Preparing Your Commercial Facilities For Winter

Winter can be a difficult time for your building due to the high accumulation of snow and use of deicers such as rock salt. Without the proper procedures in place, the next few months could be very hard on your interior and exterior surfaces. Here are some tips to help your staff prepare your facilities for the winter.

• Use of floor mats – People coming and going are sure to track in snow and salt. Using floor mats around your entrances will reduce the amount of water and salt residue that are tracked onto your floors.
• Use fans to dry entrances – Since natural stone is porous, melted snow can be absorbed by your floors. If water containing salt is absorbed, it can do very costly damage to your floors. Using fans to dry up this water can help prevent these damages.
• Clean your floors – Periodically clean your stone floors with a mop or auto scrubber. Removing any salt is important to prevent any degradation. Salt can also leave ugly stains on your floors which are unappealing to your customers. Winter is a good time to have your maintenance staff clean more often.
• Rinse exterior stone areas – The constant “freeze/thaw” cycle that occurs the winter can be especially hard on stone parts of your building. Water containing salt is absorbed when the weather warms and re-freezes when it gets colder. This can cause stone to crack and deteriorate. Periodically rinsing off these areas when it gets warmer can prevent salt damage.
• Professional cleaning & sealing – Having your interior and exterior stone surfaces professionally sealed is one of the best ways to prepare them for winter. This will prevent the absorption of water and decrease the likelihood of salt damage. Calling in specialists to clean and seal your surfaces throughout the year can do a lot to increase their lifespan.

GK’s Custom Polishing, Inc. are experts in all types of natural stone maintenance. We offer cleaning, polishing, restoration, and sealing for concrete, marble, granite, travertine, limestone, slate, sandstone, terrazzo, tile/grout, brass, stainless and more. We also are a master distributor of StoneTech® Professional products for cleaning, sealing and protecting natural stone. Click here to place an order. We offer free estimates for all hard surface projects so give us a call at (440) 937-4457 or email us at sales@gkspolishing.com.