[Paul71]

Hi,

This is my first post on here. My partner and I have our own commercial cleaning business. One of our contracts is a local nursery, two buildings and lots of safety non slip flooring. When we started our contract the floors were very dirty and took some time to get clean. I used a combination of floor cleaner and a stiff brush on my steamer/vac, then rinsed and extracted. Floor looks great but I want it better. We mop the floor every day and then once a month we carry out a deep clean to the premises. I'm looking to buy a victor rotary or similar to see if I can improve the appearance. I have two questions if anyone can help. 1) which is the best chemical for cleaning this type of floor? 2) once the floor is clean, is there a sealer I can use?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

[gwrightson]

I am no expert on hard floors ,but learning every day.

I would first look at what chemicals you are using at the moment to clean with a mop.
I don't believe a steam cleaner is ideal either, and exactly what is the make up of the safety flooring.

Geoff.

Martin or Tadgh hopefully will be able to be more specific with the information your looking for.

Geoff

[Paul71]

I can't say what type of floor it is, it's a beige colour, been down some twenty plus years.

The steam cleaner was not used for long periods, it was used more for the brush head to agitate the floor and as the steamer has a detergent function and vacuum, I could then rinse and extract the dirt all in one.

For mopping the floor we use Evans EMC plus.

Cheers for the info Geoff.

[premier floorcare]

A scrubber dryer machine with cylindrical brush is very effective on safety flooring. Dynax from Amtech is a good alkaline cleaner and for a more environmentally friendly product Tadgh at JSK has bio kleen which we have found to be very good. Sealer should definitely not be applied to safety flooring.

[Tony Stewart]

I have just cleaned 320 sq m of vinyl flooring/safety flooring in a school. Before I have used an alkaline degreaser and a victor with a red pad. Scrubbed it in and then wet vacuumed it out - then rinsed then wet vacuumed it out. Took two of us ages to do it. I then bought a second hand Viper Fang 18c Scrubber Drier and CSUK sent me a melamine pad. Used Selden Triple scubber drier detergent in the tank and it restored the floor with one pass - cut the time by half and the result was fantasic.
You should not use a sealer as the floor is designed to give when walked on. It has little air pockets in the flooring. It's those air pockets that fill up with dirt and when mopped they are not removed because the mop just passes over the top of the dirt.
Hope that helps

[Paul71]

Thanks for the info guys, that's great. I just managed to buy a used rotary that I'm picking up tomorrow. I fancy a scrubber drier but as we only currently have the one nursery we do this for, it's an expense for very little use.  I'll certainly look in to getting one if we have more similar floors to clean. Appreciate the info 

[Kev Martin]

A scrubber drier is a rotary with a wet vac built in.  Naturally a scrubber drier is quicker because you don't have to stop doing one thing to do another plus one guy can do the work of 2 people.  They are even more effective if you lift the vac bar and allow the cleaner to dwell prior to agitating it again and vaccing it up again.  Rechargeable battery operated scrubber driers are best fitted with either a soft to medium brush or in this case a pad.  However, in the short term you will be fine with a Mono Rotary fitted with either a brush or pad depending on what works best and a wet vac.

Kev

[Paul71]

Cheers Kev. Some great info guys. I'm going picking the rotary up this morning, it come with black pads so once I find the size I'll get some red. Looking forward to giving it a go 

[premier floorcare]

A brush would have a better effect than a pad. Melamine pads do work well on safety flooring but tend to wear out extremely fast.
And just to clarify how and why safety flooring works I copied this from the altro website
Wet contaminants on flooring create a film that prevents complete contact between a shoe and the floor, which can result in a slip or fall. A wet film only needs to be 1-2 μm thick to prevent complete contact between a shoe and the flooring: that's about one tenth the thickness of a human hair. Dry contaminants can act like millions of tiny ball bearings, which can also result in a slip or fall.
Safety flooring works by incorporating aggregates into a wear layer. If they're sufficient in number and quality, they can penetrate the wet film to provide contact with the shoe, or sit proud to prevent the ball bearing effect of dry contaminants.

