Checklist: Design for Cleanability: Checklist of Strategies
Provide clean landscape materials outside the building.
Select landscape materials leading into the building that will not be tracked into the building, that do not collect dirt, and that are easy to clean with a hose.Avoid "dirty" vegetation.
Trees and shrubs planted near entryways should be species that do not shed fruit or result in significant pollen production. For example, crabapple, female ginkgo, and white pine trees should be avoided.Provide an exterior grate for stomping feet.
A metal grate system, with an easily cleanable trough beneath, should be installed outside each entryway. For very-heavy-traffic, public-use buildings, consider installing a fan system to pull particulates off shoes and trap dust. (Any air-handling equipment should be controlled to operate only when needed.)Provide an outside spigot and drain near the entrance.
An outside spigot should be provided on the outside of the building near entrances to facilitate washdown of entryway surfaces.Provide a drain outside the entryway.
Pavement immediately outside any entryway should slope to a drain. The drain line can empty into a storm sewer, a subsurface reservoir and infiltration area, or a bioswale that provides both treatment and infiltration.Provide a three-component track-off entryway system inside the building.
Specify a three-component entryway track-off system at least 30 feet (10 m) in total length that gets progressively softer further into the building. Such track-off systems should be installed not only at a building's main entrance, but also at entries from parking garages and any other entryway.Provide electrical outlets near entryways.
Electrical outlets should be installed on the building interior close to any entryway. These will be used for vacuum cleaners and other cleaning equipment.Corridors
Specify hard-surface flooring.
The best floor from a cleaning standpoint is a hard-surface, poured floor, such as terrazzo or decorative poured concrete.Avoid flooring materials that require regular stripping and rewaxing.
Vinyl composition tile (VCT) requires a wax layer for wear resistance; this coating has to be periodically stripped using strong solvents that release significant quantities of VOCs. Far better are flooring surfaces that do not require periodic stripping and rewaxing. See EBN Vol. 12, No. 5.Provide rounded wall base and corner tiles.
Wall bases that include a radius curve at the wall-floor intersection and at wall corners will make cleaning easier and faster because dirt will not be trapped in hard-to-reach corners.Match flooring materials to usage patterns.
Avoid wall-to-wall carpeting in heavily traveled hallways where tracked-in dirt or spills will cause problems; a better choice here, relative to cleanability, would be terrazzo, stone, pigmented concrete, or a resilient flooring that does not require stripping and rewaxing (such as rubber or natural linoleum).Restrooms
Specify larger tiles to minimize grout lines.
Grout is difficult and labor-intensive to clean. Use larger-dimension tile so that the length of grout lines will be shorter. For example, avoid 1" or 2" tiles (25 or 50 mm) in favor of 6" or 12" (150 or 300 mm) tiles, but on floors specify tiles that offer good traction. Grout should be off-white or colored to reduce the visual impact of staining.With tile walls, use rounded tiles at corners and wall base.
Sharp, right angles are difficult to clean. Use rounded corner tiles for interior corners and where the walls intersect with the floor.Avoid toilet and urinal partitions that extend to the floor.
Restroom floors should be as open as possible to provide accessibility for mopping. Provide at least 12" (300 mm) beneath toilet and urinal partitions to make mopping easier and avoid hard-to-clean corners.Hide plumbing inside walls.
To minimize cleaning, plumbing pipes should be kept inside walls, rather than left in view. Note that this will make repairs more difficult.Install faucets with adequate space behind them.
Avoid unreachable nooks and crannies. Install faucets, soap dispensers, and other fixtures so that the space behind them can easily be accessed for cleaning.Install a big splash plate behind sinks.
Though the sink and faucet design will affect this, a splash plate that extends up at least 6" (150 mm) will reduce splashing on the mirror and reduce cleaning needs.With non-water-using urinals, provide clear instructions to janitorial staff.
Using the wrong cleaning fluids with non-water-using urinals can dissolve the sanitary-trap fluid, resulting in odor problems or necessitating more frequent replenishment of that fluid. Janitorial staff should be clearly instructed as to the proper cleaning of these products according to manufacturers' recommendations.Include a floor drain and sloping floor.
