Cleaning – Not Exactly A Science Or Is It?

Although cleaning issues are not new, cleaning related questions are still amongst the most frequently asked of manufacturers’ technical helplines.

I think most people now appreciate that if they go to the trouble and expense of installing safety flooring but then don’t clean it properly, they’ve wasted money and people may still slip.

You may think cleaning is a simple affair - if you put enough effort into getting a floor clean the likelihood is that you will succeed. But it’s not always that simple and if you get the chemistry wrong, all your hard work could go to waste.

Firstly, always sweep a floor before applying the cleaning solution, this will ensure that dry surface debris is not dissolved and spread over the floor adding to the problem. Take time to find out what kind of contamination of the flooring you’re dealing with, for instance, if the builders have been in and there is plaster or cement dust on the floor, always use an acidic cleaning solution which will help break down the deposits and get the floor looking new again.

A common recommendation for the deep cleaning of a heavily soiled smooth vinyl or decorative rubber floor is to use an alkaline detergent with a PH value of around 12/13 per cent. This will undoubtedly help to clean the floor, particularly in conjunction with a rotary scrubbing machine and the right pads or brushes. However, the mistake many people make is in not neutralising the floor after the use of the alkaline detergent. This is no problem unless you want to apply a couple of coats of metalised dressing or polish, which in general terms will not bond effectively to the alkaline floor surface, resulting in early failure of the coating. A simple rinse before the application of the polish with either a bespoke neutralising agent or, my own favourite, a couple of tablespoons of vinegar (acetic acid) in a bucket full of water will solve the problem.

Always remember that once a floor has been sealed or polished, you can’t then go on to clean it with alkaline detergents as this will break down the polish. At this point, you need to change to a neutral detergent or floor maintainer that contains hydrated polymers to feed the polish and, in many instances, eliminate the need to strip and re-polish, which can be costly.

It’s fair to say that all safety floorings need a certain amount of effort to keep them safe and clean, but failure to correctly maintain a safety floor could lead to slip problems and will shorten its life.

Machine cleaning is always easier than the manual alternative and as a general rule will give the best results. Having said this, with the current advances in safety flooring technology the need for frequent mechanical cleaning is constantly being reduced. Altro Maxis for example, with its patented easy clean technology, offers excellent cleanability which reduces the amount of times the floor needs to be machine scrubbed. 

For every type of floor, Altro produces a cleaning card giving the step by step instructions required for the successful cleaning and maintenance needed, including the telephone numbers for suppliers of equipment. Follow these guidelines and use the correct equipment to keep your floors in tip top condition.

This article first appeared in the August 2010 edition of the CFJ.