Cleanup is a part of any big project. In fact, sometimes it is the project. Construction companies always need to clean up dirt and debris from worksites. City maintenance crews are constantly keeping streets and parking structures spotless and tidy. And every winter, plowing outfits brave the seasonal cold to remove ice and snow from walkways and thoroughfares.

Each of these applications calls for a versatile tool that can handle a variety of cleanup chores — and a broom attachment for a skid steer loader is often the weapon of choice. Broom attachments offer an efficient method to remove debris and snow from construction, industrial, landscaping and municipal worksites.

In today’s skid steer market, broom attachments come in three styles — push brooms, angle brooms and sweepers. All three remove debris. However, there are some differences that might provide a more efficient cleanup, depending on the application. Push brooms, generally the less popular of the three, attach to either the skid steer quick-attach plate or a bucket attachment. Just like a giant hand broom, push brooms “push” dirt and debris across a hard surface. Angle brooms employ a hydraulic rotary motor coupled to a broom cylinder to clear a road or travel way. Like their angle broom brethren, sweeper attachments also have a hydraulic motor but offer the added benefit of collecting the debris into the attachment to be deposited elsewhere.

All of these broom options are available in a number of widths, typically ranging from 4 ft up to as much as 8 ft. Depending on what applications brooms are used for, width can determine how efficiently and quickly the job is completed. Broom attachments have been popular tools for many years, says Mike Amerman, Bobcat Co. attachment product representative. The product’s simplicity and versatility attract a variety of industries, as well as individual applications.

“They have consistently been one of the best sellers for [Bobcat Co.],” Amerman says. “It doesn’t matter what kind of applications you work in. You can probably find a use for a broom. The bottom line is there are just so many uses for it.”

Most broom attachments on the market are offered with polypropylene bristles, which provide added durability and flexibility. However, steel wire bristles are also available from some companies for applications that require a little more aggressive force to remove caked on debris. Some manufacturers, such as Sweepster, part of Paladin Light Construction Division, offers a poly-wire combination, which provides the flexibility of a poly bristle with added strength to move heavier debris, says Sarah Falkavage, CEAttachments sales and marketing specialist. The option between bristles does not affect the price of the attachment. However, all polypropylene bristles are cheaper to replace than wire.

Pricing for broom attachments varies, depending on style, width and options of the unit. Push brooms are cheapest among the three, ranging from less than $1,000 to $1,500, because there are no moving parts. Sweepers range between $2,000 and $5,000, while angle brooms fit in the $2,500 to $8,000 range.

Get an Angle on It
Rotary-powered angle brooms offer the most cleaning force among the three styles of brooms. Many angle brooms feature hydraulic adjustors to tilt the broom head left or right using the skid steer hydraulic controls. Otherwise the angle is adjusted manually. Once the bristles make contact with the ground surface, the debris is moved to the side the broom is angled.

Although an angle broom creates more airborne debris and dust than push brooms and sweepers, it moves heavier debris easier. Many manufacturers offer a water spray kit to use with angle brooms to reduce flying dust (between $500 and $1,500 extra). Angle brooms can be used in more types of applications than the other styles, says Sweepster product manager Jim Koch. As long as collecting the material is not a concern, the broom can clear a surface at a faster pace.

One use that angle brooms are popular for is snow removal, Koch says. Because the bristles can reach deeper contours of an uneven surface, the broom works more efficiently than a plow. Angle brooms are also better for grass surfaces because the brush can be adjusted to be more delicate without losing efficiency.

Sweep It Up
Sweepers, also called bucket, collector, hopper or pickup brooms, offer the cleanest debris removal because material is swept into a bucket inside the unit like a miniature street sweeper so it can be transported to a proper dumping site.

Because sweepers pick up the material, providing a more thorough cleaning, the attachment must be used at a much slower pace than an angle broom, Koch says. However, it is better for urban and enclosed areas where leaving the material is not an option.

Once the retention bucket is full, operators can either dump the debris at ground height or lift the sweeper with the skid steer loader arms and dump the material into a truck bed. Retention buckets have a load capacity between 10 and 25 cu ft. Sweeper style brooms require more consideration of the lift capacity of a skid steer because of the additional weight involved in collecting material and dumping it, Koch says. Operators should also consider how big and how heavy the material is.

All sweepers feature a cutting edge that helps remove caked on debris like mud, Amerman says. When operating a sweeper, special attention must be paid to the height of the cutting edge. It must be raised off the ground approximately 1 in. to avoid undue wear. Most manufacturers offer an optional rotary gutter brush that attaches to the side of the unit and extends the length of the machine and improves the ability to clean hard-to-reach areas.

