Cleaning During Data Centre Construction

“Our computer room is covered in dust, can you help?”  Data Clean Canada receives calls like this every day.  Invariably, construction or remodeling is the source of the contamination and a non-existent or poorly conceived contamination control plan is the cause. 

Too often contamination control is an afterthought.  And unfortunately, many data centre operators, facility managers, and construction contractors adopt the practice of scheduling cleaning after all the work is completed. This is fine for a home or even an office area, but can be a disaster-in-the-making for the computer room. 

There is a critical difference between the commercial data centre and a residential environment.  Server rooms have racks of high-performance equipment continually drawing in huge quantities of air!  Any dust and contamination in the data centre is quickly drawn through your equipment.  This dust can settle on components and cause serious problems. 

While all dust can block heat sinks and airflow and cause overheating, concrete dust is an even larger problem. When combined with moisture in the air, the chemicals in concrete form an acidic slurry that can corrode and literally dissolve metallic connections!  Many manufacturers will terminate warranty service when their equipment is contaminated by concrete dust.

Cleaning and contamination control is the solution.

If work is going to be done in, near or even above the data centre, make contamination control a part of your project plan from the start:

• Start your construction or remodeling project with a contamination management plan
• Include contamination control in the construction budget from the beginning
• Schedule cleaning services during construction to help keep contamination out of your equipment
• Call Data Clean Canada before, during, and after your project!

Data Clean Canada offers consulting services to help you implement Best Practices in your controlled environment. Contact your local Data Clean Canada account manager for more information.