The established methods designed to detect and enumerate microorganisms present on surfaces all have limitations to accuracy, flexibility, and speed. A novel method is described which enables rapid sampling of large areas in any plane. The surface microflora was recovered in a washing solution held in a foam plastic pad. The washing solution and the mildly abrasive action of the foam pad enabled up to 90% of the organisms present on a surface to be recovered. The pad was held in a specially designed metal holder which allows the solution to be transferred from the surface to a collecting vessel for enumeration by viable cell counts. When compared with the swab method this gave up to 50 fold increase in the efficiency of recovery. This method has also been used to monitor work benches, walls, ceilings, and the floors of clean rooms as part of regular bioburden audits, and to recover slime layers from submerged surfaces.