The Only Restroom Cleaning Services Checklist You'll Ever Need

Restroom Cleaning Checklist

Dirty restrooms are more than an assault on the senses, they're unhygienic and unhealthy. Clean and sanitary restrooms are a non-negotiable necessity for every business. The state of your restrooms leaves a lasting impression on your customers and can indicate how you run your business.

Summit Building Services knows that comprehensive, routine restroom cleaning services are essential for customer relations, and employee happiness.

Do Dirty Bathrooms Affect Your Bottom-Line 

In a survey run by Harris Interactive, statistics have shown that 90% of Americans think employers who deep clean restrooms regularly care about their health and wellness in the workplace. Needless to say, your employees believing you care about their safety while they're at work is incredibly important in maintaining employee satisfaction.

Americans value clean restrooms and are disgusted when they encounter dirty and unsanitary ones. What's worse, they're not likely to keep their opinions to themselves. Dissatisfied patrons are likely to share their awful experiences with friends and family.

Additionally, in another survey run by Harris Interactive, 29% of U.S. adults stated they would never return to a restaurant with extremely unclean and unsanitary restrooms. Additionally, "50% of those who visit restaurants said they would tell their friends and family about a negative experience with an unclean or unsanitary restroom." The state of your bathrooms can have a lasting effect on your customer base, word-of-mouth advertising, and ultimately, your bottom line. 

Don't leave the state of your restroom cleanliness up to chance, Let Summit Building Services take care of you with our professional restroom cleaning services.

Root Causes of Dirty Bathrooms

So, while it’s clear that dirty, smelly bathrooms can and do have negative effects on customer perception of your business and are potentially hazardous to the physical well-being of people in your building, it can be difficult to pin down the culprits creating the issue.

1. Poor Cleaning

Poor cleaning is the most common cause of deteriorating restroom quality. Attention to detail is crucial when cleaning high-traffic restrooms. These restrooms that are used hundreds of times per day need thorough cleaning with attention to areas where buildup occurs. The base of a toilet is often overlooked daily, but if often where urine and other contaminants can build up.

Bad cleaning often boils down to a lack of effort and attention to detail. This can be a result of a cleaner not being checked in on enough, not having the proper tools and supplies for the job, or just skipping tasks. In this situation, your cleaning company must have measures in place to correct the cleaner's mistakes.

The quickest and easiest solution to remediate the situation is to schedule a restroom deep cleaning. Deep cleaning uses more aggressive tactics that remove the buildup that causes foul odors. This helps in reducing contaminants and nullifying the stench in your restroom.

2. Cleaning Isn't Done Frequently Enough

An issue common to high-traffic restrooms in large offices, factories, schools, and other densely populated buildings is that restrooms aren't cleaned frequently enough for how much they are used. Factories that run multiple shifts are the most likely to have this issue. Restrooms that are only cleaned once a day will be clean for the first shift and will be dirty by the end of that shift. 

The best solution in these cases is to add additional service hours throughout the day.

Day porter services are designed to target areas in your building that, throughout the day, need extra cleaning. A day porter will clean high-traffic areas in your building such as restrooms, kitchens, and cafeterias, and can also provide disinfection services as well. Additional restroom cleaning throughout the days keeps your restrooms cleanlier, toilet paper and paper towels stocked and reduces harsh odors.

3. Bad Restroom Habits 

Cleaners can have a very hard time making noticeable improvements when the people using the restroom are working against them. Bad habits can wreak havoc on the hard work the cleaner puts into your restrooms. 

A few examples of bad habits are peeing on toilet seats, not flushing, or forgetting to flush. One particularly easy fix that happens a lot in men's restrooms is not flushing urinals. Whether it be from forgetfulness or not wanting to touch the handle, the harsh, stale odor from an unflushed urinal will quickly spread through the whole restroom. 

