do sustainable cleaning products work

Do Sustainable Cleaning Products Really Work?

by AdviceCarpet Cleaning

When people talk about cleaning products, there’s a common misconception that harsher chemicals clean more effectively. That’s not true; good sustainable cleaning products are extremely effective.

But if both sustainable and traditional cleaning products will clean your workplace effectively, why should you bother with the sustainable ones?

Because the chemicals found in most cleaning products aren’t just bad for the environment, they’re dangerous for your health too.

Ask yourself: Are toxic chemicals that put you at risk any better than dirt? Not if you ask us! Luckily you don’t have to choose one or the other. There are many sustainable cleaning options that are safe for your health and will get your business sparkling clean.

Why Are Traditional Cleaning Products Dangerous?

Traditional cleaning products that contain toxic chemicals can be dangerous for two main reasons:

droplets fountain water birdThey’re bad for the environment.

Toxic cleaning products don’t just sit around in your office. They frequently end up in the waste stream. From there, they can leach into our soil and drinking water.

That means we drink water with small amounts of nasty chemicals like perchloroethylene, ammonium hydroxide, and butyloxy ethanol — not to mention good old fashioned bleach! (Don’t worry, I’ll explain what all those chemicals are in the next section.)

They’re bad for you.

You know the chemical smell you’ve probably noticed after your space gets cleaned? The smell of a new car? The scent of a recently cleaned bathroom? That dry cleaning smell?

Those smells are the result of chemicals from cleaning products being released into the air and into your body. Eventually, the smell goes away, but until then, people in the area are breathing in potentially dangerous fumes with negative health side effects.

What Chemicals Are in Traditional Cleaning Products?

A few of the most important chemicals you’ll find in many cleaning products are:

Believe it or not, all those chemicals are found in common carpet cleaners. Carpet cleaners are some of the most important cleaning products to be wary of, because they often contain a lot of harsh chemicals.

walking on clean carpet

Traditional cleaners will kill germs and dirt in your carpet, but they may also do damage your body in the process.

What Are the Sustainable Cleaning Alternatives?

Most sustainable cleaning products are made of plant-based ingredients, less harmful chemicals, and plain old water!

essential oils natural sustainable cleaningA few things you might see on the ingredients list are:

  • White vinegar
  • Baking soda
  • Low concentration hydrogen peroxide
  • Essential oils
  • Castile soap

Not only are these solutions safer for you and better for the environment, they’re also extremely effective cleaners!

Let’s see why.

How Do Sustainable Cleaning Products Work?

At Cascade Building Services, we use sustainable cleaning products to clean carpets, windows, and just about everything else in your workplace. We use eco-friendly, citrus-based cleaners with no toxic chemicals or irritants.

One of the most common questions we get is:

“How is it possible to clean a carpet with a citrus-based cleaner?”

Good question! Carpets can be hard to clean, especially if it’s been a while. When you hire a professional carpet cleaner, you want to make sure you’re getting a thorough cleaning without dirt, moisture, or cleaning residue left behind. Here’s how it works:

Our proprietary process uses something called ion-exchange to separate and remove microscopic particles of dirt and other gross stuff from your carpet. The citrus-based cleaning solution we use for this process is completely biodegradable, nontoxic, and leaves behind absolutely no residue! Plus it won’t smell like chemicals when you come into work the next day.

grey luxury carpet silver

You should know: Some cleaning services will say they offer “steam cleaning” — a method which shoots water into the carpet and can take up to a few days to dry. That’s why we prefer our ion-exchange method. It dries in only a few hours, so you can get your carpet cleaned on a weeknight and come into work the next day!

The Cascade Building Services Promise

Eco-friendliness and sustainability are important to us. So is the health of our clients. At Cascade Building Services, we’ve made a commitment to using only products that:

  • Deliver exceptional results
  • Ensure a sustainable workplace
  • Are free from harmful odors and toxins
  • Improve indoor air quality
  • Help us provide the cleanest, safest work environment while minimizing our carbon footprint

Our goal is to improve air quality, recycle as much as possible, and reduce waste without sacrificing cleanliness and sanitation.

If you’re interested in an effective and sustainable cleaning solution for your workplace, contact us for a free quote!

Essential oils photo: Abi Porter

Cleaning-Maintenance-Guide-for-Property-Managers

Cleaning & Maintenance Guide for Property Managers

by AdviceCarpet Cleaningcascade building servicesJanitorial ServicesportlandWindow Washing

Managing all of the units in an apartment complex or office building can be a logistical nightmare. With so many units occupied by so many different tenants with varying needs and reliability, it can be a lot to manage.

