Coronavirus has significantly changed the way staff and customers think about common daily interactions within building and office environments. More than ever, they have an acute awareness of a facility’s overall cleanliness and hygienic safety, and the assurance of a clean, healthy space is now a driving force in the market.

Before Coronavirus most businesses and organizations, outside of the healthcare industry, didn’t give janitorial services high priority in terms of budgeting and planning. While a clean appearance has always been important, the need for services to prevent infection wasn’t critical. Because of the pandemic it now is and in at least one state, Pennsylvania, regular cleaning and disinfection is mandated by law for buildings over 50,000 square feet.

Customers and employees returning to reopened offices want to feel safe, but what does it take to create a secure work environment? Three things: frequent cleaning, proper knowledge of cleaning and disinfecting procedures, and adequate testing and validation.

While no one can 100% eliminate viral and bacterial threats, FSG can minimize them. Here’s how.

Frequent Cleaning

Cleaning and disinfection go hand in hand. Because viruses and bacteria grow in dirty environments, touch points can’t be effectively disinfected or sanitized without proper cleaning first. FSG cleans floors and surfaces first to ensure, once applied, the disinfectant chemistry will work properly.

Proper Knowledge of Cleaning and Disinfecting Procedures

Disinfection is a science, and with so much emphasis being placed on following proper safety and cleanliness guidelines, the need for professional service providers is more important than ever. Certified custodial technicians are growing increasingly valuable, and even for companies that don’t outsource cleaning, subject matter experts will be needed to field and troubleshoot any questions or issues that arise around disinfection procedures and regulatory compliance.

Established, experienced disinfection and cleaning service providers:

• Offer ongoing training for technicians
• Place emphasis on continuing education
• Understand recommended best practices
• Adhere to mandated guidelines
• Utilize the most effective products and equipment

Adequate Testing and Validation

With many cleaning and disinfection services being performed during off peak hours, how can facility managers be certain their spaces were cleaned and disinfected adequately? FSG offers all of our maintenance, disinfection, and sanitization program customers validation on the services that we perform at their facilities.We can provide documentation showing what equipment and cleaning procedures were used. Additionally, using spot swab technology, we’re able to show that our disinfectant chemistry has enveloped objects and coated all surfaces. The validation received from FSG supports an organization’s efforts to safeguard employees and customers in their workplace and to maintain a clean, hygienic space.

The post Is Your Work Environment Safe for Staff & Customers? appeared first on FSG Flooring.

This video is from a recent disinfection and sanitization project for one of our customers in Wilmington, DE as they prepared their space for welcoming back staff and customers. While making the customer’s work environment as safe and healthy as possible, we also take every precaution to protect our team while they’re on the job. If you’ve recently resumed daily operations, or are planning to reopen soon, here’s how we can help.

• Some disinfection programs focus only on communal touch points in the workplace, such as switches, knobs, handles, etc., but FSG combines wipe down procedures with electrostatic and atomizing technology, wrapping around and covering all surfaces in a space. 
• Along with being an EPA Registered Hospital Grade disinfectant, our chemistry is also on the EPA’s List N for Approved Use Against SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
• We also offer sanitization services for soft surfaces, such as fabrics, carpet, and upholstery, using chemistry that has received the Seal of Approval from the Carpet & Rug Institute.
• To properly sanitize carpets and disinfectant hard floors they must first be clean, and FSG offers cleaning services for all types of commercial flooring and surfaces.
• We offer ongoing disinfection/sanitization maintenance programs that can be performed as often as needed to safeguard your staff and customers.

Contact us today at 302-691-3970 or via email at fsgservices@fsgflooring.com to learn more about how we can help you meet the newly implemented safety guidelines and successfully reopen your facility with a clean, healthy space for everyone!

As always, consider these guidelines from state governments in our region.

• Delaware – https://business.delaware.gov/coronavirus/delawares-recovery-phase-2-guidance/
• Pennsylvania – https://www.governor.pa.gov/covid-19/business-guidance/
• New Jersey – https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/general-public/what-businesses-are-open-what-rules-or-safety-guidelines-must-they-follow
• Maryland – https://open.maryland.gov/backtobusiness/
• Virginia – https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/governor-of-virginia/pdf/Forward-Virginia-Phase-Three-Guidelines.pdf

The post Reopening Offices: FSG Can Help You Welcome Back Customers & Staff appeared first on FSG Flooring.

