Page 12 of Mops, Brooms & Dustpans

Types of commercial brooms

Workplace brooms include straight and angled upright brooms, push brooms, and roller-brush sweepers, the non-motorized versions of vacuums. The heads of many upright brooms contain bristles gathered into a shoulder and bundled together with rows of stitching. The bristles of some upright brooms are gathered in a narrow rectangular apron. Upright brooms give you a back-and-forth sweeping motion, ideal for cleaning confined spaces like lunchrooms and separate offices. Some upright brooms are "lobby brooms," with dense bristling for sweeping short-nap carpets and with separate dustbins to dump debris into containers lined with bulk trash bags.

Most industrial brooms are the push variety, with rectangular polymer or hardwood bristle blocks from 18 to 36 inches in length. The block contains angled threaded holes so the broom has a push-pull sweeping motion. The bristles on push brooms vary in length, from 1 inch for sweeping rough, creviced surfaces like sidewalks to 7 inches for handling larger, lighter debris on surfaces such as warehouse floors.

Types of bristles on industrial brooms

Natural-fiber bristles include Palmyra for hard surfaces like driveways and sidewalks. Tampico is a heat and chemical-resistant bristle for smooth surfaces like industrial flooring. Other natural material includes broomcorn sorghum, the traditional "corn" broom for everyday sweeping.

Commercial broom bristles also consist of polypropylene, as well as brass, bronze, or steel, useful for wet-dry cleaning applications on hard, rough surfaces, like scrubbing cement floors with all-purpose cleaners. Some push brooms have cloth, mop-style heads, for dust-sweeping large floors such as basketball courts. Cloth push brooms also include microfiber, for buffing floors cleaned with floor scrubbers.

Heavy-duty broom handles

Broom handles are fixed permanently to heads or aprons or screw into threaded holes with plastic or metal connecting ferrules. All broom handles are steel, aluminum, or hardwood, so they provide flexibility to ensure maneuverability while also having enough tensile strength to sweep all debris from floors. Handles normally run up to 60 inches in length, but some are only 36 inches for storage in more compact spaces.

Brands

Several well-known manufacturers make high-quality upright brooms, push brooms, and non-mechanical sweepers:

• Libman®
• Magnolia Brush
• Rubbermaid® brands
• ProLine