Cleaning Carpet in Schools
By Bill Bane
Last winter I wrote about visiting Eddie Flicker, who is with Pasco County schools in Florida. Writing about Eddie ( see article below) reminded me of schools we have been involved with over the years so I went back to a Digest story from 1999 that may be more pertinent than ever.
An interesting day
(Reprinted from Clene Times)
There's an old story about a sailor renting a rowboat while on shore leave! On February 4th, I was on vacation, but I spent the day looking at carpet with Eddie Flicker. He's legend in an industry that has become anti carpet. He's with Pasco County schools in Florida and is proud of his carpet care program. And he should be proud. His properties looked great.
Several people had asked me to visit Eddie to see how he promotes and cares for carpet. All of those folks share a common goal of making carpet "THE" floor covering of choice. A sad testimonial is that some asked to remain nameless for fear of industry politics and reprisals.
Eddie does his own testing on products he uses and in a note of full disclosure, none of them come from my company. I didn't agree with the HWE portion which was poorly represented by the equipment chosen, but his testing protocol was simple and flawless.
Eddie Flicker is a proponent of good training and a staunch believer in communicating with his staff. Isn't that a novel approach to getting the job done right? I met several of his employees and saw a thread that obviously starts at the top. They all want nice looking carpet.
In a high school I saw sixteen year old carpet that had been flooded by a leaking air conditioner and it looked good after service. We went to a kindergarten where five year old children were sitting on six year old roll goods on the class room floor. That carpet looked like new.
It may be prudent for CRI to take a hard look at this project and forget their complicated and costly equipment testing program. Approving cleaning industry schools, which was the backbone of the original SOA program, would be a breath of fresh air in a stagnant industry.
Following is an article reprinted from the Cleaning Digest Volume 29, number 4, Fall 1999.
The carpet industry is in a tizzy over losing business in schools. Reports of allergies, mold, mildew, and airborne VOC's (volatile organic compounds) have caused school boards to remove millions of square yards of carpet. The situation is exacerbated by the hard floor industry, whose single agenda is to replace all carpet in all schools.
There may be genuine health concerns in any location if carpet is allowed to become unsanitary. But there is one major difference between carpet in a school and any place else. The presence of children makes a passionate cause for extremists. Lack of proper maintenance is partly responsible for the problem in schools. Dirty or improperly maintained carpet causes dissatisfaction because of aesthetics. When it doesn't look good, they want to get rid of it. But the problem goes deeper than dirty carpet.
In Florida, air handling systems are shut down at night, on weekends and sometimes all summer long. Lack of air movement allows things to grow in the duct work, on window sills and even on the walls. A badly flawed solution has been to take out the carpet. The problem could be easily solved by moving air in the building during off times and cleaning the carpets thoroughly and regularly with "external extraction"® equipment. Bane-Clene has an on going history of working in schools with notable success. Following are some examples:
Foam Problems!
Early in the '70s, schools in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Bowling Green, Kentucky, had been maintained with shampoo products. The two locations were so bad that if a glass of water was spilled on the cafeteria carpet, foam would billow up around the soles of the students' shoes. Spots would reappear within a few days of treatment. Several gallons of anti-foam agent and repeated extraction cleaning solved these problems.
Too Wet!
The O. J. Neighbors Elementary School in Wabash, Indiana, installed beautiful Karastan Bigelow carpet. The school had purchased a large, walk behind carpet cleaning machine for the cleaning staff. The carpet was wet for more than 12 hours after cleaning with their new machine and spots reappeared quickly. Walter Gordon, the mill representative, suggested that the school maintenance personnel attend Bane-Clene Institute.
Don Terry's hints on spotting and the opportunity to see Bane-Clene equipment and chemicals in action convinced them to ask for a side by side demonstration between a Bane-Clene system and their walk-behind machine. School administrators were so impressed that they issued a purchase order for Bane-Clene equipment and stopped using the large, expensive walk behind machine.
Need to Clean Weekly!
St. Peter Claver Center, a combined day care facility for young children and senior citizen center, had approximately 10,000 square feet of carpet on two floors. In 1976, administrators purchased a Bane-Clene system for Joe Edwards, who was in charge of maintenance. In an interview in 1986, Mr. Edwards demonstrated intense pride when he stated that the carpet was very close to the same appearance as when it was new, even after ten years of hard wear and weekly cleaning. He said spills from soft drinks, food and chewing gum were easily removed using the Bane-Clene machine and PCA™ (powdered cleaning agent). He normally didn't use pre-spotters, but relied on Saf-T-Solv™ for gum removal.
The weekly schedule of 10,000 square feet meant Mr. Edwards cleaned more than five million square feet of carpet in the ten year period. Had the center paid someone just 5 cents per square foot for carpet maintenance, they would have spent more than $250,000.00. A review of purchase records for the ten years shows Mr. Edwards purchased $2,778.63 in chemicals. Other supplies and parts for the machine were $896.40. These expenses, along with the purchase price of the equipment, averaged out to a weekly carpet maintenance expense of only $16.00. Even adding Mr. Edward's labor, this was an insignificant cost for maintaining and prolonging the life of such a large investment.
Budget Won't Allow Professional Cleaning!
In 1981, Bane Clene's service company cleaned 44,000 square feet of carpet in a school in Avon, Indiana. For the economically minded school administrator, costs were contained by using one truck to carry five cleaning units and six operators to the job, which was priced at 5.3 cents per square foot. With the electrically powered equipment, there were no fuel costs and no equipment breakdowns. The sixth operator worked in relief.
The job took 12 hours, including travel time. The five cleaning units averaged 733 square feet per hour and the total charge was $2,332.00. Costs were as follows: Labor - $699.60; Materials $53.00, Overhead - $340.47.
