Why We Hire Veterans
At The Wilburn Company, we’re honored to employ the men and women who serve our country’s military. Our pride in veterans has always been a core piece of who we are. In fact, our founder, Jim Wilburn, was an Air Force veteran. Jim joined the Air Force in 1962, serving in Turkey, Okinawa, Fort Meade, and the Pentagon over a 20-year career before retiring in 1982. During his military career, he took a second job mopping floors on a night shift, and after retiring he went into janitorial work full time before founding The Wilburn Company in 1998. We know…
What You Need in Building Cleaning Services
When you own a commercial building, maintaining a clean environment is a necessity to keep your tenants happy. Without consistent and high-quality cleanings, you could wind up dealing with costly issues like mold, bacteria growth, and an unhealthy environment. High-quality building cleaning services has other benefits besides just a clean environment. A well-trained staff can keep you updated on small maintenance issues created by general wear and tear before they become serious issues. Not every company that provides building cleaning services is equal. When you’re searching for the best in building cleaning services, look for these five qualities. Reliability The…
5 Facility Cleaning Solutions You Need
Every facility is unique, from the layout, to the building materials, to the tenants. No matter what, you deserve facility cleaning solutions tailored to your building. For example, if there’s a lot of glass walls and windows in your building, skipping out on glass cleaning would be a bad idea. But if you’re a government facility, you can’t let just any old cleaning team through your doors. Differences make the world unique, but it can also make it challenging to find the right facility cleaning solutions for you. If you’re having a hard time deciding what cleaning services you need,…
What to Expect from an Emergency Cleaning Company
Hurricanes. Tornadoes. Vandals. Burst Pipes. Emergencies take all forms and can run the gamut from a burst pipe to a graffitied office. Unfortunately, what every emergency has in common is the toll it takes on your space and your employees morale. In the event a significant emergency occurs in your office, sometimes the first step to getting everyone back on track is to get your workspace back to normal. When you have to use an emergency cleaning company, here are five things you should look for. Prompt Service Emergencies typically don’t occur at a snail’s pace. Instead, an emergency can…
How to Choose A Commercial Cleaning Company in DC
When you’re shopping for a commercial cleaning company in DC, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. There are so many choices, each one seems to have its own strengths, weaknesses, pros and cons. At the Wilburn Company, we think that there are five strengths that help us to stand out from the crowd. Whether or not you choose us for your commercial cleaning company, you might want to consider these 5 characteristics when deciding on your next cleaning service. Customizable Cleaning Services Every business is unique with different needs, layout, and staff. When choosing a commercial cleaning company, make sure you…
How to Prepare Your Commercial Building for Spring Cleaning
It’s almost time for Spring. Baby birds, blue skies, flowers will start to bloom… and don’t forget about spring cleaning! The practice of spring cleaning has a long history with many different traditions worldwide. In the 1800s, deep cleaning traditionally occurred in the spring after layers of soot and grime from the fireplace and traditional kerosene lamps had built up over the winter. This annual deep clean has a cleansing aspect to it for everyone. Here’s how you can get the most out of spring cleaning for your commercial building. Schedule a Deep Clean While the days of fireplace heating…
A Year of Cleaning in Review: The Biggest Lessons We’ve Learned from 2018
2018 has been a big year at The Wilburn Company. We’ve continued to provide premier commercial and secure cleaning services to a growing number of clients. We’ve pushed further into green cleaning, implementing more GS-42 services across our portfolio and championing the importance of cleaning for health. And we’ve focused on building up our people, with training designed to empower our employees for success and improve our level of service. It’s been a good year, and we’re grateful for all of the people who have impacted our company along the way – our employees, our clients, and our communities. Yet…
How to Evaluate a Secure Cleaning Service
When you own a secure building, you need to know that everyone who walks through your front door is trustworthy and cleared to handle sensitive information. If not, you could be putting your clients at risk – or, your front door leads to a government building, and you could be risking national security. This can make it hard to find secure services such as HVAC, construction, and cleaning. We’ve got good news, though: you can rely on Wilburn for secure cleaning services. But don’t take our word for it. How do you evaluate a secure cleaning company? You need the…
Why Your Cleaning Company Should Be Growing
Often, there’s a certain level of opaqueness to business-vendor relationships. A vendor is hired to do a job, and they either do it well or they don’t. The curtain to what’s going on behind the scenes is never lifted. That makes sense. Performance in-role is what matters, for cleaning companies as well as for any other vendor. That’s the lens through which a cleaning company should be judged. Yet, what goes on behind the scenes can impact a vendor’s ability to perform a job. If your cleaning company isn’t doing well internally, there’s a good chance that you’ll soon see…
