Basic cleaning in school buildings PVC stripping made easy

A service provider from Kamen, just outside Dortmund in Germany’s Ruhr region, is focusing on innovative, environmentally friendly cleaning solutions. The company adopted an American system with a completely new approach to stripping, special cleaning, and maintenance cleaning. The new procedure is especially effective in school buildings.It is ten o’clock in the morning on a warm July day in North Rhine-Westphalia. Around this time on normal days, the hallways of the school fill up with pupils who are hustling and bustling to their next class. For the past weeks, however, the building has been eerily quiet. No pupils, no teachers, no substitute schedules displayed on the bulletin board – the only people around are from aktiv Gebäudedienstleistungen GmbH, the cleaning company contracted for the school building’s annual basic cleaning during the summer vacation. But wait – not only is the situation unlike the usual term-time routine, there is something else going on here, too. In previous years, the six weeks of summer silence used to be interrupted by countless single-disc machines working tirelessly in unison. This year, the cleaning scene is different – and quite unexpected. No rotating single-disc machines, no scrubbing employees trying to clean all those hard-to-reach places, and nobody prepping the classrooms in the next hallway with liters of cleaning chemicals. Instead, we see just two machines. One of them is not unlike a conventional single-disc machine, except for its rectangular plate. The other is a classic trailer machine, fitted with the same rectangular scrubber system. An innovative solution from the USWe are talking about the Edge system developed by the US cleaning brand Tomcat. The brand and the system have been available on the German market for three years, distributed by Rebi GmbH in Solingen. This innovation has changed the day-to-day work of Klaus Peter Kaldenbach, CEO of aktiv Gebäudedienstleistungen, more radically than any system before – especially during the school holidays. Kaldenbach learned about the Edge system in the course of a seminar held by Keppel GmbH, a company based in Steinhagen. Keppel is an established member of the GVS Grossverbraucherspezialisten e.G., a German wholesalers trade union that has been distributing Tomcat machines and systems as an official partner of Rebi GmbH since December 2014. The machines mentioned above are the Tomcat Stick Edge, a manually operated one-pad scrubbing machine, and the MiniMag Edge, a classic scrubber-drier. Together with Maximilian Knicker, Sales Consultant at Rebi GmbH, and Thomas Billigmann, Executive Assistant, Kaldenbach is showing us today why the US system has the potential to make a long-term impact on the market. They are working on a hallway with PVC floors that clearly are worse for the wear after long years of everyday school life and recurrent refurbishments during the holidays. At first glance, it seems that the flooring is due for a complete replacement. First pass: dry, no chemicalsKnicker gets down to business: First, he guides the Tomcat MiniMag across the floor for an initial, dry pass without cleaning chemicals. This first phase already highlights the unusual way in which the Edge system works because there is no lathery water covering the corridor. Only the machine’s rectangular plate, equipped with a PVC scrubbing pad, stands out. One single cycle with the machine is enough to remove the first layers of the old floor coating. “This is possible due to the special method at the core of the Tomcat system,” Knicker explains. “Unlike regular, rotating machines, what we have here is an oscillating movement of up to 2,500 rpm. It is entirely dry: no water, no cleaning chemicals.” The Tomcat technology makes it possible to forgo water and cleaning agents in most cases. “Even with an extremely worn floor, you can expect outstanding results by applying water and chemicals sparingly and selectively.” Klaus Peter Kaldenbach continues: “Now, one employee with one machine can take care of an entire classroom. The job used to require hour after hour of prepping. Now, it just takes 30 minutes.” This opens a whole new level of flexibility to Kaldenbach and his crew during the school holiday season. In a second pass, Knicker treats the floor with water and cleaning agents. Thanks to the vacuum on the machine, all residue is sucked up at the same time. “After a short drying period, you can already start to apply the new coating,” Maximilian Knicker explains. Thanks to the rectangular system design, cleaning service providers no longer have to spend ages going over floor edges and corners. “The Edge system works beyond the wheelbase of the machine, allowing for perfect cleaning in corners and right up to the baseboards.” In addition, the system comes with a wide selection of treatment pads and attachments. Besides the standard scrubbing pad, sanding screens and discs are available for removing particularly stubborn, layered dirt from the edges. Knicker continues: “Fact is, conventional methods have been used inadequately, and multiple coating processes have eventually led to dust and dirt inclusions in the corners and at the edges. This is especially problematic because it results in yellowing floors. For many of our customers, we have managed to fix this problem by cutting off a narrow strip of sanding