Staying on top of workshop cleanliness

By Categories: Commercial NewsPublished On: Wednesday 19 January 2022

Daniel Took, head of professional product marketing at Kärcher UK, offers tips to keep workshops in top condition

Workshops are naturally busy environments as staff work to keep machines running so that lorries can get back on the road as quickly as possible. As a result, they can become prone to health and safety risks such as trips, slips, and ultimately injuries. To overcome this, ensuring that workshop floors are kept clean is a great way to reduce the likelihood of an accident.

How often you need to clean will depend on multiple factors, including the amount and type of dirt on the workshop floors. The ease of using a push sweeper makes it possible to clean daily to remove surface debris every day; however, stubborn dirt will require a deeper clean using a scrubber dryer to dislodge the dirt.

Scrubber dryers operate as a series of brushes that scrub the floor as the machine passes over the surface. The bristles on the brush penetrate the gaps in the flooring to loosen dirt as the machine applies fresh water to the surface.

As the machine passes over the surface, the dirt and dirty water is collected at the rear of the machine using the squeegee. The dirty water is then deposited in the internal dirty water tank. After the machine has passed over the floor it is left dry, allowing you to quickly get back to the job at hand.

Heavily soiled flooring will require deep cleaning which can be achieved using the easy two-step method. Firstly, highly concentrated (5 – 20 per cent) detergent, such as Kärcher’s FloorPro Intensive Deep Cleaner RM 752, should be applied to the floor to break up the tough dirt particles.

Secondly, the scrubber dryer brushes should be used to loosen the dirt before going back over the flooring as normal using the scrubber dryer to collect the dirt particles and grease that has been broken up by the brushes.

For smaller spills, a general maintenance clean is an effective solution. This involves a one-step process using a cleaning solution of 0.5 – 3 per cent prior to scrubbing the surface and collecting the loosened dirt.

Workshop floors are made from different materials, so it is important to use the right brushes for each surface. The two main brush-types are disc or roller scrubbing heads.

For smooth floors, such as laminated flooring, disc systems are effective. However, most workshops contain structured floors for which roller systems are most effective. The bristle structure of roller systems allows them to better penetrate the surface of the floor using greater pressure and a higher rotational speed.

As the brushes spin round the bristles can clean themselves by propelling dirt away where it can be collected by the squeegee.

Stoneware tile flooring can be cleaned effectively using microfibre technology. Microfibre brushes can easily get into the micro-pore structure of the tiles to loosen the dirt where thicker bristles are unable to reach. Combined with the strong contact pressure and high rotational speed of the scrubber dryers microfibre rollers dirt can be expel dirt from the microfibre material to maintain efficiency throughout the clean. Helping to restore the tile to its original appearance.

‘Orange peel’ ceramic tiles (typically reddish-brown in appearance) are often found in workshop environments. Unlike stoneware tiles these are best cleaned using roller brushes with polypropylene bristles. The bristles work to lift dirt off the surface, which, when combined with a powerful alkali-based gravel, are highly efficient in dislodging grease, oil and brake dust, and mineral soiling.

Roller brushes are essential when cleaning cement screed flooring whether it is exposed to the elements, coloured with epoxy resin coating, or treated with a slip-resistant material. The structure of the screed results in large pores that thicker bristles can easily puncture and remove unwanted dirt.

Having a clean working area is more than just aesthetic. Functionally, a clean workshop will help reduce the risk of health and safety hazards. Alongside this, caring for the flooring in your workshop will help to prolong the life of the workshop and bolster a positive business reputation.

www.kaercher.com/uk