4. Broken Toilets & Urinals  

Sometimes, urinals and toilets break down unexpectedly after being used. Broken fixtures can significantly damage the air quality in your bathroom. While a broken toilet is often apparent, urinals can be a bit trickier. There can be any number of reasons your urinal isn't flushing and sometimes it's not often very obvious that there is an issue.

5. Poor Ventilation and Dusty Vents

Poor ventilation and airflow could well be the cause of lingering odors in your restroom. Vents with a heavy accumulation of dust can be a signal that you have more underlying issues with your vents and air filters. 

Poor ventilation and air circulation mean that smells are not being moved through and out of your restroom, leading to stale and lingering odors. Additionally, large amounts of dust can create a musty smell in your restroom, adding to the already worsening odor profile.

Signs You Need Professional Restroom Cleaning Services

Don't settle for unhygienic, unsanitary, and unsafe restrooms. There are some pretty telltale signs that your restrooms need a professional touch, or that your current cleaning crew isn't getting the job done anymore. The following signs are pretty obvious markers that your bathrooms can be better.

1. Foul odors seem to linger: Some particularly bad odors are produced in bathrooms. Left unattended, buildup begins to accrue in toilets and urinals. These strong odors quickly degrade the indoor air quality 
   
2. Employees complain about dirty restrooms: Under normal circumstances, employees keep a majority of complaints to themselves. You'll know there is an issue when employees start complaining about their restrooms.
   
3. Wastebaskets overflow daily: Paper towels will be noticeably spread on the floor around an overstuffed trash can. 
   
4. Toilets are “unusable” at a certain point in the day: Whether the toilet is clogged, or just too dirty, this will be the clearest sign of a need for urgent change 

Restroom Cleaning is an essential in your office cleaning checklist

While cleaning a restroom isn't necessarily rocket science, we do follow cleaning best practices that we use to work efficiently and effectively. We design our cleaning programs using a top-down cleaning approach to create professional bathroom cleaning services that leave your area properly cleaned and sanitized.  

1. Dust High to Low:  We begin by dusting and removing cobwebs from corners, vents, the tops of stalls, and anywhere else you can find dust. We use an extendable dusting wand that makes it easy to reach all the spots where dust may go unnoticed. Making sure to remove dust from your fans and vents improves Indoor Air Quality.
   
2. Wipe Down Mirrors and Sinks: Before you dirty your gloves cleaning toilets, you'll want to clean your sinks and mirrors. We use glass cleaner and wipe down the mirror making sure to leave no streaks. We use Peroxide multi-surface cleaner to clean and disinfect in, and around the sink.
   
3. Clean All Toilets and Urinals:  Clean from top to bottom with a disinfecting chemical. We use Spartan's GS Disinfectant solution to clean the entire unit from the seat to the bowl. In cases where there is accumulated grime or the bowl has begun to stain, we use a low acid bowl cleaner and a swab to clean the entire bowl. After cleaning we check and refill any consumable products that may be running low in the stall.
   
4. Disinfection:  We use our Two-Step Disinfection process on high-traffic touchpoints. Areas such as door handles, faucets, and dispensers that are frequently touched need this additional disinfection. We begin by clean wiping the surface with a clean rag and peroxy solution. This is followed by spraying our disinfecting solution onto a surface and allowing it to air dry.
   
5. Trash Removal: Remove all trash from your bathroom routinely. Trash buildup can potentially become the worst contributor to air quality degradation. Removing trash and feminine hygiene products regularly is a key contributor to keeping your restrooms smelling fresh.
   
6. Sweep and Mop: Sweep and mop starting furthest from the exit and clean your way out of the room. Consistent sweeping and mopping is the best way to avoid wet and sticky floors. When we clean your floors, we sweep up all debris and mop every inch of your restroom. When mopping, it's key to frequently clean your mop head to make sure all of the soil from the floor is being picked up and not simply moved around. Doing this daily is key to keeping your floors clean and clear of sticky liquids and contaminants. 

