Evergreen Building Maintenance provides top rated daily and weekly commercial cleaning services and janitorial services in Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton, Cranbrook, West Kelowna and Lake Country regions.
Top 3 Things To Look For When Hiring Commercial Cleaning Services
The right commercial cleaning company provides more than just a professional appearance. Research shows that if the working environment is dirty there are long term cognitive effects on employees. If your work environment is not clean it can have a negative effect on your bottom line!
A study published in the Journal Of Occupational And Environmental Medicine shows that the right commercial cleaning service will strengthen the well-being and morale of your employees. This has direct implications for increased productivity.
Nobody wants to do business with a company that has dirty facilities. It’s a direct reflection of your office and your company. No matter what kind of company you are, hiring the right commercial janitorial service is very important for your success. This makes choosing the right commercial cleaning service one of the most important decisions you, as an owner, or your human resources department can make.
It can be very tempting to choose the least expensive cleaning company when comparing quotes but remember: you get what you pay for.
Hiring a commercial cleaning company is not an easy task, but if you do it right, you can find a commercial janitorial company that will be an asset to your business for years to come.
Here are the top three things to look for when you want a reliable commercial cleaning service for your building:
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Every company has different needs. Make sure your cleaning company offers the services you need based on the type of work you do.
Work with the cleaning company’s consultant and map out the exact services you need. Here are some examples of what to think about:
- Maybe you just need a simple vacuuming and dusting service
- Carpet and upholstery cleaning
- Cleaning of the toilets and washroom facilities several times a week
- Hardwood floor cleaning
- Power washing
- Parking lot cleaning
- Window cleaning
- Special event cleaning
- Special cleaning of certain rooms that are used in the evenings or early mornings
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Find out how many years they have been in business and what accounts they have with a business similar to yours.
Do you really want your facility to be a training ground for your new commercial cleaning company? Experience matters. When you work with a company that has been around for a while they will have long term employees and quality.
Experienced companies are just better at what they do. You want a company with years and years (preferably, decades and decades) of experience. Mistakes that the new companies are stumbling through haven’t been an issue for the bigger, older companies forever. Techniques perfected by the older companies have been molded by wisdom and elevated by experience. The new guys are still struggling to master the basics of their craft. Sure, their work may be cheaper, but that’s because it’s of far less quality.
Same thing applies for your industry. If your cleaning company has experience with your industry, you will have a far better experience than if they don’t.
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Do they have the right kind of insurance? Not only do they need to have insurance, but your commercial cleaning company needs to have the right kind of insurance.
Fly-by-night commercial cleaning services won’t be able to provide proof of insurance. Look for clauses that ensure that protect you from legal liability if something happens to their workers while on your premises. Make sure your cleaning company has general liability insurance, worker’s compensation, automobile liability and an umbrella policy. Verify coverage so you have peace of mind that you won’t be liable for mistakes made by your cleaning company.
Evergreen Building Maintenance has over 30 years of commercial cleaning services experience. They have many experienced teams that have been with them “forever”. All employees are specially trained with the latest “green” commercial cleaning techniques and have the right tools for the job.
Call now for a free quote.
Our professional consultants will walk through all the steps needed for your business and design a custom solution so your building looks good, feels good and reflects the high standards you value.
Kelowna Janitorial Services – Get Better Results With The Same Budget!
Morning Or Evening Office Cleaning – What’s Best?
Your employees spend a lot of time at the office. Clients come and go, there are meetings, food, lots of things going on that can create an unsanitary situation at work.
In order for people to feel comfortable at work you need to have a clean place. But when is the best time to bring in the commercial cleaning staff?
The first thing you need to decide is if you need daily, weekly or just monthly cleaning. It’s not so much a matter of budget, but it’s more about what’s needed to make your working space comfortable. An unclean office can become a source of stress. Nobody needs that.
Maybe in your office there are certain areas that need cleaning daily and other areas where once a month would be ok.
The other thing to consider is if people often end up working late, at the office. If that’s the case, is it ok to have commercial janitorial staff come in at the end of the day? Or, will it be too much of a disturbance for employees that have already put in a long, hard day.
Cleaning equipment can be quite noisy, so if the type of work people end up doing late in the evening or night requires concentration, then maybe it’s not good to disturb them?
The morning can be a good time to bring in the cleaning crews if people come in at a consistent time and things are generally a little slow in the mornings. You don’t want cleaning crew getting in the way of clients or staff frantically scrambling to meet deadlines.
Another thing to consider is if people in your office often have client or other meetings at night time and the office needs to look clean first thing in the morning.
