Data Center Cleaning

After construction your data center, data room or comms room will be contaminated with submicron particles caused by the construction activities. Prior to accepting the data center, you should ensure your contractor has the room cleaned. The current accepted (best practice) specification for this is “Room to be cleaned to ISO 14644-1 2015 Class 8 plus all accessible surfaces free from dust”. 

This specification will ensure that damaging dust is removed from the air and from all accessible surfaces, ensuring this settled dust can not be re-suspended in air by human activities.

If your data center has recently undergone expansion or is a new construction, then a complete data center post construction clean should be performed prior to the room being put back into operation.

The data center’s subflooring is a prime spot for fallen debris and live contaminants, such as insects and rodents. Installing a deck seal can prevent particles from entering the server room’s cooling system and affecting the equipment.

Our cleaning team will remove the floor tiles and move the cables out of the way for better access. If there are any cables that no longer serve a purpose — or show signs of wear — this would be a good time to remove them to keep your subfloor clean and organized. We help preserve static control with our knowledge and experience with the many types of equipment in a data center and the laws regarding static dissipation.

Keeping your data center clean, both underneath and above the raised floor not only helps to improve its energy efficiency and aesthetics but its up-time as well. Contaminants under the floor also contribute to making the raised floor area dirtier since the debris will circulate throughout the data center.

Like the rest of the room, the raised floors can be cleaned with a HEPA vacuum, antistatic cleaning chemicals approved for a data server room environment and a damp mop. Never use dry mop — these only stir up more contaminants and spread them across the data center. If your data center has perforated tiles, they will need to be removed and cleaned outside of the server room to avoid moisture leaching into the subflooring below.

Cable trays, lighting, ductwork, and piping are all areas of your data center that are out of sight and often neglected. Not only do harmful dust particles settle on the equipment in the room, but also accumulate on the overhead components. 

Ceiling plenum cleaning is especially important when the plenum is used for return air. Airborne particulate can settle on building structure and MEP system.

Building vibration and airflow changes can cause existing settled contaminants to become airborne and burden CRAC/ CRAH filters or contaminate equipment below.

Cleaning data center equipment is a specialized process, and our teams have been specially-trained to observe particular cleaning methods designed to work in sensitive environments like this. Taking care to remove dirt and dust with HEPA-rated vacuums that remove even the smallest particles helps ensure dust reaches the collection area and not spread back around the room.

Particular cleaning products and procedures are also required for data center hardware and equipment cleaning. We uphold these processes to ensure your data center is treated with the great care that is necessary to avoid any sort of contamination or spread of particulates, or risk anything pertaining to the operation of the data center equipment.