Luckily, we’ve put together this guide to help you manage your condo complex or office building so it is always in tip-top shape.

 

Evaluate the Individual Units Between Tenants

Good maintenance of office and apartment complexes starts with proper care of the individual units. While you can try as hard as possible to make sure a new tenant will take proper care of the space, the most you can do is make sure it is properly maintained between tenants. Not only will this help the space be more attractive to new tenants, it will encourage the new tenant to take good care of the unit.

Once the previous tenant has moved out, evaluate it for:

  • Damage to walls
  • Stains on carpets
  • Damage to large appliances like refrigerators or dishwashers
  • Cracked or dirty windows
  • Pest infestations
  • Mold

Fix the issues you find immediately. It will be significantly harder to fill the space if you don’t fix these problems. Potential new tenants will want to see a finished unit before signing a lease. Every day the unit is not occupied you are losing money.

After a tenant moves out, consider:

  • Repainting the walls
  • Replacing any damaged carpet or flooring
  • Changing the locks on the unit
  • Properly cleaning the unit

 

Ongoing Cleaning and Maintenance

People don’t want to live or work in an unclean environment. If you are managing a large apartment building or condo complex, there is a lot of space to clean. Managing this much cleaning, from floors to bathrooms, can be exhausting. Filthy surfaces completely filled waste baskets, and dirty bathrooms are unacceptable for a reputable space.

While your tenants will always have to perform some basic cleaning themselves, you are going to be expected to carry a lot of the heavy lifting, particularly in an office environment.

In addition to more basic janitorial services like cleaning bathrooms and emptying waste bins, there are other, more involved services to think about. Below, we’ve put some you will have to perform.

Floor and Carpet Cleaning

Walking on sticky, stained carpet or flooring is never an inviting prospect. It reflects poorly on a business’s image, and people do not want to see it when walking into their apartment building. Unfortunately, dirty floors are unavoidable.

Floors

Dirty floors reflect poorly on your business. Also, continuously unclean floors will have to be replaced much sooner, costing you more money in the long run to maintain.

For well-kept floors, you will need to do the following:

  • Seal and wax
  • Polish
  • Remove stains

Most floor cleaning companies will be able to handle everything from concrete to ceramic tile.

Don’t ruin your floors or leave a bad first impression with dirty floors!

Carpets

Often property managers think they need to replace their carpets when really all they need to do is properly maintain and clean them.

We recommend having your carpets cleaned twice a year to keep them looking great and not degrading. They will look nice, and last longer than uncleaned carpets.

Waste and Recycling Management

Waste management will be something you need to be on top of to ensure the cleanliness of your building. Trash build up will lead to unsanitary conditions on your property. The last thing you want to deal with are pests infiltrating your apartment building or office.

To keep costs down, pay particular attention to the management of recycling in your building. Good recycling management will lessen your building’s trash bill. Make sure to properly sign your recycling and empty the bins as much as possible to ensure your tenants participate in your recycling program.

Window Cleaning

Nobody likes looking out a window and seeing a smudgy, dirty view. While it may be relatively easy to properly clean the inside of your windows, ensuring the cleanliness of the outside can be a tricky task.

Window exteriors should be cleaned twice a year, and professionals should be hired for the task. It is dangerous to try to perform yourself, particularly on windows of buildings over a story high!

A Note On Cleaning Supplies

Tenants hate living in filth. They do not want to work and live in a dirty space. They also hate the constant smell of chemicals and feeling like they are breathing in dangerous fumes.

To ensure tenants and guests don’t feel like they are breathing in noxious fumes, make sure to use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. Not only will this make your tenants feel better, it will be safer and better for the environment.

 

Common Rooms

Common areas are an often overlooked area of apartment buildings. Since no one tenant is responsible for taking care of the space, clutter and trash can build up in the room. It is also one of the main spaces guests and potential new tenants see when they enter the building, so it is particularly important to keep it clean. Make sure that the room is checked regularly for dirty dishes, left out items, and trash.

 

Landscaping

It doesn’t matter if you are managing an apartment building or office, there will be landscaping to be done. Landscaping projects an image for your building and is the first thing greeting your tenants or their guests when they are approaching your building. Make this space look beautiful!

A couple landscaping features needing maintenance:

  • Lawn or grassy areas
  • Bushes and hedges
  • Plants and flowers
  • Gutter cleaning

 

Trusted Cleaning and Maintenance Service Providers

While some property managers may be able to have employees on staff to help them clean and maintain their building, most do not. Property managers have a lot of tasks and need to be focused on managing the building, not maintaining it.

