[heritagecleaning]

I am having a lot of trouble with this type of 'pitted' vinyl flooring. It's light grey in colour. Well, it USED to be light grey and is used in work canteens where it gets heavy boot traffic and is getting blacker and blacker.

I have tried most things. At present am resorting to caustic soda based liquid and a black pad on a rotary machine. This helps a bit but can leave a hazy, sort of marbling look.

Simple wet mopping removes a lot of dirt but the floor barely looks any better.

Any suggestions welcome!

Thanks


Owen

[Musicman]

Owen, it sounds similar to altro and my approach would be to clean it the same way.

My preference is to use a contra-rotating brush machine (Rotowash, Duplex, Nilfisk, Karcher) but a standard speed rotary with a grey pad (Vileda) does a good job.

Use a deck scrubber for the smaller inaccessible areas.

In the way of chemicals try Force by Premiere Products or the micro-splitter Dynax.

When mopping for daily maintenance use a twin bucket kentucky for a better result.

Did many people take you up on your offer for your Terms & Conditions?

Musicman

[garyj]

Does sound like Altro, there was a thread on carpet cleaning a couple of weeks back thats worth a look.

http://www.cleanitup.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=8428.0

[Tim Downer]

Yes, wet mopping just moves a lot of the dirt around to another area of the floor after removing some of it.
Try the ideas above, as the scrubbing method will shift out the ingrained dirt and muck that mops will not.

Here is something to think about after cleaning this type of floor.....put floor polish on it!!

"What!" I hear you all saying, "the floor is pitted for a reason - to be non-slip!!"

However, I am sure it was while on the "Hard Floor" Cleaning course at PROCHEM, that they suggested using a watered down floor polish on this type of flooring, and not only does it look nice and clean and shiney, but also is still way in the safety margin for this type of flooring - still being very non-slip. Also, be easier to clean afterwards as the polish would have filled in to a small degree the gaps between the pitted bits.

I would like to add that it would be wise to call or email PROCHEM before doing this.....as i may well have dreamed about it one night years ago!!

Regards
Tim

[john obrien]

try polish striper black pad  then remove with h2o and awet vac keep weting and vacing

[garyj]

Altro looks horrible polished !!

[Derek_Walker]

I would not advise putting floor polish on a safety floor, if someone fell over, tripped etc, even if it was not slippery, you could become liable for damages.
Better not to take the chance. If you are using Prochem products I believe ultrapac renovate would be the choice for altro safety flooring. If not then m/s floor cleaner would be ideal as there is no residue. Altro safety floors are notorious for resoiling very quickly. Scrub and then extract with plain water.

[martin19842]

hi there,

if it is altro non slip floor, then the altro spec is damp mop with neutral detergent.

you can machine scrub the floor, however your client will see discolouration again within a  short space of time, therefore i would not suggest machine scrubbing.

altro non slip, should not be sealed or polished, as if anyone slips over then litigation would in the majority of cases be successful.

altro floor in its nature, is porous in ite nature, great for non slip in hospitals and surgeries, but an absoolute PAIN to keep clean

regards

marti