Carpet Care

Carpeting is often used in schools for its durability and acoustics. It can be found in:

• Entranceways
• Hallways
• Classrooms
• Libraries
• Music rooms
• Offices

We recommend taking a look at some preventive maintenance regarding your carpeting, along with some deeper carpet cleaning, over the winter break.

• Check all furniture that has been placed on your carpeting to ensure that rubber casters or felt glides are secured properly. This will prevent any pulling when students are back in school.
• Check your carpet care equipment. Start with your vacuums. Are they up to date and well maintained? This will maximize year-round efficiency when time is of the essence
• Winter break is the perfect time to perform carpet extraction. This deep-cleaning process needs to be done when your facility is unoccupied. A machine applies that water along with a cleaning solution, then extracts it with suction to remove dirt and help the carpets dry.
• Encapsulation is another form of deep carpet cleaning that could be performed during winter break. A specific type of solution is applied to carpets, which dries into crystals that trap dirt. Trained technicians vacuum the crystals and dirt.

Hard Floor Care

Take advantage of the winter break quiet and give your hard gym floor some TLC. Not only does a sparkly and bright gymnasium floor welcome students to a new year, it also keeps them safe by preventing slips and falls, especially during the approaching wintry weather.

• At many independent schools, the gym is used for much more than just basketball games and gym classes. Have you considered investing in a gym floor cover that can be used to protect those floors during dances, assemblies and other events?
• We recommend using your winter break to scrub and recoat your hard floors. We always recommend burnishing after the floors are dry for an extra glossy start to the new year.

Hallways and Classrooms

It’s likely that most of your classrooms and hallways have vinyl composition tile (VCT) flooring.

• Move classroom furniture to get VCT good and clean.
• While you are moving furniture, check that all legs and feet have the proper protection (rubber casters or felt glides).
• Consider applying a strong finish. A fresh coating of your finish will give your floors the best defense possible against winter weather that’s right around the corner. It’s useful in protecting against slips and falls, too.

Kitchen and Cafeteria

If your school building is new, you may have terrazzo or concrete type of flooring in more places than just your kitchen and cafeteria. The winter break maintenance on terrazzo and concrete flooring can be less time and labor intensive. These floor substrates are designed to withstand a high amount of wear and tear. In some cases, a recoating may be needed.

New Year, New Mats

Remember, more than 80 percent of all the contaminants that are found within a facility come in on the shoes of your building occupants. At the very least, you’ll want at least 15 feet of matting should be installed at all entry doors. This is the time to check all of your entry mats against standard industry recommendations, including those from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Certification Standard, American National Standards Institute and the U.S. EPA. Talk to the experts at The Budd Group about our specialized winter break preventive and deep cleaning services that will help your school building get into shape for the new year while you and your school staff take that much-needed holiday vacation.