There’s no reason to mince words; restrooms are costly and difficult to maintain. With the highest cleaning and construction costs per square foot, they require over 60% of all supplies in a building. Restrooms see the highest number of slip-and-fall incidents, and they bring in the most customer complaints. 

Here at Kaivac^®, we create common sense, science-based cleaning equipment to quickly take on customer complaints and create reliably clean spaces. A few years back, Contracting Profits polled their base of commercial office facility managers and discovered the five most common restroom complaints. Here they are, in no particular order, along with the Kaivac answer.

Bacteria thrive on urine residue. The telltale smell that we all recognize as urine is actually the smell of active bacteria colonies digesting the urea in the urine residue. Restroom maintenance should not rely on masking odors with fragrances that can trigger asthma and allergies. Underneath the fragrance, the odor-causing bacteria are still there. Mops, too, are ill equipped to address urine odor. In fact, they make it worse. Once a mop is contaminated, it simply spreads the problem around. It is no wonder that urine odor consistently comes up in building occupant restroom complaints.

If you can see a dark ring around the restroom baseboards, that’s a sign of a dirty floor. If there are gray or brown grout lines on the floor but white grout lines on the walls, that’s a visibly dirty floor. Grout is notoriously difficult to clean, because its porous surface harbors soil just below the level of the tile. Mops glide across the top, depositing soils in the grout lines. Then, as the moisture evaporates, those soils become stains. Even worse than the visible dirt are the invisible bacteria and the health problems they may cause. (In fact, that may be what building occupants are really worried about when they complain about dirty floors.)

This complaint stems from a truly unpleasant restroom experience. Toilets, urinals, and sinks should function (obviously) and be clean and safe to touch. No one wants to touch dirty fixtures. But that is exactly the problem. No one - including professional cleaners - wants to touch a dirty toilet or urinal, let alone get on their hands and knees to fully disinfect one and the surrounding area. A cleaning cloth is an unpleasant tool to use, and, if it isn’t used properly and thoroughly, it will not effectively remove bacteria. That must be why dirty fixtures are on the list of top complaints.

At Kaivac, we create restroom systems for facilities from tiny doctor’s offices to massive factories. Whatever the system, we use three steps to combat odor-causing soils on restroom floors and fixtures. First, we spray cleaning solution onto floors and fixtures in low-pressure mode. Then we rinse with fresh water in high-pressure mode, dislodging soil and bacteria from every crack and crevice. Lastly, we use a powerful wet vacuum to recover the cleaning solution. The contaminated solution is captured in the recovery tank along with odor-causing soils and bacteria. This approach reliably removes 99.9 percent of targeted bacteria, making it harder for bacteria to come back after cleaning. A Kaivac restroom system addresses urine odor, dirty floors, and dirty fixtures, resolving three of the five top restroom complaints.

There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a restroom and finding out – too late – that it is not properly stocked. It’s no wonder that empty dispensers are the most common restroom complaint. For building occupants, it feels like a fundamental fail in restroom function, and it can lead to lost contracts and lost jobs.

This complaint originates from a powerful feeling: disgust. Overflowing trash is disgusting, especially if something other than paper towels is overflowing (and it usually is.) Simply put, building occupants don’t want to have to wade through trash to use the facilities. If they do, chances are, you’ll hear about it.

Fortunately the complaints around overflowing trash and empty dispensers are relatively easy to resolve with increased frequency of restroom checks and a full change of supplies on hand at each check. The OmniFlex^™ SUV^™ combines a Kaivac restroom cleaning system with a futuristic janitor’s cart. It has the ability to spray, rinse, and recover while carrying supplies and trash. It even has a trash compactor that reduces trash volume and allows for carrying more trash at one time. (Side benefit: it also reduces trips to the dumpster.) The OmniFlex SUV was specifically designed to do it all – including address the complaints of overflowing trash and empty dispensers. You can also add a trash compactor and storage capabilities to any Kaivac system.

These five restroom complaints are common, because the current tools used in restrooms are not up to the job. At Kaivac, we create restroom solutions to quickly address complaints and create reliably clean spaces. So don’t just clean it with the same old, ineffective tools. Kaivac it.