Floor care essentials Philadelphia PA

All buildings have some kind of floor that needs to be cleaned — whether it's your local hospital or your neighborhood grocery store or your child's school. Many times these places hire professional cleaning contractors to take care of the dirt and grime on their floors, but sometimes they have to rent equipment to supplement during a peak time.

According to sources, there has been a steady increase in the commercial floor care equipment market over the past several years. And sources say forward-thinking rental businesses would do themselves a favor by taking a hard look at this untapped rental segment.

Who needs commercial floor equipment? In addition to the examples listed above, other facilities include nursing homes, day care facilities, office buildings, small to mid-size retail stores ... really, any environment that has a hard floor (terrazzo, tile, wood, rubber, etc.) that needs cleaning.

Also, don't overlook the professional cleaners who will also need to rent during peak times or if a machine breaks down.

"Budgets are tight for everyone right now," says Mark Wierda, director of Windsor's Rental Division. "These places don't want to buy a unit when they only need it short term. Rental is the best way for them to go."

How often these machines are rented depends, say sources. For example, a school might sweep and scrub its hallways every day, but only clean the classroom floors twice a year. In order to clean the classroom floors, the school might decide to rent additional machines in order to finish the job in a timely manner. Other facilities, a grocery store for example, might rent a unit once a month to clean and polish floors.

What's available

There are four basic types of floor care machines to clean hard floors: scrubbers, buffers/polishers, burnishers and sweepers.

Automatic floor scrubbers are essentially a combination of items: a mop and bucket, floor buffer/polisher and a wet/dry vac. The machine dispenses water (mixed with a cleaning chemical), scrubs the floor with a pad, then squeegees the water back up in to a recovery tank.

Scrubbers are also capable of being used in floor restoration projects, like stripping of existing floor finishes so the facility can lay fresh wax.

Popular sizes for automatic floor scrubbers include 17- to 20-inch walk-behind and 36- to 38-inch ride-on models. "Scrubbers are pretty popular right now," says Wierda. "Unlike a mop and bucket, the floor is dry after the machine squeegees the water up, and the machine can cover a much larger surface in less time."

Buffers/polishers, which usually feature 175 rpm, are slow-spinning floor machines. There are many names in the industry for this type of product, says Paul Albrecht, national rental manager with Clarke US. "Buffers, polishers, swing machines, side-by-sides to name a few," he explains. "It's ironic that the one thing that a polisher can't do is polish a floor. They're really more a 'floor maintainer.'"

Buffers/polishers are used primarily to clean a floor with various scrubbing pads designed for different applications from daily scrubbing to deep scrubbing to stripping of existing floor finishes. An adapter can be added to these units that can grind concrete, hone marble or sand hardwood floors. "They are very versatile units with a low cost of ownership," says Albrecht.

Burnishers are designed for one purpose — to "polish" a floor. Spinning much faster than a buffer/polisher, burnishers use a soft, non-aggressive nylon floor pad to restore a high-shine finish — the "wet" look you're probably familiar with — to floors.

Most burnishers have an rpm between 1,500 and 2,000 with some as high as 2,500 rpm. As burnishers move over the floor, the friction from the pad and the floor surfaces cause high heat which briefly liquefies the floor finish, which then re-solidifies instan-taneously creating not only a shining floor but a harder floor finish. "Floors finishes that are burnished regularly not only have a better appearance but will last longer before needing to be stripped and refinished," says Albrecht.

Sweepers have come a long way in the past 10 years. "They used to be dust creators," says Wierda. "Which is not what you want when you're trying to clean a floor. But technology has improved dust collection systems, so now they're much more effective." Sweepers can be used on both hard floors and carpets.

What you should have

To serve the commercial cleaning industry, your inventory has to stretch beyond the basic floor sanders and compact carpet cleaners. Here's what our experts suggest:

• Buffers/polishers — 1 1/2-hp, 17-inch units — "may be the most common piece of hard floor equipment in the rental industry," says Albrecht. Depending on your market, you should have around four or five of these units in inventory.
• 1,500-rpm burnisher
• 20-inch autoscrubber
• Large hot-water extractors for professional carpet cleaners in the area

If you have it, will they come?

Most commercial cleaning contractors and facilities own their floor care equipment. A rental business, however, can step in and serve these clients' short-term needs. It's your job to create rental awareness with these potential clients and establish a relationship.

So, where do you begin?

• Direct mail to contract cleaners is a great place to start. "Check your Yellow Pages," says Wierda. "You'll find these guys under building service contractors and janitorial services."

The Building Service Contractors Association International (BSCAI) is the association that serves this market and might also be able to lead you in the right direction. (Visit www.bscai.org for more information.)

"Send a promo explaining the durable, productive equipment you have and offer them $20 off their next rental," says Wierda.

Direct mail always works well with new clients. If you need to forge relationships with the churches or schools in your area, this would be a good method to use.

• Envelope/invoice stuffers are a good idea for established clients. "If you already have a good relationship with a grocery store, office building, nursing home, next time you send an invoice, include a promo showing all the floor care equipment they can rent from you," says Wierda. "Many times they might not think of you as a source of floor care equipment, or if they do, this will remind them."
• Network and partner with those companies that don't have floor care equipment for rent. For example, establish a referral program with the local hardware store. Ask them to refer any contract cleaners that come in for supplies in exchange for discounted rentals for the hardware store.
• Keep up appearances. "In the old days, rental yards were intimidating places. Store fronts were unattractive and littered with old dirty machines," says Albrecht. "The modern rental store has a well-lit and clean store front that is inviting to the customer. Many times they'll have 'how-to' videos playing to create possible interest in other rentals as well as show the customer that, not only are they there to rent the equipment, but they can assist with product and application knowledge."

As with any type of equipment, knowledge of your customers and market is crucial when making decisions about what equipment to add to your rental inventory. Do your homework, and if commercial floor care equipment is an untapped resource at your rental business, these ideas can get you started in the right direction.

For more information on floor care equipment, visit www.RentalProductNews.com.