How to Clean a Warehouse Floor: 7 Cleaning Tips

Warehouses are busy areas that accumulate plenty of dirt as workers go about their duties. When the warehouse floor becomes too dirty, it can create potential safety hazards that will need to be logged on the appropriate safety software. An employee may trip over the debris or slip and fall over the spilt liquids. It’s not only employees who would benefit from having a clean environment, but customers can too, especially if you work in a place that is open to the public. If the area is full of clutter and an employee or customer falls over, they are in their rights to contact someone similar to PC Law Group Covington in search for a suitable amount of compensation. Keeping the floors clean helps to ensure a safe working environment at the warehouse.

Cleaning the warehouse floors also helps to maintain order, thus ensuring the operations are carried out smoothly. It’s simply more productive to work in a facility when everything is tidy, organized, and free of clutter. Not to mention, a clean workspace is just more pleasant for the warehouse workers.

Here are seven tips for how to clean a warehouse floor effectively:

1. Use the right cleaning equipment.

You need the right tools to clean the warehouse floor. One useful piece of industrial cleaning equipment is the automatic floor scrubber. This large bulky machinery is useful for clearing debris and cleaning spills from the floor. Despite its usefulness, sweeping the floors is still recommended, just in case the scrubber misses any crucial areas.

It can be helpful to store the cleaning materials near regular employee stations, allowing the workers can maintain cleanliness in the warehouse. In case of a spill, have cleaning materials nearby so that employees can mop up the mess instead of spending time to search for the equipment. This way, the spill does not spread or cause slip-and-fall accidents.

2. Pick the right time to begin cleaning.

A warehouse is usually a busy place with active operations around the clock. You wouldn’t want the cleaning process to interfere with the warehouse operations, and vice versa. One way of doing this is by maintaining a cleaning schedule, which keeps track of when the warehouse cleaning occurs.

This cleaning schedule offers an orderly timetable for the warehouse workers and the cleaning crew to do their jobs with minimum interference. The cleaning crew will get to work during a convenient time when the warehouse is least active. Establishing a schedule also ensures that every floor space will be cleaned in a timely manner.

3. Hire a cleaning crew for regular maintenance.

Warehouses are busy hubs with employees working around the clock. This may mean they don’t have time to clean up. By hiring a professional cleaning crew, they will ensure the floor is kept clean and the warehouse workers can concentrate on their work instead. This is especially critical during busy seasons. The cleaning team can focus on thoroughly cleaning the floors when the warehouse is not too busy. When it comes to other areas of the warehouse such as the windows, it’s best to hire Window Cleaning People who are professionals on the topic as getting someone that is untrained to do it could be a health and safety hazard.

4. Sweep the floor before scrubbing.

It’s important to sweep up all the loose dirt and soils on the floor before scrubbing. In a warehouse, most of the dirt comes from dry particulate soils, which can cause damage to floor surfaces and make them appear dirty. If you are using an automatic floor scrubber, it’s important to sweep the floors beforehand. Otherwise, this may lead to the dirt particles getting trapped in the machine’s scrubbing mechanism and affect its performance.

5. Clean the warehouse floor thoroughly.

Cleaning as you go prevents the accumulation of dirt on the floors. Encourage employees to clean as they work. In case of a spill, they should have it cleaned immediately to avoid the accumulation of dirt or further accidents. If there’s trash on the floor, pick it up and throw it into the bin to keep the area clean.

Most floors in a warehouse are made of concrete. Over time, the concrete starts to wear out due to the high traffic. As forklifts and other machinery traverse it, they leave behind invisible damage on the floor, which becomes apparent with time. If you’d like to try and keep the facilities floor as clean as possible at all times, then looking into the correct cleaning equipment as well as chemicals and cleaners could be a good start, for example, phs Direct are a leading supplier of cleaning chemicals across the UK to help combat the spread of viruses in your workplace. This cleanliness must start from the floor to the ceiling!

To protect the floors and keep them in good condition for as long as possible, use large rubber floor mats. You can also apply a concrete sealant to the floor every couple of years to prevent staining. Also, regularly buff the floors to keep them shiny and looking good.

6. Get rid of spills promptly.

Spillages can often happen in any warehouse. This could be as a result of spilt oils from forklifts or other machines. Spills can endanger the safety of workers. To avoid slip and fall accidents, always have the spills taken care of immediately when you spot them. You don’t want to be slapped with a workplace compensation claim from an injured employee. Always get employees to clean spillage from the moment they come across it.

7. Don’t forget to clean the warehouse bins.

Overflowing bins in a warehouse are a significant cause of dirt that quickly gets strewn all over the place. A full container poses the risk of dirt overflowing onto the warehouse floor. Not only is it quite an eyesore, but employees run the risk of tripping over the trash and spreading it all over the floor.

Regularly emptying the bins keeps your warehouse floor clean. Place the bins in different areas of the warehouse so employees can easily access them without walking long distances to dispose the waste.