All things considered, it’s important to have a clean working environment. Your circumstances would determine whether you should have a commercial cleaning crew come in in the morning or evening.
Evergreen maintenance has crews that can do the job at any time of day or night. If you have a special event happening at your office and need us to come in extra, we can do that too.
Give us a call for a free quote. All our services are 100 percent guaranteed.
Quality Commercial Cleaning Plays A Big Role In Keeping Your Break Room in Order
Many offices have a break room or a kitchen where employees and staff can heat their food up and eat lunch together. In modern offices, they can even consist of fun activities like pool tables and games. These spaces are so important to have a break from your desk, reflect on your day and catch up with other people in the office. An office’s break room, however, requires frequent and regular maintenance and cleaning due to the high volume of people traffic. Here are some important considerations to help keep your break room in order.
Maintaining food debris
Food debris can cause a huge mess if it isn’t properly cleaned in an office. If your office has carpeting, this can also be a breeding ground for germs and debris build-up. In the break room, it’s important to have a designated area for food that is kept clean at all times. This area should also have towels, paper towels, sponges, and soap and sanitization products to encourage people to clean up after themselves.
For those who choose to eat at their desks, include an area in the office where people can have access to items to clean up their desks and sanitize their hands and surrounding areas. This will ensure that there is always a strong standard of cleanliness in all areas of the office where food may be consumed.
Sanitization
Sanitization is also important for break rooms and lunch areas. The kitchen area is one of the number one areas where germs can spread quickly. If somebody, for instance, is carrying a cold virus but has not yet felt its symptoms and touches let’s say, a coffee maker, this virus could spread easily to other people.
How to remedy this: Ensure that areas are sanitized frequently by a professional quality commercial cleaning company. A regular and thorough sanitization process can make a huge difference to the spread of germs. Meanwhile, encourage your employees to sanitize their hands frequently even if they aren’t sick!
Could your office use some better quality commercial cleaning practices? Get in touch with us today to talk about scheduling regular cleaning and maintenance initiatives for your business!
Three Qualities of Top Commercial Cleaning Professionals
Being a professional cleaner isn’t always what it seems. When you think of their work, especially when it comes to how the movies depict them, the job can come off as a lonely, boring or even repetitive. The truth is, the cleaning industry is a viable sector of the labour force in Canada and the Janitorial Services industry is expected to grow continually and widen potential customer bases.
The Worldwide Cleaning Industry association states that green cleaning is a current marketplace phenomenon and this need is being driven by customer demands for environmentally friendly products and services. Companies involved in this trend along with their workers are offered an abundance of work!
So sure, the job can have its challenges ups and downs, but doesn’t every job? Here are some of the top three qualities of cleaning professionals that you probably don’t associate with the janitorial industry.
Humility
Janitors and cleaning professionals are well-versed in what many people consider unskilled labour. But the truth is, highly trained professionals that follow specific cleaning protocols are some of the most humble people out there. Humility is a virtue — it’s being honest with oneself about ability, talents, gifts, struggles and weaknesses. It’s the ability to set one’s pride aside to work together as a cohesive team. It’s not basing your self-worth on others but a true connection with one’s self first and foremost.
Strong work ethic
The truth is, whether you’re running the company or the one scrubbing toilets, if you’re working in the cleaning industry you likely have a strong work ethic. It takes time to complete a series of tasks quickly and efficiently in order to move on to the next job that could be one of five contracts within a day. A strong work ethic is not only important in the short term day-to-day aspect of the work, but it leads to future recommendations, relationships, recognition and reputation within your team and within the company.
They are team players
Working as a cleaning professional isn’t about being the centre of attention but it doesn’t make their work isolating. In fact, many cleaning professionals operate in tightknit teams.
Showing that you can work well with all kinds of people is a highly important characteristic when it comes to being a cleaning professional. Plus, if you let your guard down a little, you might even make some lifetime friendships out of your colleagues! Friends can also help you avoid sweating the small stuff when you have to deal with the challenges of the job.
So there you have it — the world of janitorial work is much more than what one would think. It involves well trained, humble and highly professional teams of people to get the job done. Are you in need of professional cleaning services for your commercial or industrial property? Get in touch with us today to get the process started.
Happy holidays from Evergreen Building Maintenance!
Is Your Janitorial Company Ready For Your Winter Commercial Cleaning Needs
The cold weather season is in full effect but that doesn’t mean the cleaning season is over! In fact, winter brings with it a host of specific cleaning needs. As a business owner, you know all too well how there’s always tasks left to do. There’s always something that could use some sprucing up — so why not rely on timely, punctual and effective professional commercial cleaning services? Here are some considerations for your winter cleaning regimen.
