Monday, June 28, 2010

A Cleaning Guide For School Restrooms

The fewer cracks and crevices, the easier it is to clean school bathrooms.


By their very design school restrooms are often extremely hard to clean. Grout in tile floors harbors germs. It's a constant challenge to restroom sanitation crews to keep faucets, soap dispensers and towel dispensers germ-free. To keep restrooms clean, school cleaning crews must have a detailed guide for cleaning and they must follow it daily.


Significance


As bacteria become more resistant to chemical disinfectants, it becomes more important than ever to learn what types of chemicals to use for cleaning. It doesn't pay to spend money on disinfectants that don't work. Nor does it make sense to use labor inefficiently. School restrooms should have a design that minimizes the number of surfaces that a child has to touch. This would minimize the chances of picking up contact germs. Unfortunately, most school restrooms utilize the same designs as other public restrooms, which include unsealed cracks and crevices that provide a breeding ground for diseases.


Types


School restroom cleaning should involve a thorough wiping down of all surfaces that students come in contact with. Hot water and detergent, mixed according to label directions, should remove any surface dirt. In some cases, it's possible to combine the cleaning with disinfecting in one step. When using disinfectants, it's important that the disinfectant targets the germs that most threaten the student population. Steam cleaning is another option that involves fewer chemicals in the cleaning process, yet is just as effective. As more schools go to green products, more sanitation supply companies are offering efficient and eco-friendly cleaning options. In some cases, however, it's hard to replace popular disinfectants, such as bleach.








Time Frame


While it's important that a member of the maintenance staff make periodic checks of the school restrooms during the school day to do spot cleaning as necessary, the main cleaning of toilets, sinks and floors needs to only take place once a day. At that time, all the paper products and soap dispensers should have enough supplies in them to last another day.


Odor Control








In addition to cleaning surfaces, it's important that the cleaning crew address odor problems. Keeping areas where bacteria, mold and mildew grow sanitized helps with the problem. Providing air fresheners is another way to mask any residual problems. When choosing fragrant cleaners and air fresheners, it's important that they all have a similar smell, or the fragrances may cause their own odor problem.


Training


It's important that the crew in charge of cleaning school restrooms do a thorough job each and every day. To do that, they must have the proper equipment and training in its use. The maintenance supervisor should perform spot checks to make sure the right cleaning agents are in use. The supervisor should also offer immediate retraining to any employee who is not performing their job properly.

Tags: important that, school restrooms, chemicals cleaning, clean school, cracks crevices