Summer break is just around the corner. As students are getting ready to kick back and relax or maybe travel, school janitorial teams are getting ready for some of their busiest weeks of summer school janitorial operations. With students, teachers, and other personnel gone, the summer holidays are the best time for a thorough cleaning, including floors, windows, deep cleaning, and disinfection.
Even though the facility may be empty, it is easy to overlook rarely used spaces. Starting with a checklist is one way of ensuring all spaces are included. Another way is by getting support from a reputable, external school cleaning contractor. A professional team knows exactly which areas to tackle and how to best support your in-house janitorial team.
An external contractor is well placed to work as an extension of your team and provide specialized cleaning services. They will create a plan and schedule each task, allowing you to relax and enjoy coming back to a spotless facility.
The Perfect Time for Summer School Janitorial Operations
This is the time when classrooms, lockers, common areas, cafeterias, and restrooms all need a deep clean. With students and faculty gone, this is also an excellent time to prepare every inch of the school for the next year. That means paying special attention to:
- Floors
- Windows
- Restrooms
- Deep-Cleaning
Floor Cleaning for Schools
Schools are high-traffic areas, and their floors take a beating daily. Even with the highest level of care during the school year, it is impossible to remove scuff marks and other signs of heavy use. Consider this scenario: every day of the year, come rain, sunshine, or snow, hundreds of children run through your house. That is what happens to school flooring.
Summer school janitorial cleaning is the right time to scrub floors and remove any stubborn, persistent stains. Professional cleaning contractors have the right tools to achieve the best results for your school’s floors. They use stain-removing chemicals that not only remove unsightly marks but also help resurface the original flooring.
Professional-level chemicals need to be handled carefully. Many are highly concentrated and can react with sensitive skin. Cleaning contractors receive training in using those chemicals to prevent putting themselves or your students and faculty in danger.
Related: Is it Time to Outsource your School Janitorial Staff?
Window Cleaning for Schools
If something exciting happens right outside the window, most students find it hard to resist looking out. Especially for the younger ages, looking out includes putting hands and faces on the glass and leaving behind marks.
Most of those can be removed throughout the school year with the daily or nightly cleaning of the facility. However, summer school janitorial operations take cleaning several steps further. Not only will they pay attention to the glass panes, but they will also take great care of the frames and clean between internal and external window frames if your window design allows.
For many students and parents, it would be surprising to see just how much grime sticks to window frames. The annual summer school cleaning is also an excellent time to check for any damage and complete maintenance and small repairs. This is when expert cleaners also become “spotters.” They are often closest to the potential problem and the first to see where a window needs more attention.
Restroom Cleaning for Schools
School restrooms are often used by hundreds of students daily. During the school year, commercial school cleaning companies work tirelessly together with the school’s in-house janitorial team to keep restrooms clean and users safe.
Between school years is the perfect time to scrub bathroom fittings like taps, toilet bowls, and wash hand basins more thoroughly. This is not to say that day-to-day school cleaning is not sufficient, but there is a time limit to what professional cleaners can do when students and faculty are present. The summer break is the perfect time to do more.
When it comes to school bathrooms, simply cleaning is not enough. To keep restrooms and washrooms sanitary, they need to be disinfected and cleaned deeply. Just like they do with floors, professional contractors use specialist cleaning supplies and chemicals to achieve the best results. Handling those chemicals carefully is important to keep everyone safe and fittings in the best possible condition.
Deep Cleaning Student Lockers
Student lockers are likely to harbor a larger amount of germs than many would expect at first sight. Rather than thinking about lockers, consider how they are used. Every day, students stuff clothing, food, and personal items into their lockers.
Over time, it is easy for these items to get pushed to the back of the locker and forgotten. At best, those items may gather dust, but they may also harbor germs if they are not cleaned during summer school janitorial cleaning sessions.
Deep cleaning works best when it is done by professionals using specialist techniques and supplies. After an entire school year of use, even the tidiest student’s locker requires additional attention.
Spending the time to clean the far corners of each locker thoroughly is the best preparation for the new school year. As a school administrator, you can be sure that any remaining dust, dirt, or grime has been removed. When the new year starts, students benefit from clean, well-cared-for lockers ideal for a fresh start.
Related: How Omicron is Affecting School Cleaning Companies
Deep Cleaning Cafeterias and Other Common Areas
What makes school cleaning unique is the wide variety of different spaces that professional cleaners need to pay attention to. One of the most critical areas among those is the cafeteria and its kitchen.
Deep cleaning a school cafeteria and its kitchen is not unlike cleaning a restaurant space. However, few commercial eateries serve hundreds of guests daily. Kitchen spaces need special attention, and summer school janitorial operations are an ideal time to achieve this level of cleaning.
During the summer, the school’s kitchen team needs to inventory any leftover food and label what can still be used as opposed to what will no longer be safe to eat after the break. This helps prepare fridge and freezer spaces for commercial cleaners. Deep cleaning your school’s kitchen space means paying attention to fridges, freezers, and other food storage areas as well as appliances.
Where cooking appliances are concerned, summer is the time for a thorough degrease as part of deep cleaning appliances. This also helps identify maintenance needs and requirements.
Disinfection of food surfaces then completes the job.
How to Find a Reliable School Cleaning Contractor
School administrators are often responsible for hundreds of students and dozens of faculty members. Keeping the school clean goes a long way toward keeping people safe from illnesses and injuries throughout the school year.
While much school cleaning is done throughout each school day or overnight, the summer school janitorial operation lays the groundwork for that. To ensure that this work is done as thoroughly as possible, it is critical to choose an experienced contractor.DTK has built a reputation for excellent summer school janitorial operations over more than two decades. The team prides itself on working closely with your janitorial team to ready your school for the new school year and make it a sparkling clean, welcoming place. To learn more about how we can support you this summer, contact us today.