Take the street out of the office: Part 3
Understanding the dirt invasion in your workspace
Now that we've discussed the importance of entry matting, we must acknowledge that, while it effectively traps most soils, some remnants inevitably remain. There will always be a trace amount of outside dirt clinging to the soles of your shoes, bypassing the entry mat and making its way into your workspace.
In most city buildings, once you're past the entry mat, you traverse the foyer and ascend the lifts on hard surfaces like stone flooring. These surfaces offer no absorbency or concealment for the residual dirt.
Next, you encounter the carpeted workspace, chosen for its comfort, acoustic value, and aesthetic appeal. Most importantly, however, it possesses the crucial ability to absorb and hide soils.
Consider an average building with between 2,000 and 7,000 daily occupants. Some will arrive by car or bike, but the majority will use public transport—typically the main culprits for tracking dirt into the building. If we estimate that around 70% of occupants use public transport, that leaves us with 1,500 to 5,000 commuters introducing dirt into the workspace each day. Factoring in at least one exit and re-entry per person—for a coffee break or lunch—we're looking at 6,000 to 20,000 dirt-laden shoes reentering the building daily. That adds up to an average of 30,000 to 100,000 potentially dirty footfalls each week.
6,000 to 20,000 dirt-laden shoes reentering the building daily
This constant foot traffic, even with a small amount of dirt on each shoe, results in a significant buildup over time. Dry and loose dirt can be vacuumed out daily using an upright brush head vacuum. However, oily soils stick to the carpet fibers, attracting dry soils that then resist vacuuming.
If the carpet is not cleaned regularly, these soils will continue to saturate the fibers until they can't absorb any more dirt. The excess dirt then spreads further into the workspace, saturating fresh carpet fibers and creating what we call "sheep track" wear areas in high-traffic zones.
Many buildings schedule mechanical carpet cleaning semi-annually or annually to remove these soils. However, this interval allows the oily, gritty soils plenty of time to pollute and cause significant wear and tear to your workspace carpet.
Colin Saddington