Escalator Maintenance Has A Blind Spot - What FM Teams Are Missing.

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• Escalator Maintenance Has A Blind Spot - What FM Teams Are Missing.

09 April 2026 | Updated 08 April 2026

Willem de Roeper, Vice President of Global Sales at EscaTEQ, advises that escalators are among the most expensive assets under an FM's care, yet the long-term risks introduced by infrequent cleaning are routinely underestimated.

Ask a Facilities Manager about their highest-risk assets and escalators will often feature near the top. They are safety-critical, mechanically complex, heavily trafficked and expensive to repair or replace. Yet for all the scrutiny applied to their maintenance schedules, one routine activity receives surprisingly little risk assessment: cleaning.

In most areas of FM, acceptable risk boundaries are defined before tools are procured. Escalator cleaning has historically reversed that logic. Available equipment has dictated the method, the method has introduced risk and that risk has largely gone unacknowledged until it materialises as an unplanned maintenance call months or years later.

Part of the reason is structural. Escalator surface maintenance sits in a gap between three industries operating without a shared methodology. Manufacturers focus on engineering and mechanical safety. FM teams focus on asset performance and operational continuity. Cleaning contractors have often included escalator cleaning within broader service contracts without a documented approach. The result is a service assumed to happen, rarely verified and almost never standardised: accountability diffused across all three parties and owned by none.

Where the risk enters

Traditional machine-based cleaning methods are liquid-heavy by design. A single cycle can introduce volumes of liquid that approach or exceed OEM thresholds. Recovery mechanisms aim to reclaim the majority, but field experience indicates that several litres routinely remain, seeping into the truss structure where electrical components, safety systems and lubricated mechanical parts reside.

Published OEM guidance warns against excessive liquid application and moisture migration beneath the comb plate, because moisture trapped in the truss accelerates corrosion, dilutes lubricants and undermines electrical reliability. These effects rarely present immediately. By the time a fault is logged or a part fails, the cleaning event that contributed has long since been invoiced and forgotten.

There is a further risk. Escalators are high-energy moving systems where step traction is critical. Infrequent cleaning means contamination builds between cycles rather than being consistently managed. Where an FM team cannot demonstrate that traction surfaces have been maintained to a defined standard at regular intervals, the question of adequate risk assessment becomes a live one in the event of an incident.

A lifecycle cost problem masquerading as a cleaning problem

For FM teams managing ageing portfolios or tightening maintenance budgets, the costs are real. Increased mechanical interventions, shortened component life and unplanned downtime all carry direct cost consequences that dwarf the savings made by opting for a cheaper or less frequent clean.

Because machine-based cleans are disruptive and costly, they tend to happen annually at best. In the interim, surface contamination, oils, sugars, grease and fine debris accumulates. Slip resistance degrades. Aesthetic standards decline. And when a clean eventually takes place, the intensity required to address months of build-up drives precisely the kind of aggressive liquid application that puts the asset at risk.

Duty of care and the compliance dimension

Escalators fall under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 as well as broader Health and Safety at Work obligations. Where a cleaning regime can be shown to have introduced moisture into safety-critical systems, or where step traction has degraded without documented intervention, the question of who carried out adequate risk assessment becomes pressing.

Specifying a cleaning approach without reference to OEM guidance, and without documented consideration of the risks it introduces, is a risk organisations should not be comfortable carrying. The responsibility sits with the FM team, not the service provider.

A method-based alternative

Modern handheld escalator cleaning systems use a low-moisture, method-based approach that works with the escalator's own motion. A single operator can complete a clean in minutes rather than hours, with no requirement for heavy machinery, large volumes of solution or extended shutdown. Cleaning frequency becomes viable on a monthly or even weekly basis for the same approximate annual cost as a single restorative machine clean.

More frequent, lower-intensity cleaning prevents the accumulation of corrosive residues, maintains step traction consistently and removes the need for intensive intervention that creates moisture risk. Operational experience across multiple facilities points to measurable improvements in mechanical reliability and fewer unplanned maintenance calls over time.

From cleaning task to maintenance record

Most FM teams rely on CMMS to schedule inspections, track service intervals and document the condition of an asset. Escalator cleaning has historically sat outside these systems, not because it is unimportant, but because it has lacked the structured, repeatable framework that makes consistent logging practical.

A method-based approach changes this. When cleaning follows a defined sequence, with condition assessment, recorded frequency and a consistent technique, it can be logged alongside planned preventive maintenance as a discrete, scheduled event, bringing escalator surface maintenance into the same documentation framework as lifts, HVAC and other critical building infrastructure.

In the event of a slip incident or an insurance investigation, evidence that escalator surfaces were cleaned to a defined standard at regular intervals is materially different from an annual invoice with no accompanying condition data. For FM teams working toward SFG20 alignment or ISO 41001 accreditation, integrating escalator cleaning into CMMS requires minimal additional process change but carries meaningful risk management implications.

The framework is what is missing

The technology to clean escalators more safely already exists. What has lagged behind is the framework: the procurement criteria, the risk assessments, the SFG20 alignment and the broader recognition that escalator cleaning belongs in the preventive maintenance conversation.

That framework needs to be open, available for scrutiny and refinement by OEM engineers, vertical transportation consultants, FM professionals and cleaning contractors alike. The three industries that have allowed this gap to persist are the same parties best placed to close it, and doing so requires a shared standard rather than a supplier-led solution.

Escalators are high-value, mission-critical assets. The maintenance standard applied to everything around them should apply to how they are cleaned too.

Picture: A headshot of Willem de Roeper.

Article written by Willem de Roeper | Published 09 April 2026

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