Applying a seal on safety flooring smooths it out preventing it from working as it should

[Paul71]

I see, makes sense really. Cheers for that.

I just got back from picking my rotary up, apparently it didn't have a name make on it. Got there and found the plate. Turns out its a truvox  ob45400 so I am very pleased with the purchase and for very little money. Comes with a multitude of pads but I think I'll look at getting a brush too.

[premier floorcare]

That's a  400rpm machine. Too fast!! Something more on the lines of a 175 rpm would be more appropriate

[Paul71]

Oh no 

Oh well it will come in handy for other jobs, didn't pay much so it's not a loss.

[Jamie Pearson]

Melamine pads do work well on safety flooring but tend to wear out extremely fast.

Using on a rotary also speeds up the wear. Especially when using the cheap plain white ones.  On a scrubber dryer however as the pad stays reasonably flat through operation they last far longer.

[Tony Stewart]

See I told you so - look at the picture

[Kev Martin]

Melamine pads do work well on safety flooring but tend to wear out extremely fast.

Using on a rotary also speeds up the wear. Especially when using the cheap plain white ones.  On a scrubber dryer however as the pad stays reasonably flat through operation they last far longer.

Jamie

No one is disputing you but they probably don't have a scrubber dryer!   Furthermore even if they had one anyone who has real experience with getting scrubber dryers on and off vans and in and out of buildings or up and down different levels in buildings knows how difficult it is.  Then dependant on the size of the scrubber dryer you still have the edges to do so you need something for that anyway.  Surely there is no difference in wear on a decent melamine using a well balanced good quality Mono Rotary Scrubber Vs  A Small Scrubber Drier is there?  What was the difference in wear rate on your comparison test?  Surely the scrubber dryer is a lot heavier so wear is increased isn't it or do I have it wrong???

Kev

[Jamie Pearson]

Its the swig action of the mono rotary that is the problem with melamine pads.

As these machines pitch they transfer weight onto the outside edge of the pad which causes the rapid wear.

On a machine like the Orbot or a Scrubber Dryer they sit a lot flatter and don't wear as fast.

first time I used them I was amazed at the cleaning performance but dissapointed by the wear. Then I spoke to the German company that make 3Ms pads and he told me they are best used on SD's and Orbital machines which now makes sense.

[Kev Martin]

OK  I get what you are saying!  I wonder if a Melamine pad would work better on the Klindex Maxi.  I am going to try one and I will let you know.

Kev

[Paul71]

Cheers guys. I'm keeping a look out for a Scrubber dryer but I'm just keeping in mind it will hardly be used unless we get more similar contracts. Just general cleans we have carried out to the nursery floor have made a huge difference.  I'm sure the rotary I bought will come in handy at some point for a job or two. I'm still going ahead and buying a polypropylene brush so I have should it be required.

[Kev Martin]

Cheers guys. I'm keeping a look out for a Scrubber dryer but I'm just keeping in mind it will hardly be used unless we get more similar contracts. Just general cleans we have carried out to the nursery floor have made a huge difference.  I'm sure the rotary I bought will come in handy at some point for a job or two. I'm still going ahead and buying a polypropylene brush so I have should it be required.

Paul

Scrubber driers are great as long as you have somewhere to store them and you can get them on and off your van and into the property.  Alternatively if you have a long term contract and they allow you a space to keep it on site then all well and good.  The best ones are the Battery Operated ones but they are also the most expensive

Kevin

[Paul71]

Hi Kevin,

Storage is the issue at the moment. When we started up in April we had very little equipment and chemicals, now we have such a lot that some is stored in our flat as I won't leave equipment in the van, and we store some in a garage we rent. We only have a Vauxhall combo crew cab van which we have also out grown. I think a Scrubber dryer for our current contract would probably be too much. I love the idea of having another piece of equipment as I love new toys, I just don't think it's practical at the moment. I have been watching a numatic twintec 345 on auction but I'm hesitant due to the above reasons.