Facility Services Group specializes in commercial interior maintenance. Much of their work is floor maintenance, and disinfecting spaces. FSG began disinfecting back in 2014 to protect employees when entering spaces. As the recent crisis began to set in, they immediately started to focus on their disinfecting services for not only their staff, but also for their customers.

Sheri Gorman’s from the FSG Business Development office and was asked if they could provide services for Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood Center in Wilmington. Hilltop needed their offices disinfected and to begin preparation for re-opening their doors. FSG wants to give back to our local community and want members to feel safe and comfortable.

For more information on FSG, please contact Sheri Gorman, at sherig@fsgflooring.com or visit their website www.fsgmaintenance.com.

Article originally posted on the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce website.

The post NCCCC Members in Action – Facility Services Group Share appeared first on FSG Flooring.

For best sanitization results, it’s important for carpet (a porous surface) or fabric to be cleaned effectively prior to the application of any disinfectant. Removing the foreign matter first through proper hot water extraction allows the disinfectant chemistry to focus exclusively on weakening any viral threat that may exist. Proper cleaning also removes barriers such as oily substances that may block or inhibit the actions of the disinfectant in sanitizing the surface of a fiber.

Proper Carpet Cleaning Procedures

1.  Vacuum the entire space
2. Deep clean using hot water extraction methods
3. Application of an EPA Registered Disinfectant (look for chemistry that is also CRI SOA approved) that provides soft surface sanitization instructions. Make sure it is pH neutral!

Once the sanitization processes have been completed, a routine maintenance cleaning program should be put in place to maintain the healthy condition of the carpet or upholstery. The sanitization process can then be a periodic service and does not need to be repeated with every cleaning.

For more information please feel free to reach out to us.

Chip Grimes – cgrimes@fsgflooring.com | 302-691-3970

The post What You Need to Know About Sanitizing Carpet appeared first on FSG Flooring.

Watch full interview via Floor Daily.

The post Chip Grimes Discusses His Commerical Flooring Maintenance Business in Philadelphia appeared first on FSG Flooring.

Greg Fylak will find you an expert on blood, signatures, weather, anatomy or falling concrete. Chip Grimes will brush the dirt from your office carpets. Mark Olazagasi can get your business computer back on track after a disaster.

One common thread links their businesses. They all started in an incubator that also hatched an accounting firm, marketing companies, an Uber for package delivery and a company that responds when a corporate plane crashes.

The Emerging Enterprise Center was the brainchild of Mark Kleinschmidt, president of the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce. Its one mission: Grow jobs.

For $19 a square foot, fledgling businesses get an office plus utilities, mailboxes and access to a receptionist, a copier, a postage meter, even a coffee maker. And, if the previous tenant leaves the furniture, it’s yours.

Baby businesses now dot two floors of that wing and small shiny square int eh basement that serves as a before-and-after for Facility Services Group, one of the incubator tenants.

Frank DeSantis, the center’s program manager, let Chip Grimes, who owns the carpet-and-hard-surfaces cleaning company, turn a few square feet of the grimy old tile in the building’s heater room sparkling clean so prospective clients could be wowed.

“They all have a dream – a belief in themselves, a desire to build something and be their own bosses,” DeSantis said. “We give them support, advice, access to resources, and they graduate with a business model they can grow.”

“We’re looking for somebody who wants to create jobs,” he said.

One early tenant has created 14 jobs and almost $6 million in sales. Info Solutions, an IT firm born in a home office in 2008, moved to the incubator in 2009. Now, its clients include Bayhealth Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, The Food Bank of Delaware and Delaware Technical and Community College. Mark Olazagasi, manager partner, said they’ve stayed to mentor new businesses.

Chip Grimes, who owns the carpet cleaning company, says having mentors and other entrepreneurs down the hall is the best part of the incubator – even better than the 40 percent he figures he’s saving on rent and utilities and services.

“We have completely unrelated businesses, but we can all get together and chat. Just ask, ‘Anybody run into a problem like this.’ When you’re in your own office building , that’s not as likely. You just don’t have that access,” said Grimes, who, predictably, has the cleanest carpets in the building.

Greg Fylak, an incubator grad who owns UCE Expert Witnesses in Newark, said he relied on the other entrepreneurs and the center leaders: “You can just walk down the hall and knock on their door and say, ‘I need this with this.’ They’re definitely a nice cushion to fall upon.

