Page 2 - 2019-02-CFR Volume 125 - Cleaning Textured Hard Surface Flooring - February 2019

Most often the cleaning process
for the flooring is to broom sweep
them to gather the bulk of the
dusty soil or shop vac them and
then often wet mopping is used.
Even if the flooring is not wet
mopped dusty, particulate soil will The experts at LGM
become imbedded in the texture.
Here’s where you run into trouble. specialize in consultation, cor-
Wet mopping a hard surface floor- rection and resolution for floor-
ing with a textured surface will ing complaints, claims, installa-
make a paste of the drywall dust tion and performance issues.
which is then near impossible to
remove. We’ve seen this on a No issue is too big, too small or
multitude of installations especially too far away for us to handle.
in new hotels and apartment com- DRY WALL DUST
plexes where luxury vinyl planks All ads are interactive. Just click
are used or even wood flooring. It on the ad to enter their website.
is irrelevant as to the core of these materials, it’s the face of them that
presents the challenge. So how should this dusty soil be removed if We are now posting the
not with a broom, vacuum, damp or wet mop?
CFR on LinkedIn. Just click
Pros need to understand the limiting factors of rotary equipment on the image below or search
these types of floors. If all the bristles on the brush are the same under Lew Migliore and
length, how many of the bristles will dive down into the nooks and
crannies of the floor? The water-based cleaning solution will travel into let’s connect!!
those crevices’ and will carry some of the loosened and dissolved soils
back into the same space as the flooring dries.

One needs the correct type of tool to get into the recessed areas like a
machine with cylindrical brushes. The way the brushes contact the
flooring the bristles are getting deep into the recesses and moving all
the soils out where it can be collected by the machine, dust mop or
vacuum.

So what can we do with these types of flooring and not have soils re-
turn to the low lying areas? We can clean them without water. Dry ab-
sorbent compound once thought to only be available for carpet can do
the trick. The compound is usually a plant-based carrier like corn or
wood flour can be impregnated with detergents and drying agents. The
compound then deposits the cleaning agents onto the flooring and
then collects soils as the cylindrical brush machine distributes the
compound allowing the cleaning agent to access the soils and sus-
pend them. Once suspended the compound dries and is collected by
the machine if so equipped or a dust mop and suction only vacuum.

Page Layout By: Anita S. Drennon

2 Commercial Flooring Report February 2019