SaniGLAZE Company Background
SaniGLAZE International’s roots go back to 1914 when our parent company, Royal Services, was founded as a small window cleaning company in Jacksonville, Florida. Over the years, Royal developed into a full-service janitorial company with over 1200 employees and offices in the four major Florida cities – Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. We grew up in the cleaning business and understand the challenges of pleasing and keeping customers.
In the mid-1990s we developed the SaniGLAZE process and embedded it in our Florida operations. It wasn’t long before we began to notice improved customer retention and satisfaction. Recognizing that we had created something very special, we made the decision to expand the SaniGLAZE process outside of our janitorial contracting business. In January 2000 SaniGLAZE International was formed to establish a national brand based exclusively on the SaniGLAZE process. The plan called for identifying qualified building service contractors and convincing them to buy into the program. We succeeded. Today, there are over 100 SaniGLAZE franchise units operated by professional building service companies throughout the United States and parts of Canada.
Why the SaniGLAZE Process Was Developed…
Effective maintenance systems for various types of surfaces – carpet, VCT, stone, wood, etc. – have been around a long time, but not for tile and grout surfaces! There is a story behind this and it’s not a very pretty one. The main culprit in this story is porous grout. Over time, spills, tracked-in dirt and even routine mopping cause contaminants and odors to penetrate down into the grout. This process of contamination is made worse by the fact that most grout lines are slightly lower than the tile surface. Thus, the grout lines act as miniature troughs that harbor mop water and contaminants. Eventually, this leads to a situation that renders the entire surface unsightly, unsanitary and ripe with foul odors. Furthermore, the fact that the impurities have actually penetrated the grout means that normal maintenance practices are no longer effective.
Here’s where the story gets worse. Most facilities are sold a bill of goods that simply isn’t true. They’re told that tile and grout surfaces don’t need special attention; that simple grout sealers will take care of everything; that the new modified grouts are impervious to stains and absorption; that normal mopping and scrubbing is all that is required. Well, if this were true we wouldn’t be in business today!
Sadly, all you have to do is look around any hospital, college campus, fitness center or corporate office and you’ll see tile and grout surfaces with problems. And these problems invariably originate with the porosity of the grout. What’s more, even modified or “sealed” grout develops some degree of porosity over time. Plus, if it’s a commercial setting where the traffic is heavy and the maintenance chemicals are stronger (and used more regularly), this breakdown occurs even faster.