This makes hiring good people to clean and maintain your space crucial for a well-run building. Think about hiring companies for:

Since time is tight as a property manager, we recommend finding a company that can perform as many of these tasks as possible.

 

Let’s Talk!

Cascade Building Services can help with your janitorial and maintenance service needs.

Call Cascade Building Services today at (503) 691-0776 for a free, no-obligation quote. If you’re located in the Portland or Vancouver metro areas, we’d love to show how we can help with all your office or apartment building cleaning needs.

Young couple relaxing on the carpet

Why Use Green Carpet Cleaning?

by Carpet Cleaning

Do you put bleach in your morning coffee?

Probably not.

That’s because you care about your health. Maybe you even buy organic food and use other natural products.

Green carpet cleaning, however, might not have occurred to you. But it should, and here’s why. Toxic cleaners can end up in the waste stream, and from there, leach into soil and drinking water. So using harsh chemicals on carpet is sort of like using bleach as coffee creamer. Gross!

Eco-friendly carpet cleaning is the answer.

For years, Americans used bleach and other harsh chemicals to clean our bathrooms, kitchens, and homes. Now consumers and businesses are catching on. Carpet cleaning shouldn’t leave strong fumes and chemicals in the air for people, kids, and pets to breathe. Keep reading to learn what’s toxic in most carpet cleaners, why green cleaning is better, and what ingredients are more eco-friendly.

Is Carpet Cleaning Toxic?

bad smell flickrWhat’s so bad about traditional carpet cleaning, you ask? Well, one telltale sign should be the smell. Any smell from a new product — that new car scent, or the strange odor of a new rug or mattress, or that dry cleaning smell — means it is offgassing. That’s when chemicals are released into the air, usually with negative health side effects. After traditional carpet cleaning, carpets smell…different. After a while, the smell goes away, but until then, people are breathing in potentially dangerous fumes.

One such dangerous chemical in conventional carpet cleaners is perchloroethylene, aka “perc.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suspects perc causes cancer and harms your brain. According to one health magazine, “People who live in residential buildings where dry cleaners are located have reported dizziness, loss of coordination and other symptoms.” That’s because dry cleaners use perc — and so do conventional carpet cleaners.

Other harmful chemicals in carpet cleaner are naphthalene and butyloxy ethanol. These two outlaws can hurt the nervous system, liver, and kidneys, possibly causing cancer. Another one to avoid is ammonium hydroxide, which irritates the lungs, eyes, and skin because it’s corrosive. Yes, these chemicals help break down dirt in carpet, but they can also break down YOU!

What’s in Green Carpet Cleaning Solution? sleeping dog carpet

Green carpet cleaners are made of plant-based ingredients, less harmful chemicals, or simply water. Here are some common ingredients:

  • Diluted hydrogen peroxide
  • Baking soda
  • White vinegar
  • Essential oil
  • Castile soap 

How can plain old water clean carpets? It’s called oxygenation. Here’s how it works:

The secret is in oxygenated water bubbles created in a special apparatus with an oxygenation chamber. These oxygenated water bubbles go through a special cell. In the cell, electric current forms a stream of very charged alkaline and acidic water, which breaks down the dirt into small bits and washes it away from the carpet.

All these methods are safer and healthier than toxic carpet cleaning methods. Not only do they get carpet clean, but they promote better air quality and thus healthier people.

What Does Cascade Building Services Use? 

Many “natural” carpet cleaning services offer steam cleaning, which doesn’t actually involve steam at all. It’s an extraction method that shoots water into carpet, then sucks it back up very quickly. This method takes a long time to dry — sometimes days!

Here at Cascade Building Services, we don’t use the extraction method, but we don’t use toxic cleaners, either. We also avoid detergents that can sit in carpet after it’s been “cleaned” and attract more dirt. Instead, we use a biodegradable cleaning solution that doesn’t offgas or harm the environment. It’s a proprietary process that uses a citrus-based cleaner and ion-exchange to remove the microscopic particles that create stains and dirty paths in carpets.  It’s completely nontoxic and residue-free, leaving clean carpet behind — and nothing else. Plus, carpet dries within a couple short hours. Learn more about our green carpet cleaning in the Portland, Oregon metro area.

Interested in green carpet cleaning? Contact us for a free quote!

Bad smell photo: Sira Hanchana

darrenAbout the author Darren

Darren is the owner of Cascade Building Services. He earned his Bachelor of Science Degree at Lewis and Clark University. He used to work in sales for General Mills. In his spare time, you can find him in the great outdoors camping and boating.