If you need to effectively remove water from an area in your facility, you need to reach for a floor squeegee. There’s no better tool in your collection of janitorial supplies for moving water either outside or to a floor drain. Often when there’s water on the floor, the automatic response is to pull out the floor mop but a squeegee is made for to work faster and more efficiently than a mop for cleaning up a flooded area. Floor squeegees are designed for pushing water to a drain to allow the floor to dry more quickly.
Most floor squeegees can be used effectively on a variety of floors including concrete, tile, asphalt or any other smooth surface which makes them especially useful in the foodservice kitchen or storage areas. You will frequently see squeegees in two different styles of blades, either a straight blade or curved blade. Straight squeegees are best suited to move large volumes of water. Curved squeegees, on the other hand are designed for directing water towards a floor drain.
You will also find two different types of materials utilized to make the blade for squeegees. Foam squeegees are common and work well most applications like restaurants or commercial kitchens. For heavier duty applications, like supermarkets or busy institutional kitchens, squeegees with a rubber blade may be a better choice. The rubber blade is more durable and will stand up to daily use, where the foam blade is suited for occasional use.
Because a floor squeegee is utilized regularly in most commercial kitchens, they need to be sturdily constructed. You can find two piece squeegees that have a socket to hold the squeegee blade. The benefit to the two piece construction is that you can change out the blade when needed. There are also one piece squeegees, like the Carlisle One-Piece 24” Squeegee, which are good in areas that need to maintain sanitary standards. The one piece construction minimizes potential contamination areas in the squeegee. Additionally, you can find most squeegees in a variety of colors, which is allows you to designate different colors to be used in specific areas of your operation for sanitation or HACCP.
Along with floor squeegees, you’ll also find the bench squeegee which is popular for cleaning tables and benches after being washed down and window squeegees.