What to Look for in a Union Cleaning Service
What is a Union Cleaning Service? Union cleaning services may not be commonly talked about by your average business owner. Simply, a union cleaning service is one that hires only union workers. Many facilities, and even counties, require the cleaning service that you use for your commercial building to be unionized. Why is that? A unionized cleaning service can benefit workers in many ways. These include ensuring fair wages and hours, as well as safeguarding equality in the work environment. Counties and commercial facilities require union cleaning services as a way of ensuring that workers are more likely to gain…
5 Things You Might Not Know About Green Cleaning
If you’re in facility management, you’ve probably heard the buzz around green cleaning. As a service, it’s changing commercial cleaning, and as a part of building wellness initiatives, it’s impacting the entire field of facility management. Yet, for all of the buzz, there are still aspects of green cleaning that are relatively little-known, or even commonly misconceived. Don’t worry – we’re here to help. Green cleaning is incredibly impactful, and it’s important to understand it fully. With that in mind, here are five things you might not know about green cleaning. 1. Green Cleaning Is Not More Expensive In fact,…
The Best Green Cleaning Companies in MD Do This
In a world of endless choices, it can be difficult to know what company is the best option for your cleaning needs. This is especially true if you’re interested in green cleaning, as this term has become a bit vague and hard to define. To know what to look for when selecting a green cleaning company, let’s look at five things that the best green cleaning companies in Maryland are doing. Uses Green Products and Environmentally-Friendly Procedures The basis of green cleaning is using products, equipment, and procedures that are safer for building occupants and the environment than traditional harsh…
Choosing Green Cleaning in Baltimore
If you’re looking for commercial cleaning services, you’ve probably at least been exposed to the term “green cleaning.” You may not know exactly what that entails, though. Does green cleaning simply mean using “green” products? Is green cleaning just a buzzword? What does green cleaning in Baltimore look like today? The unfortunate truth is that the meaning of the term “green cleaning” has become a bit obscure and ambiguous. The consequence of that obscurity is this: there are commercial cleaning companies that say they practice green cleaning in Baltimore, but don’t live up to the green cleaning standards. It makes sense;…
Meet The Wilburn Company: Terry Pearce, Project Manager
A little over 17 years ago, Terry Pearce started at The Wilburn Company as a part-time worker. It was just a side job for her at the time – a stress-free way to earn some extra money. Almost two decades later, Terry is a project manager at The Wilburn Company, and her now full-time job keeps her very busy. “I kinda got stuck here,” Terry laughs. “I just enjoy doing what I do. It was basically the environment and the people that worked with me that really motivated me to work for The Wilburn Company full-time. It was more fun…
What It Means to Be a Green Cleaning Company in DC
Whether you’re in facility management or you’re just looking at different options for commercial cleaning in DC, you’ve no doubt heard about green cleaning. What, though, does green cleaning in DC look like today? Unfortunately, the meaning of the term “green cleaning” has become somewhat murky and ambiguous. Some commercial cleaning companies might say they use green cleaning in DC, but what exactly does that mean? After all, saying products are “green” doesn’t just make it so. Since green cleaning has become so popular, some cleaning companies look to capitalize on the trend. Instead of actually providing real green cleaning…
The Importance of Becoming Green Seal Certified
The world is a dangerous enough place without having to worry about getting sick all the time at work. While toxic chemicals will kill germs, they also do a number on your health as well. That’s why green cleaning is so important, and why becoming Green Seal certified is the highest standard in cleaning. We’ve been in the cleaning industry for a long time, so we’re intimately familiar with the common misconceptions around it. The pay is low; there isn’t any training; anyone can come into work, and they’ll be handed a mop and a bucket and told to go…
How to Respond to and Clean Up a Hazardous Substance
Commercial cleaning generally involves standard procedures like cleaning carpets or floors, dusting, or removing trash. Sometimes, though, there are situations that are out of the ordinary. As a commercial cleaning company with decades of experience cleaning millions of square feet, we’ve encountered our fair share of commercial cleaning of hazardous substances in DC. When it comes to commercial cleaning of hazardous substances in DC, here at The Wilburn Company, we take the safety of our employees very seriously. That’s why we adhere strictly to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Standards 29-CFR 1910 guidelines when performing these response and cleaning…