Leisure Centre deep wet-side descaling

Deep Cleaning

One of our commercial cleaning customers asked us for the best chemical for descaling and cleaning a really grotty local authority leisure centre. The changing rooms and poolside areas were in a serious state of neglect so it had to be something powerful enough to unlock the thick scale but safe enough to use in a public area and avoid harming the PH level of the pool.

Just quickly, I'll explain what happens with wet side areas in leisure centres;

Dirt, body fats, germs, skin cells, hair etc are locked into the surface by lime scale. All too often we are given negative feedback on a perfectly effective washroom cleaner simply because the surface has too much scale on for the washroom chemical to get in and do its job.

With the constant water contact (direct or through humidity) in these environments, scale builds up very quickly and locks in the grime.

In order to sanitise the surfaces, you need to thoroughly descale them first.

Solution

We advised Tim, our customer, to used a Selden product called Selscale and the results are remarkable. The before and after pictures speak for themselves but this is not the finished article. There is a daily and weekly routine in place with the cleaners onsite to ensure the surfaces are sanitised now the scale has been removed. On a weekly basis, a descaling process is scheduled to prevent it from building up to that level again.

Here's Tim's step by step method and ongoing action plan;

1. Using a mop and bucket evenly apply the diluted Selscale to the surface
2. Using a coarse floor pad and buffer machine or deck scrubbing brush, agitate the surface. You could also use a scrubber drier without the vacuum on
3. Leave for 30 minutes
4. Pick up the water with a scrubber drier, wet vac or gently rinse off with a hose or low pressure jet wash
5. Repeat the previous steps on severely scaled areas over subsequent days and/or leave the chemical on the surface for longer eg. 45 minutes

Here are some before and after images. Needless to say the Leisure Centre Management team where very happy with the results!

Before

After

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After

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After

On-going Cleaning Schedule

Now this deep clean has been performed, there needs to be a consistent cleaning schedule  in place to prevent this issue happening again. Using a washroom cleaner like Cutlass or Selactive on these floor surfaces will help to keep them clean and free from body fat, hair, outside dirt etc. A weekly mop with ACT descaler will prevent scale*.

*Always rinse off descaling chemicals with water.