Push Away
Push brooms are flat and stationary, the most basic of the different broom attachments. The skid steer loader arms lower the bristles to the ground and by driving forward push the debris along the surface.

“Push brooms are your basic material mover,” Amerman says. “Ultimately, it doesn’t do as good a job as an angle broom or sweeper, but you’re not paying the cost you would either.”

The attachment gets less recognition because it is perceived as less effective, Falkavage says. A push broom may not offer the additional cleaning power of a motor, but it does offer a cheaper method of cleaning surfaces with the ability to sweep material more exactly into piles for collection.

“Push brooms are not very popular, but they are really quite effective,” Falkavage says. “With the heavy-duty bristles, they can do a lot.”

Some manufacturers offer extension bristle segments that attach to push brooms for added length. The SweepEx MegaWing extensions can add up to 36 in. to its broom.

Operational Guidelines
Brooms are fairly straightforward to use — make the broom level and go to work. However, operators should always consider their surroundings, Koch says. All brooms limit a skid steer’s turning ability, so users should be cautious of the vehicle’s added length. Angle brooms create more airborne debris, which can cause harm to people and structures nearby, so survey your jobsite to avoid damage.
Speed is a major factor in the successful use of a broom attachment too. Brooms should be operated at speeds from 1/2 to 4 mph.

“You need to maintain a forward speed slow enough so that the brush is effectively picking up material or brushing off the surface,” Koch says. “The most common mistake people make is trying to brush too fast. The bigger the stuff, the slower you need to go.”

Maintaining Your Broom
Broom attachments do not require much maintenance. Aside from greasing moving parts after every 16 to 24 hours of use, the bristles require the most attention. Because the bristles perform the brunt of the duties, the removable sections will need to be replaced every few hundred hours of continuous use.

Brush wear depends mostly on how the attachment is used rather than the material the bristle is made of, Koch says. The height of the broom determines how much wear and tear the bristles receive, as well as how effectively the brush moves material.

“All brooms have a means to control how the brush contacts the surface,” Koch says. “Proper bristle height is best determined with what we call brush pattern.” Brush pattern is the amount of area that the bristles clean when spinning in one place. It is determined by measuring the width of the clean area the brush sweeps, which is set by the height of the attachment. Generally, the pattern should be no less than 2 in. wide and no more than 6 in. wide.

“The flatter the surface is, the lighter the pattern has to be,” Koch says. “You have to have enough pattern to get into dips and hollows.”

When considering proper storage, angle brooms must be housed off the ground when not in use to maintain a round broom cylinder. A storage stand comes standard from most manufacturers. The other brooms do not require special storage conditions other than keeping them out of the weather.

Sweeper brooms will require additional attention to the cutting blade, which will occasionally need to be replaced, says Amerman. When driving forward, the cutting edge should not be in direct contact with the ground. The blade should be raised approximately 1 in.

Know What You Want
Like any skid steer attachment tool, choosing a broom depends on the size and capacity of the loader itself. Brooms do not require high-flow hydraulics. Most brooms operate on between 10 and 30 gallons per minute (gpm) of flow. “High flow is almost a drawback,” Koch says. “Higher flow gets more expensive as you try to match up machines.”

Koch recommends low-flow hydraulics and Amerman says Bobcat does not approve high-flow hydraulics for any of its broom attachments. Brooms should be matched to a skid steer by weight and to some extent width. Once the proper weight is determined, which applications the broom is used for is the next consideration.
If use requires removing material from a site, the better option is likely the sweeper broom. If the broom will be used for brushing off paths or used on more uneven surfaces, the angle broom is probably the way to go. However, if cost is a major factor, a push broom might be the best choice.

What surface the applications involve is another major consideration, Amerman says. The surface can help determine the length of the broom and the bristle material.

“For a lot of applications, the bigger the better,” he says. “The wider your brush is, the fewer passes you have to make and the quicker you’re going to get the job done.” However, if the area requires more maneuverability, a smaller broom would work better.

Bristle material should be determined by the bulk of the material being swept and the sensitivity of the surface, Koch says. Polypropylene bristles move material more effectively because the bristles flex to cover more area. Steel wire bristles are for more aggressive action like removing mud and heavier debris. However, steel wires can scratch softer surfaces.

Options for broom attachments are fairly limited, but gutter brooms for sweepers and water spray kits, which help reduce the amount of dust kicked up during operation, for angle and sweeper brooms are most popular.

Bradley Kramer is editorial assistant of Compact Equipment.