Chemicals and dilution: what to tell a cleaning crew in Spanish
Most of what goes wrong with cleaning chemicals goes wrong quietly. Someone pours concentrate straight because the ratio on the jug was in English. Someone finishes a toilet with bleach that already has bowl cleaner in it. Someone refills a spray bottle and skips the label. That is not a training problem you fix once — it is a language problem you fix every shift, in the words your crew actually uses.
OSHA’s hazard communication rules expect every worker who handles a chemical to have been trained on its hazards in a language they understand. A label your crew cannot read does not count. Here is how to say the parts that matter.
Reading the dilution ratio
A ratio like 1:64 means one part concentrate to sixty-four parts water — about two ounces in a gallon. Say the number out loud, and say what it is measured with. Dilución is the word on the SDS; on the floor your crew may just say mezcla.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| Check the dilution on the neutral cleaner — it’s 1:64, not 1:10. | Revisa la dilución del limpiador neutro — es 1:64, no 1:10. |
| Use the measuring cup — two ounces per gallon means two ounces. | Usa la taza medidora — dos onzas por galón son dos onzas. |
| Fill the mop buckets at the dilution station, button two. | Llena las cubetas del trapeador en la estación de dilución, botón dos. |
| Never use concentrate straight on the floor — it leaves a film. | Nunca uses el concentrado directo en el piso — deja una película. |
| The quat loses strength sitting in the bucket — mix it fresh each area. | El cuaternario pierde fuerza en la cubeta — mézclalo fresco para cada área. |
Never mix chemicals
This is the rule worth repeating until it is boring. Bleach (cloro) with ammonia (amoniaco) makes a toxic gas. Bleach with bowl cleaner — an acid — makes another. Glass cleaner is often ammonia-based, so the restroom is exactly where they meet. One product at a time, rinse between.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| Never mix chemicals — bleach and bowl cleaner in the same toilet can put you in the hospital. | Nunca mezcles químicos — el cloro y el limpiador de taza en el mismo inodoro te pueden mandar al hospital. |
| If you use bleach in that bathroom, nothing else goes in the bowl. | Si usas cloro en ese baño, nada más se le echa a la taza. |
| If you smell toxic fumes in the restroom, out the door first, questions after. | Si hueles gases tóxicos en el baño, primero sal y después preguntas. |
Puerto Rican crews often say clorox; elsewhere you will hear lejía. On a US crew, cloro is the safe default.
The SDS and the label
The SDS — hoja de datos de seguridad, or simply la hoja — says what a product does to skin and eyes and what to do about it. It lives in a binder in the closet, and every new product goes in before anyone opens it. Secondary bottles are the weak point: the jug has a label, but the spray bottle you filled from it does not until you write one.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| New product? It goes on the chemical inventory and its SDS goes in the binder first. | ¿Producto nuevo? Primero entra al inventario y su hoja a la carpeta. |
| No label on that spray bottle — dump it and mix fresh. | Esa botella no tiene etiqueta — tírala y mezcla producto nuevo. |
| Blue spray bottle is glass cleaner, red is disinfectant — don’t swap tops. | El atomizador azul es limpiavidrios, el rojo es desinfectante — no cambies las tapas. |
Gloves, goggles, ventilation
The label tells you the PPE; your job is to say it before the pour, not after. Gogles is what a Mexican crew calls goggles — gafas de seguridad is understood but sounds like a manual. Guantes para químicos are the heavy gloves, not the nitrile pair from the restroom cart.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| Chemical gloves on before you pour the stripper. | Ponte los guantes para químicos antes de vaciar el decapante. |
| Goggles when you pour stripper, every single time. | Gogles cuando vacíes decapante, todas y cada una de las veces. |
| That stripper needs ventilation — prop the doors and set a fan. | Ese decapante necesita ventilación — atranca las puertas abiertas y pon un ventilador. |
| No eating in chemical areas — leave your coffee in the breakroom. | No se come donde hay químicos — deja tu café en el comedor. |
When someone gets splashed
Stripper or bowl cleaner on skin is a chemical burn. The answer is water, right now, for a long time — the SDS usually says fifteen minutes — and then the sheet itself, because it says what that product needs. Know where the eyewash station is before the night you need it.
| English | Español |
|---|---|
| Are you okay? | ¿Estás bien? |
| Stripper on bare skin is a chemical burn — rinse it now, not at break. | Decapante en la piel es quemadura química — enjuágate ya, no hasta el descanso. |
| The eyewash station is by the janitor closet sink. | La estación lavaojos está junto al lavabo del cuarto de limpieza. |
| It got in his eye — grab the SDS for the stripper and call it in. | Le cayó en el ojo — agarra la hoja de datos de seguridad del decapante y repórtalo. |
| Call 911. | Llama al 911. |
| Incident report before you clock out. | Reporte de incidente antes de checar salida. |
Say it in the words they use
Every phrase above comes from the janitorial glossary in ChambaTalk — the same terms the translator uses for whatever the tables do not cover. It is free and needs no account: open app.chambatalk.com/glossary, pick janitorial, and the chemicals and safety categories are right there, regional variants included.