9 Ways to Keep Your Shop Floors Cleaner

These Easy Tips Will keep Your Shop Floor Cleaner and Safer, and Help Protect the Environment Too

A clean mechanic’s shop is key to a safe a productive environment and with environmental restrictions getting tighter and tighter, shop managers must keep looking for ways to keep toxins from entering the water table. Although this can seem like a daunting task for vehicle repair and fleet vehicle maintenance shops, there are several things you can do to keep your floors cleaner and avoid spills that will enter the water table.

Cleaning cloths and rags

• Mechanics should always have clean cloths available to wipe spills or overflows before they reach the floor. Consider using a supplier who can consistently deliver clean cloths and remove dirty ones.

Clean all drops and spills immediately

• Oil, solvents and antifreeze dropped on the floor can be tracked throughout the shop and into vehicles. Cleaning even the smallest of spills immediately will keep your shop floor cleaner.

Mark cleaning supplies well

• Designate an area for spill cleaning supplies that are easily accessible. Keep separate buckets with mops for different types of cleanup including oil, solvents and antifreeze. Mark each bucket well and attach rags to the mops so they are easily identified as spill mops.

Clean spills properly

• When cleaning an oil spill use a hydrophobic mop and avoid back and forth movement to keep the oil from spreading. 
• When cleaning an antifreeze spill use only a cloth mop dedicated to this purpose and make certain you wring out the mop in a drum also dedicated to coolant. 
• Use only mild detergent for final clean up with water.

Use spill prevention equipment 

• Water troughs used for livestock fluid are excellent and inexpensive options for secondary containment of used oil and waste antifreeze. They are available in feed stores.
• Use funnel drum covers to minimize spills when transferring liquids from one container to another.
• Replace traditional oil plugs in your vehicles with No-Spill Systems™ magnetic drain plugs. Designed to work on both gravity and suctioning systems, No-Spill Systems™ magnetic drain plugs eliminate spills entirely.

These tips will not only keep your shop floor clean and safe you will be minimizing the effect on the environment and will ultimately save you time and money.

Source: https://www.epa.gov/p2