Hi Fox,
There could be many reasons why the floor has become slippery. You’ve highlighted one possibility as contamination that’s been tracked into the building from outside. Does this company have an engineering workshop on site? A machine lubricant may be causing problems etc.
It may also be from incompatible floor products e.g. polish, cleaner or maintainer. The floor may also need burnishing daily to repair foot traffic damage and to harden the coating. Please note that proper cleaning and daily burnishing does not make a floor slippery.
However, proper burnishing of a qood quality floor finish involves using machines capable of 1500rpm or higher with clean burnishing pads.
Wooden sports floors that I have been asked to inspect because of complaints that the floor had become slippery have always been caused by improper cleaning techniques. Dirty dust-control mops, over dilution of cleaning products, not changing the mopping solution regularly etc.
Also, wooden floors should not be stripped using water-based agents. They should be sanded back to allow for proper adhesion of the wood floor seal and wood floor coating without causing damage to the floor. Wood will absorb moisture, distort and lift. The worst wooden floors I have seen for moisture damage has been in the leisure industry. The cleaners had thrown buckets of water over the floor (daily) diluted with a high pH cleaning agent and then scrubbed it in. The surface of the floor crumbled and was not repairable. The replacement floor cost the cleaning contractor £50,000 and also the contract.
Regards
Steve