screen and placing it underneath the edge of the pad. This allows us to sand the edge even more intensively, while giving regular surfaces the usual treatment.” For Kaldenbach, the changes brought by the new system are not limited to functionality: “Why deal with time-consuming work processes and planning stages if one system can handle everything? The system saves us loads of time and we use it in several locations. The whole team immediately saw the benefits.” The bottom line and environmental aspects looked good as well: “It’s not just the money saved on buying chemicals. My employees and the floor coatings are now much less exposed to cleaning fluids that are especially concentrated for stripping. Let me tell you, this is a big relief,” Klaus Peter Kaldenbach explains. A fortuitous trade fair encounterRebi GmbH, established in 1960, initially specialized in mechanical engineering and brake technology. In the 1970s, the family business also ventured into trading, adding pneumatic and hydraulic systems to their portfolio. Rebi soon expanded into compressor sales and maintenance. Before long, the company entered the field of cleaning technology. At first, the product range covered industrial vacuum cleaners and pressure washers; eventually, it also included floor cleaning machines. It was at a trade fair in Amsterdam in 2012, that Rebi discovered Tomcat Commercial Cleaning Equipment. It did not take long for Rebi’s staff to get excited about the innovative systems offered by the American manufacturer. “The modus operandi of the Edge system immediately convinced our management. They met Tomcat’s CEO at the event and agreed to set up a distribution network in Germany, with Rebi as the importer,” Thomas Billigmann, who had a leading role during the negotiations in Amsterdam, recounts. “At this stage, we have a strong network throughout Germany, with branches in almost every region. I might add that our partnership with the GVS Group has been particularly helpful in achieving this. We can ensure a sterling spare parts service and on-site maintenance.” As the hub for Germany, Rebi supplies the necessary machines and parts to the entire network. A range of larger initial investments were necessary to achieve this, but Billigmann insists that they have already paid off. “Over the past three years, the business with Tomcat has been on a strong growth trajectory.” The Solingen-based company further benefits from the pioneering status of its American partner. Imitations have already entered the market, “but they just can’t match the quality of the original,” says Billigmann. “Simply because Tomcat is already selling the third generation of the Stick Edge, and there have been significant developments between the individual generations.” Except for the largest ride-on scrubber, the entire Tomcat product range can be equipped with the Edge system. This makes the products popular not only with janitorial service providers, but also large-scale industrial customers, hotels, and car dealerships. Convincing results, compelling flexibilityThe machines of the American partner company are located in a somewhat higher price bracket, but according to Knicker, this is entirely justified considering the extensive scope of treatment options and significant savings potential. “On top of saving water, chemicals, and personnel costs, you get a technology that allows you to treat a large number of different floor coatings in a multitude of ways – using just one system. Not only linoleum, PVC, and elastomer, but also wood, porcelain stoneware, and natural stone floors. Anything is possible, from basic stripping all the way to total refurbishment.” It is, however, important to take a long hard look at the numbers to ensure the investment pays off. The results speak for themselves. “Look at this floor,” says Kaldenbach. “No single-disc machine in the world could have restored it this quickly.” And he’s right: The floor, which was still covered with a yellowish coating residue just a few minutes ago, looks smooth and fresh again after the MiniMag treatment, both in terms of its coloring and its surface texture. “We just need to apply the new finish, and we’re done here,” Kaldenbach happily adds. But what is it that makes the combination of these two machines work so well? “Simple,” Knicker explains, “the Stick Edge is great for those areas where access is a challenge, like narrow corridors, small rooms, or sanitary areas. The MiniMag is for wider corridors and spacious rooms because it enables us to be particularly efficient. Depending on the layout, of course, just one of the machines may well be enough.” Klaus Peter Kaldenbach knows one thing for sure: He will be getting more and more use out of his Tomcat Edge machines as school cleaning contracts keep coming in. “The system has completely changed the way we work in schools. It really enables us to deliver an outstanding cleaning result in places that were very difficult if not impossible to reach before.” It is safe to say that this school won’t be the only one to see a change in its summer routine, besides the absence of pupils and faculty. No more rotating disc machines or foaming water. Instead, just the hum of oscillating, rectangular Edge machines. Thomas Billigmann | peter.hartmann@holzmann-medien.de

Basic cleaning in school buildings PVC stripping made easy

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