Seeing Is Believing
Glen Campbell, a board member of the Vigo County, Indiana, School Corporation, and his wife stayed at a motel in Indianapolis. An operator using Bane Clene equipment happened to be cleaning at the motel, and Mr. Campbell watched him work. He was so impressed that he and his wife came to Bane-Clene for a demonstration.
The Vigo County School Corporation purchased a Mega-Port® on March 12, 1996, to try the method in their maintenance department. It worked so well that they added an Ultra-Port® to their cleaning fleet on May 16, 1996. Two more Ultra-Ports were purchased on May 5,1997. Staff members have been trained at Bane-Clene Institute.
Free Carpet, Free Installation and Free Cleaning
In 1998, the CRI initiated a program for the Charles E. Young Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Six carpet manufacturers contributed 60,000 square feet of carpet for the project. Installation services were donated for the poverty ridden school, which was being totally renovated under the supervision of the EPA. The project was to be a model for 149 other schools in the district.
The CRI sought volunteers to maintain the new carpet for the first year at no cost to the school. They ask for a detailed maintenance plan and that accurate records be kept of labor, material and peripheral expenses. Ken McIntosh, Director of Technical Services at CRI, asked Bane-Clene to maintain a specific portion of the building. Ron Rhine, of Atlantic Carpet Care in College Park, Maryland, was invited to participate. Bane-Clene donated the labor and material cost and Ron contributed his profit and provided the necessary supervision.
CRI officials said that air quality samples would be taken regularly throughout the school year to determine the effectiveness of various methods of cleaning. However, to date, they have not published or shared any of the results.
Excerpts from the Bane-Clene operator's final report, June 1999
"We were responsible for 6,600 square feet of World solution-dyed nylon carpet in an area occupied by lst and 2nd graders. The first time we cleaned, there were many spots. Quite a few were there on the second trip when we cleaned only the traffic lanes. I met with six teachers and conducted a spot cleaning class, gave each one a bone scraper, towel, Perky Spotter and Citrus APS. There were no spots visible from that time until after the school year had ended.
"The teachers were enthusiastic about helping maintain a clean environment and reported that the children were equally helpful. Children reported spots in the hope that they will be allowed to help clean them up. Several times I arrived before the children left for the day and they would call out, "Here's the rug man."
"Teachers said that discipline problems dropped dramatically and academic grades have improved since the renovation. They say that a clean environment leads to an overall improvement in attitude, personal cleanliness and eagerness to learn."
A summary of the 8 service trips provided from November, 1998, through June, 1999, follows:
Labor
Cleaned the entire 6,600 square feet: ........................2 times
Cleaned 1,300 square feet of traffic lane area: ..........6 times
Total labor for the entire school year project: ........ 30 man hours
Material
LCA (cleaning agent): .......... 168 ounces
Preface (pre-spotter): ................ 1 gallon
Scotchgard (Carpet Protector):. 5 gallons
Citrus APS (Spotter): . .......... . . 1 pint
Six teachers were supplied with:
Citrus APS:. . ......... . 8 ounces
Spray bottle w/cap: ...1 each
Perky Spotter: .......... 8 ounces
Bone scraper: ........... 1 each
Towel: ...................... 1 each
Total material for entire school year project: ......... $288.70
Job Notes:
"On the initial cleaning, pile lifting was necessary to remove powder residue from an unauthorized cleaning effort before Bane-Clene was assigned to the area. Pile lifting was not deemed necessary on the second cleaning or on subsequent cleaning of traffic lanes.
"Each of the two cleanings of the entire 6,600 square feet required 120 gallons of water containing 48 ounces of LCA®-256. Each of the 6 cleanings of 1,300 square feet of traffic lanes required 30 gallons of water with 12 ounces of LCA-256.
"Routine vacuuming, which was assigned to the school custodial staff, was not regularly done. Considering this lack of nightly maintenance, the World nylon performed extremely well and responded beautifully to our cleaning efforts.
"We made a visit to the school in late June after school was out. There were spills everywhere and it looked like they had a big party. It all cleaned up OK! I'm very proud of the work my people did. The cooperation of the teaching staff and the performance of our Bane- Clene equipment and cleaning agents made the job simple. I believe the section we did is the best looking of all and I believe we did it for a lot less cost than the others."
Respectfully submitted:
Ron Rhine
Who Failed Whom?
Carpet has not failed schools. Schools have failed to maintain carpet properly. Some carpet makers have failed to talk about maintenance on the front end of the sale, while others have failed to even mention cleaning. If carpet is ever to dominate the school scene, carpet makers must mandate maintenance procedures.
Observations
According to Ron Rhine, the so called interim maintenance methods cost much more and required more operator time than the Bane- Clene maintained area and did not look nearly as good at the end of the school year. Interim methods are costly, inefficient and strain the school budget. Certain interim methods actually create a residue problem, cause rapid resoiling and distort face fibers. Spots return quickly, and the deteriorated aesthetics cause dissatisfaction, which can lead to the elimination of carpet in the facility.
The Answer Is External Extraction®
Carpet mills, specifiers and contract agents should advise their clients that carpet needs to be cleaned. External extraction is the most economical and best cleaning method to remove imbedded particles of soil and grit. This method removes soil, moisture and recovered cleaning solution to the exterior of the building through a sealed hose. In portable mode, the base vacuum unit can be positioned outside the room being cleaned so the moist air is not recirculated in the room atmosphere. Drying time is reduced and odor bearing molecules are not redeposited in furnishings and carpet as with traditional wet cleaning systems.
Conclusion
If a hard surfaced floor had been in the school in Washington, it would have cost at least four times as much to maintain it for the year. The greatest disservice, however, would have been that students who often sat on the floor would have been deprived of the quiet, warmth, beauty and comfort of the carpeted surface.