Keeping the Effects of Snow, Dirt and Salt in Control
Winter brings on an additional need for cleaning professionals across the various industries.
We’ve written a lot about how it’s important to keep businesses clean for the health and safety of employees and customers — particularly when it comes to sanitization and controlling the spread of the flu and common colds. It’s also really important to keep government offices, commercial buildings and retail businesses from the buildup of snow, dirt and debris. This sort of buildup can actually wear at carpeting, discolour it and cause the need for replacements come spring time.
Regular steam cleaning helps to extract trapped salt or dirt that can get tracked indoors from outside. It helps to restore the appearance of entry ways and office carpeting by removing any stain-causing agents. A regular stem clean makes a huge difference to how professional and clean your business will look year-round!
Protect Your Flooring from Salt
Sand and salt that is used to combat ice has a rough texture that can strip protective coats from flooring. This can also make the flooring look messy and worn out and make your flooring slippery which can be hazardous. Even if you do a basic sweep or use entry way mats, the residue of the sand can spread easily to flooring and affect its durability and look. The residue must be cleaned with proper cleaning products in order to combat this issue.
Handling Harmful Liquids and Chemicals
Leftover puddles of chemicals found in ice and snow melts can also be extremely hard on the flooring of your business. They can also cause stains, make wood flooring swell, make laminate curl or present issues of mold and mildew if left unaddressed. A regular clean administered by a professional cleaning service can ensure that these damaging properties do not seep into flooring to cause any unwanted long-term issues.
Take care of your business’ property this winter by choosing Evergreen Building Maintenance. We can work out a schedule, task list and frequency that fit best with your business’s specific objectives. Get in touch with us today to get the process started!
Conquering Flu Season With The Right Janitorial Services
Flu season in Canada is typically in late fall into early winter. Unlike the common cold, the flu is far worse because it can lead to other illnesses like pneumonia and an onset of other worsened symptoms. The best way to avoid the flu altogether is to have strong preventative measures put into place, especially if you run a business. This not only benefits the health of your workers but it also benefits you as a business owner. Hiring a professional cleaning service is a cost-effective measure that ensures that you, the business owner, can minimize sick days due to the flu. It’s a strong tactic to keep your business running smoothly and to minimize illness. Here is a comprehensive review on how to minimize the flu in your office.
Secure areas with sanitization
The truth is, most people get sick from touching an infected surface. While illnesses like the flu can be caught from transmission in the air, repeated exposure to the virus in shared areas like break rooms, kitchens and conference rooms are often the main culprit.
Increase cleaning frequency
Hiring a professional cleaning service to routinely sanitize these areas and items within the areas on a frequent basis will reduce the spread of the flu virus. If you normally have a bi-weekly cleaning, consider having one once a week and set the priorities to be focused toward flu management.
General tips
Your professional cleaning service can work with you to determine the best ways to do this by cleaning door handles, hard surfaces and computer keyboards.
- Tell your sick workers to stay home –if someone falls ill at your workplace, encourage them to work-from-home or to rest up and get better. This will minimize the spread of the virus in your office.
- Encourage workers to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer during the flu season and to avoid touching their face
- Encourage people who are pregnant or who have underlying health conditions to take precautions during flu season to avoid hospitalizations
The truth is, the flu can affect each person differently. You do not want to run the risk of having your workers get ill – as some people may be ill a longer than the average and could suffer worse repercussions. Take precautions by hiring a professional cleaning service that will work to reduce the spread of viruses.
Are you ready to conquer the flu? Get in touch with us today.
Evergreen Building Maintenance Wins a Business Excellence Award for Sustainability
Each year, the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce holds the annual Business Excellence Awards, an event that highlights companies who have achieved outstanding accomplishments in Central Okanagan. This year, at their 29th annual award ceremony at the Delta Okanagan, judges narrowed down sixty-two semi-finalists and thirty finalists. Evergreen Building Maintenance made its list of finalists and received the prestigious award for its sustainability efforts. The event was held in collaboration with Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Farris, Vaughan, Wills & Murphy LLP on October 13th.
Categories
The Categories businesses were recognized for were:
- Rising Star Business of the Year
- Small Business of the Year
- Mid-size Business of the Year
- Large Business of the Year
- Social Entrepreneurship Award
- Young Entrepreneur of the Year
- Business Leader of the Year
- Sustainability Award
- Distinction in Hospitality & Tourism Award
- Marketer of the Year
- Technology/Innovation Award
Evergreen Building Maintenance was awarded with the prestigious Sustainability Award at the event, which is given to ‘a company whose business practices embrace innovative approaches and techniques, which are cutting edge in contributing to environmental sustainability.’
