Reducing The Risk of Hearing Damage From Vacuuming

This article was originally published in ContractingProfits.

Under the new LEED v4 revisions, the U.S. Green Building Council requires that vacuum cleaners are certified by the Carpet and Rug Institute “Green Label” Testing Program for vacuum cleaners, capture 96 percent of particulates 0.3 microns in size, and operate with a sound level at less than 70 decibels.

Vacuum volumes higher than 70 decibels causes environmental “noise pollution,” and may result in adverse health effects to building occupants and users of floor equipment.

Read the full article here to learn more about reducing the risk of hearing damage.

Cleaning Up the Court: Aftermath of the UCLA Water Main Break

In the summer of 2014—amidst a drought that continues to plague much of the west coast—the area of Los Angeles surrounding UCLA experienced a confounding type of flood. It came in the form of a burst water main nearly 30 inches in diameter, which tore a hole in the street roughly 15 feet across and drenched the area with about eight million gallons of water.

What’s even more confounding is the fact that city officials have reportedly stated that this will happen again as century-old infrastructure gives way to the abuses of time and corrosion.

Fortunately, when the water main was successfully shut off after about three and a half hours, cleanup crews took to the scene with a variety of advanced equipment to help minimize the damage.

One specific building to receive attention was Pauley Pavilion, a recently renovated—to the tune of $136 million—athletics facility that was set up for volleyball at the time. That’s where Advance® autoscrubbers entered the scene.

Cleanup crews leveraged their Advance mid-size rider scrubbers by running them with empty tanks and using the squeegee and vacuum systems to pick up several inches of standing water and transport it to appropriate drainage areas. While this function is less common than their typical day-to-day use, Advance autoscrubbers feature the high-performance vacuum power, large capacity pickup tanks and long-life cordless operation that made them a great resource in minimizing some of the damage that occurred during this unfortunate situation.

For more on this story, read The Washington Post article here.