Fylak submitted his application to join the incubator after working from home on a business idea based on his 12 years in insurance claims management. He matches experts with the attorneys and insurance carriers who need them.

Now he represents almost 40 experts, including a pathologist, mechanical engineers, even an air-conditioning expert who proved a client’s business computers failed because of a faulty HVAC system.

There are signature experts, blood experts, weather experts, and a photogrammetry expert who makes measurements from photographs. “There’s an expert for everything out there, believe it or not,” he said.

To grow his own expert business, Fylak said he needed the experts he found at the incubator. “They helped get me off the ground,” he said.

It was program manager Frank DeSantis’ elevator-pitch advice that led Fylak to his succinct company slogan. DeSantis’ advice: You should be able to describe what you do in the time it takes for a short elevator ride.

Fylak’s slogan: “Exceptional Service. Exceptional Experts.”

The incubator has received funding from the county, the state and the U.S. Small Business Administration as well as from local business sponsors to provide training seminars and business events that fill in the blanks for new businesspeople.

“As an entrepreneur you maybe have an idea, but how do you start going down the road, connecting the dots, doing taxes, running payroll, finding an accountant and an attorney? Can you find a mentor? The incubator certainly assists you with all that,” Fylak said.

“I’m sure most, if not all, entrepreneurs can attest to it being a lonely world out there for us,” he said. “Having someone who can guide you and mentor you is tremendous. That’s where the EEC came in. It helped fill that void.’’

“If all the people sitting at their dining room tables banging out business plans could find out about this program, it’d be a win-win for everybody,” Grimes said.

View original article via Delaware Business Times.

The post From CPAs to Falling Concrete Experts appeared first on FSG Flooring.

FSG feels the best recycling program is the one where you don’t remove, replace and put into the land fill but instead, maintain the flooring you have and it will last for a very long time.

The post Stair Tread Restore Demo appeared first on FSG Flooring.

As you can see from the before picture the floor is loaded with dirt and particulates. In the after photo it’s very clear that we are able to remove everything and this also demonstrated the sheet vinyl is still in good shape.

These photos represent the amount of dirt that was on the floor. We used the bathroom as a staging area and if you look at the marble threshold (photo 1) you can see the dirt that has re-emulsified and is being tracked from the room to the bathroom. The second photo is the waste we collected in our machine.

Cleaning Process

Our cleaning process illustrating the dirt we are lifting off the floor.

The cleaning chemical is re-emulsifying the dirt and it looks like it is bubbling on the floor.

Cleaning Method

Due to the amount of dirt on the floor we had to clean the floor 3 times. This is a picture of the 3rd pass. Note the cleaning solution is not as dirty as shown in previous photos.

Patient Bathroom

The before picture was taken when we first arrived. The after was taken after we finished in the patient room. Note the cleaning of the bathroom only took 5 minutes.

The post Patient Room and Bathroom Cleaning Demo appeared first on FSG Flooring.

The post Resilient Flooring & Ceramic Tile Case Study appeared first on FSG Flooring.

Floor care is an industry heavily driven by labor, from the top down. Increasing efficiency throughout the entire organization is the first step in raising profits. But how do you do it? We reached out to three flooring maintenance experts to learn how establishing company standards, defining best practices, and building upon proven procedures can help cut down on waste and yield better earnings.

Chip Grimes, FSG

Mindset, to us, is the most important tool. If the crew (or anyone in our company) always knows that they are well informed about the company goals and objectives, have proper training, and understand everyone in the company is on the same page, then completing their task will become much easier.

We like to collect a lot of information during every phase of a project – this includes sales, demos, work execution, safety, project result, etc. All this information is shared so everyone in the company can be efficient, equipped, and well informed. We discuss this on a regular basis with everyone and we call it the FSG 3rd dimension.

Here is a simple example: my son loves extreme sports. He watches a lot of YouTube to figure it out, but when he goes out and tries he is not successful. It’s not due to a lack of effort or desire, it’s that he only has a 2 dimensional understanding. The FSG 3rd dimension comes from practice, experience, feedback, and most importantly, the right mindset.

Every day we work on the FSG 3rd dimension, which is pushing us towards our company’s strategic objectives.

Read full article here.

Story by XL North.

The post Why Efficiency is Key to Increasing Floor Care Profit appeared first on FSG Flooring.