With the onset of winter comes the inevitable plague of winter sniffles, and despite what its name suggests the common cold is not caused by low temperatures. The reason novovirus and influenza suddenly seem to drop by to say hello around winter time is mostly down to the fact that we spent far more time in confined spaces together during the colder months.
This gives germs a great opportunity to jump ship and infect someone new, and with more of your employees turning up to work infected every day, your business could end up crippled by sneezing, snotty staff within no time at all. But what does any of this have to do with cleaning?
Industrial Vacuum Cleaners
Dirty carpets and flooring are an absolute haven for bacteria, viruses, and dust mites. Thanks to a little thing called gravity the floor is where the majority of human detritus ends up, whether that is skin flakes or snot, and if you let it build up it can be very unpleasant indeed.
Vacuuming alone can help alleviate the problem somewhat, but to really rid your workplace of enough bugs to make a difference you’ll have to take a more thorough approach to your winter cleaning regime.
For carpeted areas you will probably want to combine your regular use of an industrial vacuum cleaner to really get the germs and grime out of there. Take a look at our recent blog all about how to clean a carpet in winter.
Flu viruses can survive in carpets and soft furnishings for up to 12 hours, so make sure you also use EPA-registered anti-bacterial products which specifically target influenza and novovirus.
steam cleaner hire
Hard floor areas are best treated using scrubber dryers or steam cleaners. We see a lot of steam cleaner hire from hospitals, care homes, and schools, as they are known to get in deep where other cleaning methods cannot.
A deep steam clean will physically remove the dirt and germs from your surfaces, but this is only half the job, as it doesn’t actually kill anything. If you fail to then sanitise and disinfect your flooring all you’ve done is spread the viruses around a little, and it seems they’re quite capable of doing that themselves.
As with carpeted areas an EPA-registered anti-bacterial product should be used in conjunction with industrial cleaning equipment for the most thorough clean possible, as the more bugs you wipe out, the fewer flu-filled phone calls you’ll get from your employees over the winter.
If you consider the productivity costs of half your workforce phoning in sick when compared to that of industrial cleaning equipment hire, you’ll see that giving your workplace a thorough winter clean makes real economic sense.
There are of course many other things you should do in addition to cleaning your floor, but if you treat all of your hard and soft surfaces with the same thorough cleaning regime as those we’ve discussed here, you’ll stand a far better chance of keeping your workforce in tip top shape during flu season.
