CM/Spotlight: Hard Floor Care IS YOUR #1 RESTROOM PROBLEM THE SMELL OF #1? TOUGH JOBS DEMAND SMART SOLUTIONS High-gloss, thermally-activated finishes were often more malleable than their low-speed counterparts, allowing them to be stimulated by the friction of a burnisher to soften the top layer, which helps repair minor blemishes and restores gloss. I won’t even get started on ceramic tiles being coated with finishes: Complete removal was always difficult from the grout channel, if the contractor or in-house cus-todian could get the finish to bond to the ceramic in the first place. It was much easier to maintain terrazzo but, due to inexperience, many terrazzo floors were “sealed” with a concrete sealer, creating a surface film that made it difficult for a finish to bond. It was wholly misunderstood just how these pore-clogging sealers accomplished their protection, and many were washed off by using cleaning agents that were too strong for routine cleaning purposes, espe-cially in foodservice areas. Restaurant kitchen floors covered with quarry tile caused many levels of concern because of the inherent porosity of the tile coupled with a lighter color grout and the necessity of a non-slip surface. Stone floors were challenging and, because their natural tendencies were mys-terious and unknown, many viewed their maintenance as downright scary. There was limited information on natural stone products, and the guidance that was available only addressed stone soap and restoration abrasion techniques for marble; there was virtually no information on gran-ite, travertine or slate. Let’s just say that cleaning and maintain-ing hard surface floors “back in the day” was difficult, cumbersome and absolutely not for the novice. International (BSCAI) and the Institute for Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) have been invaluable in aggregating content to reach consensus on how we should be caring for the same old flooring. Most flooring professionals today are no longer applying finish to ceramic tiles, so their grout lines are not being protected from the abuse of foot traffic. Since grout is a low spot of concrete between the tiles, routine sweeping and mopping is only good for pushing a variety of soils into the valleys. Thankfully, we now have turbo-type clean-ing tools that combine a high-pressure spray with chemical agitation to remove the build-up of soils that have accumulated therein. There are also any number of detergents specifically formulated with a combination of ingredients designed to emulsify protein soils found in grout, along with safer acid products — non-hydrofluoric or muriatic varieties — to remove non-organic soils also found in grout channels. To avoid unintended damage, only neu-tral detergents with safe, mild ingredients — read: No chelating agents designed to dissolve hard water minerals — should be used on mineral-based grout or stone surfaces. Reduced Chemistry Floor Maintenance VCT no longer has to be wet stripped; in fact, stripping can be performed without using any chemical at all. The previous sentence should be read again by anyone who has ever traditionally wet stripped a finished floor, as this is a truly amazing feat. There are oscillating floor machines that, through a completely dry process, can remove almost all of the finish from a floor. The maturation of hard floor care is elimi-nating many of the headaches of yore: No more sloppy slurry, no wet machine cords, no step-off issues and no more incomplete removal of finish leading to discoloration issues. The stripping pads currently available offer more complete removal — they are effective even when used dry — of today’s more com-plex and much sturdier floor finishes. Floor Care Reaches Maturity Fast forward to today and you will see that the picture of modern floor care is painted very differently than that of the past. The Internet has provided a wealth of information to the flooring professional, along with a plethora of trade magazines that relay manufacturer information to a thirsty group of maintenance professionals. Trade organizations like ISSA, the Building Service Contractors Association NI-20376 Product Information no. 206 on page 24 14 April 2013
CMM – Archives Apr 2013: 14
