if used less often.
We recommend finding a janitorial or cleaning supplies firm that can, repair it for you.
There are two kinds of machines,
1, High speed for polishing,
2, Slow for scrubbing.
If use the fast one for scrubbing the cleaning liquid would splash everywhere.
There are two speed machines, but they are twice the weight. They are also really heavy to move around, such as to a different floor of the building.
Pads and brushes
A pad or brush goes on the bottom. They sit on a drive board, so there is a machine, then drive board and on that sits the pad or brush.
Brush: For coarse or surfaces such as rough concrete. Please be careful, these will literally take the paint off a floor so we have never had a bad enough surface to use them on.
They do last years though, which is an advantage.
Floor pads: For more normal surfaces. Black is the most aggressive, red is less aggressive, then blue and white is the least aggressive for polishing such as when it is used for cleaning a surface every day. They do not last that long, to make them last longer they can be turned over to use both sides and cleaned.
Moving the machines to different floors of a building
When the machines being moved upstairs it does need to be done carefully. It is easier on stairs with a good depth on each step as the machine can rest on each stop. However on steps that do not have much depth, there may not be enough space to rest the machine on them.
The machines are heavy, so as part of the training the instructor needs to ensure the operative can take them up and down the stairs safely. A large part of this is if they are strong enough.
The machines are heavy because of their large motors. Also they need to be heavy as it is the weight on top of the cleaning disc turning that makes them dig into the dirt. It is possible to also get horse shoe weights that can put on the machines which make them clean even better.
Health and safety
This is very important, a full on site risk assessment must be done. Things to look for include:
- How the operator takes the machine up and down the stairs if needed
- Ensuring the cable goes nowhere near the machine and so does not get tangled up in it
- The operator knows to stand not too close the machine head, so that if a part of the pad gets stuck on floor surface and kicks, it does not hit the operator. This can happen with enough force to really hurt someone.
- The operator knows how to stand with a posture that they will not hurt their back from moving and controlling the machine. So they stand with a straight back, using their arms and hands and not use any of their back muscles to move the machine. So of course they also most not be standing too far away from the machine to do this.
Please look at full health and safety materials for how to do this, what is put here is just a supplement to those.
The manager then needs to:
- Have done this health and safety audit and shown it to the operator to read and check.
- Do a practical and theoretical training with the operator and give them documentation to read.
- Ask the operator if they have any questions or if there is anything they have not understood.
- The manager then needs to get the operator to sign a document saying that they have read, done and understood it all.
Other recommendations
It is possible to get small cleaning solution tanks which connect to the lever on the machine, so pulling the lever makes them put cleaning solution into the cleaning disc. This saves the time of separately putting the cleaning solution onto the floor.
There are also machines that suck of the cleaning solution after it has been applied, otherwise need a wet suck vacuum cleaner to take up the cleaning solution as a separate process.
Please be careful not to over wet a floor with cleaning solution, as means there is more to suck up again and also the solution can sock into and so damage the floor.
Used correctly the machine balances so the weight goes through the centre of the pad, an inexperienced operator may cheat by having the weight of the machine go through the wheels. This is a cheat as then the machine’s weight is not going to the cleaning.
Just like having a car is not just about buying it, it is also about learning how to drive, having it repaired and so on. We use a knowledgeable janitorial supplier who can repair, train and give guidance. It is for this reason we use a janitorial supplier and not just buy one off the internet, of course it is a personal choice.