Improving Bathroom Cleanliness with Day Porter Services

For some facilities, once-daily cleaning simply isn't enough. Restrooms in manufacturing facilities, large retailers, and public offices can experience a large amount of traffic through their restrooms. Adding an extra cleaning shift with a day porter can immediately improve the condition of high-traffic restrooms throughout the day, and are useful people to have on hand for other cleaning-related emergencies. 

Day Porter Service for Factory Bathrooms

Why do restrooms in factories and manufacturing plants need cleaning more cleaning than a busy office? These restrooms face more adversity than most. Unlike other high-traffic restrooms in retail stores, these restrooms are subject to being attached to a production facility, compounding high use with the effects of the environment they reside in. Additional service with a day porter will help to offset some of these common issues in factory bathrooms.

1. Messy Floors and Fixtures: Whether they are coming from the outside, or the plant floor, employees will track all kinds of dirt, mud, and grease on their feet and hands. This results in dirtier floors, doors, sinks, and dispensers.
   
2. Dust: Dust created from your production facility will accumulate on flat surfaces in your restrooms leading to a musty odor.
   
3. Trash on the Floor: Paper towels and unused toilet paper often end up on the floor after failing to find their way to the trash can or toilet.

Additional cleaning from a day porter will provide subtle bonuses. Here are a few things you should start to notice with added service daily.

1. Bathrooms Stay Cleaner: Employees will be relieved to have a more inviting restroom experience and are more likely to take care of the space.
   
2. Cleaning kills germs and bacteria: Restrooms are teeming with germs and bacteria. Regular cleaning and routine deep cleaning kills germs and bacteria at the source and diminish the spread of communicative illnesses, meaning fewer sick days for your employees.
   
3. Clean Restrooms Look Better: While we're taught not to judge a book by its cover, that saying doesn't apply to bathrooms. Dirty workplace bathrooms diminish your building's aesthetic and sensory appeal.  
   
4. Improved Indoor Air Quality: Bad indoor air catches and circulates germs and bacteria. Additionally, cutting down on foul odors improves air quality in and around your workplace restrooms.
   
5. Clean Floors: Your employees track in grease, dirt, salt, and water mucking up the floors they walk on. Aside from strictly being dirty, these floors can become a falling hazard. Increasing cleaning frequency keeps flooring clean and clear of debris.

Restroom Deep Cleaning

Sometimes a restroom is beyond the help of routine cleaning and requires a little extra elbow grease. If your restroom needs an intensive deep clean, Summit Buildings Service can help with that as well. Our restroom deep cleaning services include:

1. Pressure Washing: This removes tough build-up and grime on surfaces in your restroom.
   
2. Wall Washing: Walls are scrubbed or sprayed with a disinfecting cleaner to remove any stains and discoloration. This is most needed on walls behind urinals, toilets, and next to sinks and soap dispensers. Cleaning the walls in your restroom is another key step to minimizing odors and degradation of your restroom.
   
3. Horizontals, Verticals, Fixtures Detail Cleaned: We clean every horizontal and vertical item in the bathroom. This includes any ledges, stands, partitions, and toilet paper holders. We then detail-clean all the fixtures in the restroom. Polishing them as needed to restore shine. 
   
4. Ceramic Tile Scrub: As the last step, the floors are deeply scrubbed. If they are ceramic tile floors, the grout lines are deep scrubbed to restore grout color and remove dirt from the grout lines. 

Closing Thoughts

Restroom cleaning is far from rocket science, and like most things, consistency is key. Staying vigilant, using proper cleaning techniques, and the right chemicals will keep your restroom from becoming a touchy subject that you wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole. 

If you're not so interested in cleaning your restroom, or the situation has gotten out of hand, Summit Building Services is ready to come to the rescue. We design our cleaning services with each part of your building in mind. We put our expertise and experience to the test for our customers each night. Are you in need of cleaning services for your workplace? Schedule a building walkthrough to get your free quote and let us help you get the results you're looking for.