3 Ways to Improve Gym Floor Maintenance Efficiency

in Tips and Resources

A school gym is never just a gym. Many facilities use gymnasium space for assemblies, safety drills, pep rallies, health classes, staff training, and much more. To ensure the safety and appeal of gym floors, maintenance is usually very intensive and costly.

Whether you’re a BSC looking to improve your bottom line or a school facility manager hoping to drastically reduce costs, you know how tricky these floors can be. How do you balance labor cost with effective maintenance and still come out ahead? Start by taking a look at these three steps.

1. Change up your refinishing process

Gym floors need daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly upkeep. One of the most vital steps to maintaining a gym floor is refinishing. Most manufacturers recommend refinishing at least once a year. This process has historically been very costly, so focusing on efficiency and material costs is paramount.

There are two main methods of refinishing gym floors. You can strip the finish all the way down and recoat the floor entirely, but this technique is rarely necessary. To reach your desired result, you should only need to deep scrub and remove the top few layers of finish. This will “rough up” the surface and provide excellent finish adherence. Then, reapply a thin coat of finish. This procedure switch leads to thousands saved in labor and product cost.

2. Invest in a highly capable machine

If you’ve used more than one floor care machine in your lifetime, you know that some are simply better than others. When your team is using out-of-date equipment, it can mean more money out of your pocket.

In one study using Pacific Floorcare’s S-28 Orbital Scrubber, a floor maintenance crew compared the time it took to prep the gym floor for finish of two equal square footage areas. With Pacific’s S-28 Orbital, they were able to prep in 25 minutes what normally took them 2 hours and 20 minutes with their old equipment. Just by using the latest technology, they saved a whopping 82% of labor time!

Not only did they save time, but they also were able to use fewer people, fewer machine accessories, and less overall equipment. To top it off, the new prep process was completed without the use of chemicals. A new fleet of machines may seem like a big investment, but the labor and money you save is impossible to deny. 

3. Work toward a better bottom line

This may seem like a no-brainer. After all, we’re talking about efficiency here. But how do you actually make this happen? You can change your refinishing process and purchase new machines, but where do the results come in?

If you’re a facilities manager at an education campus, this gym floor maintenance program allows you to consider keeping the project in-house. With a floor scrubber that’s efficient and easy to train staff members to use, this shift is easier than it sounds. You save a ton of money by keeping costs within the staff you already employ, and there’s no more guess work when you utilize modern machines.

And as a BSC, your customers will appreciate your commitment to providing effective cleaning solutions on a budget, and you’ll enjoy being able to bid and complete more jobs. Switching to efficient machines and processes will keep your clients coming back to you for years to come, resulting in return business and positive word-of-mouth between potential customers.

If you’re ready for a machine that can take your efficiency to the next level while keeping your gymnasium floor in topnotch condition, check out Pacific Floorcare’s line of orbital scrubbers and floor machines.

Get a free orbital scrubber guide right here, too!

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