The Process
Each year, nominations are received for the business and individual awards from across the valley. Once the nomination period has passed, a party is thrown in their honour and a detailed nomination package is completed.
This package is then reviewed extensively over an 8-month process by experienced judges. Once the finalists are selected, they are usually visited at their place of business by the judges in September before they make final decisions.
Businesses who win these awards receive valuable publicity and admiration within their respective sectors. We are happy to have been honoured with this incredible award and feel a deep sense of pride that our hard work and dedication to sustainability has been recognized!
Evergreen Building Maintenance is living up to its name when it comes to practicing sustainability and green cleaning initiatives. Learn more about the industries we work for and the services we proudly offer across Western Canada.
Janitorial Cleaning Services At The Okanagan Correctional Centre
Evergreen Building Maintenance was recently awarded the honour of working with the Okanagan Correctional Centre (OCC), the largest correctional facility in British Columbia, located north of Oliver on the Osoyoos Indian Band Reserve. This is an expansive contract, as the facility spans 300,000 square feet across 14.5 hectares (36 acres).
The 378-cell facility is a $200 million project that is part of BC Corrections’ second-phase of their capital expansion plan. When it’s completed, it will hold double its original capacity in B.C.’s interior. It also requires a deep trust of Evergreen’s trained and educated employees, as it’s a high-risk, high-security area that requires enhanced security clearance for all staff on the grounds.
Project Goals
The goal of the project is to enhance public safety for communities, correctional staff and inmates within the province and to stimulate the economy in the area. It will create up to 1000 new permanent and contractual construction jobs along with 240 full-time correctional job positions for both experienced workers and new recruits. Other contracted staff will include on-site nurses, doctors, dentists, counsellors, food service workers and trades personnel.
Environmental accreditation
The OCC developmental project has been applauded for its environmental efforts and has obtained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification. The project is also using wood in accordance with the B.C. Building Code, to adhere to the First Wood Act set out by the Government and to maximize energy efficiency.
Evergreen’s Milestone
As a company, we feel we’ve hit a milestone since we’re working on not only a large project, but also one that directly reflects our environmental values. At Evergreen, we continually strive to use eco-friendly measures in our cleaning from using fragrance and scent-free products that are free of toxic chemicals like VOCs, to implementing products that are GREEN SEAL or ECOLOGO certified.
Other green practices we use include:
- Zinc-free floor finishing procedures
- Conducting interior building air quality reports
- Using paperless billing systems
- Using non-fuel powered equipment
- Creating customized disposal and recycling programs
- Hiring employees trained in green cleaning practices
- Low impact solutions to remove graffiti
- Lotus Pro High Capacity Wall Units
Evergreen began in the Okanagan Area over 30 years ago and has expanded to several regions across Canada. Interested in learning more about our work? Get in touch with us if you company or facility is in need of quality commercial cleaning services.
Why Fall Janitorial Cleaning Is As Important As Spring Cleaning
Spring cleaning is the best way to prepare your business for the summer season and get rid of all the dirt and environmental debris that can build up during the winter. However, the cleanup that is required at the end of the summer season is as crucial as spring cleaning but often neglected. Here are just a few of the reasons why fall cleaning is as important as spring cleaning.
Get Rid of Summertime Dirt and Pollutants
Many commercial spaces such as recreation centres, restaurants, bars and shopping centres have outdoor facilities that are only open during the summer. Dirt, dust, pollen and other environmental debris can be tracked indoors from these outdoor spaces. If left uncleaned, this summertime debris can collect and accumulate inside your business during the colder months. Once you’ve closed down any patios, outdoor vendors or sports facilities for the season, it’s important to give your indoor spaces a thorough cleaning for the winter. This includes washing all windows, walls, carpeting and furniture.
Prepare Your Business for Winter
It’s important to make your indoor space as clean and comfortable as possible before winter begins, since you’ll be spending more time inside once the snow start to fall. Not only will a fall cleaning make your business a more pleasant space to work, it will also help to attract more customers. If your business uses summer accessories such as patio furniture or sports equipment, you’ll need to find practical storage solutions to house those items during winter. A fall cleanup can help prepare your business for a productive and successful winter.
Fall cleaning is important for any commercial space but it can often be difficult to find the time for such a detailed project. That’s why Evergreen Building Maintenance offers the most comprehensive commercial cleaning services in Western Canada. Our friendly and professional staff has the experience and tools necessary to give your business the kind of deep clean that it needs before winter. Contact us at Evergreen Building Maintenance for more information about our commercial cleaning services and green clean initiatives.
Memberships and Accolades
