Housekeeper’s Best Friend
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There are numerous types of hard floor surfaces, each requiring their own method, product and equipment to maintain the highest standard of cleanliness. The most common hard surface floor coverings are: wood, stone, concrete, terrazzo, marble, slate, granite, clay and ceramic tile and resilient floors such as linoleum and vinyl.
Because the wood flooring group consists of various types of wood and wood composition, the life of the wood floor rests partly on its maintenance. First, it should be sealed and protected from wear and tear with a good quality sealer or wax. Wood that is sealed with wax should be cleaned with a neutral detergent diluted with water, never caustic cleaning solutions as it may cause permanent damage by impairing colour or splintering the material. Also because wood flooring is porous and will absorb excess water, routine maintenance should include mopping – with the mop wrung as much as possible – with a neutral diluted detergent.
Stone product floorings require more aggressive cleaning methods such as with mechanical means, automatic floor scrubbing machine or by mopping to maintain clean flooring.
Concrete floors often deteriorate over time with exposure to chemicals, oil and grease. Cleaning solutions range from a heavy-duty degreaser to a neutral product for lighter cleaning.
• Terrazzo and marble flooring need a gentler method of dust mopping and spot cleaning with a mild abrasive on a damp cloth. Floor polishing or scrubbing machine or mopping equipment can also be used but acids, harsh alkaline detergents and oils should never be used as they deteriorate the material.
Duplex national marketing executive, Paul Fuller said, "Being a hard flat ceramic and marble surface means using a floor scrubber is fine. Terrazzo can be regularly cleaned with wet mopping but using a floor cylindrical floor scrubber is far more efficient.
When mopping, the whole floor must be covered with water to raise dirt from the surface, then the surface must be rinsed numerous times.
"In comparison, a floor scrubber can scrub and collect dirty water simultaneously whilst producing a far deeper clean. To give the floor a real shine, polish with a mechanical buffer.
"Once again, if it is marble, it is important not to clean with any chemical products containing acid or alkaline. Being a hard flat surface with minimal groves, polished marble floors can be cleaned with almost any type of equipment. The main issue with cleaning marble is leaving streaks. To prevent streaks, marble should be cleaned using warm water and dried quickly. For everyday cleaning, steam or damp mopping is ideal, followed by dry mopping. For periodical cleaning, buffing or floor scrubbers could be used providing they have soft brushes.
"It is very important not to let acids contact the marble surface as they will etch it.
On a polished marble, detergent would rarely be required but, if necessary, use only a neutral pH detergent. Non-polished marble is a lot more delicate and harder to clean than polished marble. This is because it has a very thirsty surface that absorbs liquid quickly. With non-polished marble it is important to have a strong sealer to help reduce staining. Warm water damp mopping is adequate for everyday cleaning if the surface is flat. However, if there is a profiled surface, regularly using a cylindrical floor scrubber will help remove soiling from the cracks. Periodically the marble can be stripped, then cleaned with a floor scrubber and then resealed," Mr Fuller said.
Being naturally formed stones, slate and granite are hard and resistant to abrasive cleaning measures. Maintenance of slate and granite should include dry sweeping followed by mopping with a mild detergent. For heavily soiled flooring, granite may be cleaned with a fine scouring powder and slate may be cleaned with an alkaline detergent.
With a similar basic composition to slate and granite, ceramic, clay and quarry tiles may be maintained in the same manner. However, acids, harsh alkaline detergents and heavy abrasives should be avoided, especially if the surface is glazed.
Also, soap will build up and form a slippery film on the tile that will affect both appearance and safety. The best cleaning solution is diluted mild alkaline detergent.
Linoleum and vinyl is very sensitive. Strong chemicals such as strong alkaline detergents, caustic soda and harsh scouring cleaners can adversely affect it. These chemicals as well as excess water can cause permanent damage through discoloration, hardness, brittleness, and weakening of the glue bond.
• Daily maintenance of linoleum and vinyl includes sweeping or damp mopping with a neutral detergent. Soap is not recommended as it will built up over time and actually damage vinyl flooring but a mild abrasive powder or a floor polishing or scrubbing machine can be used on linoleum. Linoleum flooring can also be renewed with a light buffing by a floor machine.
Mr Fuller said: "Floor scrubbers are ideal for cleaning vinyls. This is because unlike mopping a floor scrubber will remove all soil from even the slightest grooves where a mop will only clean the surface. Of the various scrubbers available I would say a cylindrical brush floor scrubber is the most effective at removing deep stains.
"If the vinyl has many deep scuff marks or scratches however it will most likely need to be stripped and polished with a buffer."
Tile and grout surfaces present the greatest maintenance challenge of any floor surface. The difficulty of successfully maintaining tile and grout is first, the sponge like quality of the grout. Because it is porous, grout absorbs any liquid it comes in contact with. If the mop water is dirty, the grout will become dirty.
To overcome these problems there is a solution following the simple technique of clean and seal. First, the tile and grout should be thoroughly cleaned. Embedded contaminants in the grout should be extracted using an acid that produces a foaming action. This will bring the contaminants to the surface that are then broken down in the water. Secondly, to protect the grout from future absorption and contamination, the grout should be sealed. This seal should be done periodically and restorative bonding technology is a new alternative to sealer. It eliminates the porosity by coating the grout with a more permanent, non-cement grout-coating compound.
Mr Fuller said: "Using a cylindrical brush floor scrubber is ideal for tiles due to the grout lines. A cylindrical scrubber works the best as the action of the cylindrical brushes actually lift the dirt and grime out of the grout. Once the grout lines are cleaned a grout sealer should be applied One of the worst things for tiles is only cleaning with the traditional mop and bucket method. This is simply because the mop just pushes and leaves dirty water in grooves and the grout lines," Mr Fuller said.
Floor scrubbers are powerful machines designed to thoroughly scrub hard floor surfaces and dry in one pass. They use either roller brushes, rotating brushes or pads to scrub cleaning fluid into the floor. In terms of brushes there are two types, the twin rotary brushes and twin counter-rotating brushes. Floor scrubbers with twin counter-rotating brushes have more than 600,000 bristles moving at 650rpm and therefore more effectively scrub the surface with an aggressive action.
Steam cleaners, vacuums and floor scrubbers – each piece of equipment should feature specific technology to ensure that the machinery does the best cleaning job possible.
