Exclusive Sidebar: Regular School Maintenance

March 1, 2012
Recommendations for daily and weekly washroom cleaning steps.

Cleaning washrooms is not the most glamorous occupation. The fact that most people find the task unpleasant may be the reason so many school washrooms don’t receive proper cleaning and become places that students avoid. Still, it’s a job that somebody has to do, and establishing a regular cleaning regimen is a good first step in having clean, presentable washrooms.

The Collaborative for High Performance Schools Best Practices Manual for Maintenance and Operations provides recommendations for daily and weekly washroom cleaning steps:

-Daily: Empty trash; refill paper towels, toilet paper and soap dispensers; disinfect surfaces and fixtures; clean and disinfect toilets and urinals (with a non-acid cleaner); mop the floor with disinfectant. Dirty mop bucket water should be disposed of properly and not used for cleaning other areas. Select mild cleaners for daily restroom cleaning.

-Weekly: In addition to carrying out the daily regimen, scrub surfaces with brushes or pads to remove stains; remove lime and rust stains using a Green Seal-approved acid cleaner; properly ventilate the restroom while cleaning; always use gloves and goggles. Consider surface cleaning systems or vapor steam cleaners to thoroughly clean hard surfaces (sinks, toilets, urinals).

The manual also recommends that if urinal blocks are used in restrooms, schools should avoid those with disinfectants (those that contain (paradichlorobenzene and ammonium quaternary compounds) that can trigger asthma attacks.

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