Restrooms should include a floor drain with the floor gently sloping to that point to facilitate washdown.Include hot and cold spigots in restrooms.
Provide spigots for both hot and cold water in restrooms to aid in cleaning. These can be located in a locked cabinet or hidden from view beneath a sink.Specify easy-cleaning materials.
Materials with easy-to-clean, nonstaining surfaces should be specified where possible. Despite its name, "stainless steel" does stain. Preferable are materials such as polished granite, synthetic stone, solid-surface plastics, and (larger-dimension) vitreous tile.Install energy-efficient electric hand dryers instead of paper towel dispensers.
Compared to paper towels, electric hand dryers, when the only option for hand drying, dramatically reduce paper consumption and waste, significantly reduce janitorial costs, use considerably less energy when one factors in the embodied energy of the paper towels, and are probably more sanitary. Specify one of the fast-drying, energy-efficient models, such as Excel Dryer's XLerator (see EBN Vol. 11, No. 1) or World Dryer's AirMax dryer.Provide large and easy-access wastepaper receptacles.
In some restrooms, wastepaper receptacles have to be emptied multiple times per day. In restrooms where paper towels are provided for hand-drying, provide large and easy-to-access wastepaper receptacles to simplify and minimize the frequency of emptying during the day.Specify toilet paper dispensers that hold two or more rolls.
While not a cleaning issue per se, toilet paper generally comes out of janitorial budgets and janitorial staff are responsible for refilling toilet paper dispensers. With single-roll dispensers, rolls are typically discarded with 10 to 20% of their paper on them�sometimes a lot more�to minimize the chance of running out of paper. This results in considerable waste. Instead, specify dispensers that hold two or more rolls, designed so that users access a new roll when the first is used up.General
Minimize the number of dissimilar surfaces in a space.
Different surfaces have different cleaning requirements. To minimize the number of cleaning compounds custodial staff need to use and lower the risk of damaging a surface by using the wrong cleaning compound on it, keep the number of different surface types as small as possible.Install carpet tile rather than wall-to-wall carpeting.
Individual carpet tiles can be replaced when stained or otherwise damaged, obviating the need to replace a large area of carpeting. Random patterns that allow any carpet tile to be placed anywhere in the floor further improve flexibility.Consider cleanability in light-fixture selection.
Many of the most popular light fixtures for green buildings provide uplighting or a combination of uplighting and downlighting. While offering significant benefits, such fixtures also make cleaning more difficult. Be sure that building owners understand the need for cleaning light fixtures to ensure efficient operation.Provide large, conveniently located janitorial closets.
Janitorial closets should be large enough to hold all supplies, should be well lit, and should have hot and cold water and large washbasins. Closet floors should slope to floor drains that are plumbed to catch chemical spills to facilitate clean-up in the event of a spill. In large buildings, janitors' closets should be conveniently located on each floor to allow janitors to work efficiently.Provide large, conveniently located storage areas for cleaning supplies.
Storage closets or rooms for cleaning supplies should be conveniently located and large enough to facilitate good organization. In large buildings, easy access to the shipping area or a loading dock will simplify resupply. Good lighting is important so that supplies can be easily found.Provide adequate outlets in corridors and large meeting rooms.
In planning the spacing of electrical outlets, account for custodial needs for vacuuming, floor polishing, and other activities that require electricity. Outlets should be installed at distances that allow phased cleaning to be implemented efficiently.Install lighting controls that work well for cleaning crews.
Controls for banks of lights should be configured to support a logical, phased cleaning approach. The entire floor of a high-rise building does not need to be illuminated for cleaning, for example, but cleaning crews should not have to operate an excessive number of light switches to carry out their work.Provide cleaning instruction as part of the building owner's manual.
Proper cleaning of different materials and surfaces is critical to their durability as well as to the healthy operation of a building. Building owners should be provided with guidelines or specifications on cleaning to assist in achieving these objectives.
