In our previous blog, “How Does Facility Quality Impact College Student Enrollment and Retention?” we discussed how a university’s success is closely tied to the condition of its facilities. Student dormitories are among the most important of these campus facilities. After all, dorms are where students spend most of their time, divided between studying, socializing, unwinding, and sleeping. Dorms are also highly transient for individual students -- some students only spend a few months in a particular dorm, while others may live inside a single dorm for a year or two. Whatever the case, it’s only a matter of time before one of these rooms is occupied by someone new. And like any new living situation, most residents prefer to enter a space that’s clean and scrubbed of the previous occupant’s presence.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made dorm transitions more challenging than before. Many colleges laid off various facility maintenance personnel, in part due to budget cuts and a decline in student occupancy. Additionally, stricter cleaning and disinfection protocols require more intensive and specialized care to ensure the safest dorm flips. This year has seen a gradual return to on-campus student life in universities across the country, but many schools may still lack the necessary resources to conduct proper dormitory cleaning and preparation between semesters and breaks. With the holiday season fast approaching, the need for these facility support services is on the rise. Let’s explore which types of services are crucial for efficient and safe dorm flipping and how The Budd Group can help schools of all sizes with this task.

Services for Dorm Flipping

Floor Care

Floors are among the dirtiest surfaces in any facility, and college dorms are certainly no exceptions. Shoes track in dirt and debris onto hard and soft floors alike, and many students won’t bother to sweep, mop, or vacuum their dorm rooms during their stays. Even if a student does a good job maintaining their floors, professional floor care services should provide a more comprehensive cleaning in preparation for new student arrival following an extended break. Depending on the floor type in question, these tasks may include:

• Sweeping

• Vacuuming

• Wet Mopping

• Burnishing and/or Buffing

• Scrubbing and Refinishing

• Deep Carpet Cleaning

• Polishing

• Stripping and Waxing

• Tile and Grout Restoration

• ...and more

Providing students with fresh floors upon their arrival will contribute to improved health outcomes and help set them up for a successful semester.

Generalized Cleaning

There’s much more to clean inside a dorm room than its floors, of course, especially after a student has lived there for several months or more. Indeed, all surfaces could use a solid dusting and cleaning with effective, eco-friendly products. When empty, most dorms are fairly bare-bones in terms of furnishings, so these cleanable surfaces may only include desks, chairs, beds, windows, shelves, doors, walls, and vents. A team of cleaning and janitorial services can thoroughly clean a single dorm room in fairly short order, ensuring that all applicable rooms get flipped in time for the return of students.

Deep Disinfection

Cleaning is only half the battle of a successful college dorm flip, especially in the midst of this ongoing pandemic. Not only must surfaces be rid of dus and dirt -- they must also be free of transmissible germs. Pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and fungi can linger on various surfaces within a dorm room. Merely cleaning surfaces will just displace many of these contaminants. It takes proper disinfection to actually eliminate these harmful germs. Whether performed by cleaning staff or dedicated disinfection services, deep disinfection makes dorm rooms safer for all occupants, slowing the spread of COVID-19 and a whole host of other transmissible diseases. These services include tasks such as antimicrobial barrier application, misting and electrostatic spray disinfection, remediation, UV-C light disinfection, and more.

Utility Inspections and Repairs

Cleanliness and sanitation are essential components of a successful dorm flip, but there’s more to consider as well. A dorm room, like any other place of residence, must be comfortable and functional. If a student is forced to live in a room with poor climate control, shoddy electricity ,inadequate lighting, and/or hazardous conditions, they will struggle to succeed (and may leave campus, if not the university, altogether). As such, a proper dorm flip must also include thorough inspections, maintenance, and repair of all systems, utilities, and components, including lighting, electricity, HVAC, water, fire protection, and more.

Additional Interior Repairs and Maintenance

Other dorm features and surfaces require examination, too. Over time, walls, ceilings, floors, desks, windows, etc. are bound to take on damage. These issues are eyesore, to be sure, but they also hold the potential to create future problems. Taking care of drywall damage, caulking, paint touch-ups, and other building maintenance tasks at the early stages will prevent costly repairs in the future and allow new student residents to enjoy a more comfortable and aesthetically-pleasing living space upon arrival.

Facility Support Recruitment and Hiring

It’s one thing to know the various tasks necessary for a successful dorm flip -- it’s another thing to pull it off again and again within every residence hall. As we alluded to in the beginning of this article, many colleges are currently under-staffed across the board, making it more difficult to oversee thorough dorm flips between semesters. Even if a university has money in their budget for such purposes, finding experienced and reliable workers takes time and doesn’t always bear fruit. At The Budd Group, not only do we provide the many services listed here to schools and universities -- we also offer facility support recruitment and hiring services to help said institutions quickly acquire the help they need without all the hassle. Whether you’re short-staffed and need temporary help over the holiday break or you’re looking for long-term employees to build your staff back up, The Budd Group can help.

To learn more about our services and values, give us a call today at 800-221-8158!