When Choosing Warehouse Floor Cleaning Machines – 7 Things to Check Out

If you operate a warehouse, you’ll no doubt have loads of floor area to keep clean on a daily basis. It’s important that floors are kept clean and free of debris, both for aesthetic appeal as well as being safe and hygienic.

In this article, we’ll be covering some things to check out when deciding on the right floor cleaning equipment to suit your commercial environment.

• Is a Floor Sweeper All You Need?

There are floor sweepers, and then there are floor scrubbing machines. Depending on your operation and how dirty the floors actually get during the day, you may find all you need is a floor sweeper. There are quite a few sweepers available to purchase or hire, and they come in a variety of sizes.

Trying to clean vast amounts of flooring with brooms and mops is hard work and takes a heck of a long time. Therefore, it’s much more time-efficient to either purchase or hire a commercial floor scrubber or industrial grade floor cleaning machine.

One option you might want to consider with a sweeper is a dustless sweeper. In other words, it collects the dust as it sweeps and doesn’t leave any residual mess behind. Sweepers come in walk-behind and ride-on models.

• When You Might Need a Floor Scrubbing Machine

Floor scrubbers are more advanced than a sweeper. These machines are the perfect solution for floors that get beyond dusty and need scrubbing. A floor scrubbing machine will generally sweep, scrub and dry all in the same motion. If your floors suffer spills and other debris that a sweeper alone can’t handle, you’ll want to opt for a floor scrubber.

As with sweepers, scrubbers come in a variety of sizes, and there are ride-on and walk-behind models available.

• The Walk-Behind Sweeper or Scrubber

Sweepers and scrubbers make light work of any floor and are especially useful for larger floor spaces to save time and energy. The walk-behind models will usually suffice for warehouses and other spaces that are not massive. These are cheaper to run yet still get the job done in rapid time.

There are very small walk-behind models, so you can easily get to those harder to reach places, and then there are larger and more robust machines. Whether small or large, walk-behind floor cleaning machines easily operate for any staff member. While some physical effort is still required, exertion is minimal as the machine does the hard yards.

• Ride-On Sweepers and Scrubbers

The ride-on sweeper and floor scrubber range are designed for very large floors spaces that would take too long to clean with a walk-behind model. Ride-on floor cleaners are designed to be simple to operate and are extremely manoeuvrable for those tight corners and spaces.

You’ll discover that getting massive areas of floor space cleaned is an absolute breeze with a ride-on sweeper or scrubber machine. While there is a bit more to operating one of these compared to a walk-behind model, they’re very ergonomically designed and don’t take a lot of learning for the operator to know how to handle it.

• Do You Need To Clean the Interior and Exterior?

While every business will want their interiors swept and scrubbed, as this is important for aesthetics and hygiene, you might also have areas outdoors that need regular sweeping to keep the premises looking their best.

Many sweepers that are used indoors can also be used outdoors for sweeping paths and driveways. Then there are the really big models that are actually used for street sweeping.

Talk to your supplier about a floor sweeper that can be used for both interiors and exteriors.

• Choose How the Floor Cleaner Is Powered

Another consideration is how the sweeper or scrubber is powered. Depending on the model and size of the cleaner, they may be operated by petrol, diesel or electricity.

Keep in mind that combustion engines produce exhaust fumes and are also noisier. If exhaust and noise are an issue, then opt for a model that runs on electricity instead. Your supplier will be able to advise you on this.

• Should You Buy or Hire a Floor Cleaner?

Another question to ask yourself is whether you need to purchase a scrubber or sweeper or hire the machine? If you’re using it daily, then perhaps purchasing a floor cleaner is the way to go.

There are advantages to hiring, though. For a start, there’s no big outlay of capital to make a purchase; you can upgrade to a newer (or different) model whenever you need to, the supplier will repair the machine in the event of a breakdown, and all payments are tax-deductible.

In Conclusion

If you operate a warehouse or another business with vast floor space, make life easier when it comes to cleaning by hiring or buying a floor sweeper or scrubber machine.