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Paul Simpson

  • Posts: 999
Best vinyl cleaner
« on: May 05, 2011, 05:59:06 pm »
As per the subject.
Did a large vinyl floor today in a commercial premises using citrus concentrate although I also tried other things I had on board Multi-pro and Ultrapac but nothing seemed to be shifting the worst bits.
Was using a 17" rotary and black pad but still didn't look great when I'd finished, even resorted to my hand and knees with a scourer.

Is it probably just too far gone or is there something stronger I could have tried?

Thanks

Linds Russell

  • Posts: 302
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2011, 07:15:00 pm »
If Jamie from Cleaning Systems UK replies to this, take note from him as his company does lots of this cleaning and he does training courses on hard / resilent floor cleaning.
Linds

Jamie Pearson

  • Posts: 3407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2011, 07:30:23 pm »
What colour was it?

Was there old floor finish on the floor that had discoloured?

Was it smooth sheet vinyl or a textured "safety floor" type product?

Paul Simpson

  • Posts: 999
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2011, 08:20:19 pm »
Attached a picture.

But it was blue with white streaks.
No old floor finish that I could tell from.
Smooth.

Don't think it had been touched in years.

Thanks

Jamie Pearson

  • Posts: 3407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2011, 08:28:30 pm »
It may be worth trying floor stripper applied, allowed to dwell, then scrub with black pad again. If the floor is uneven try stacking up a couple of pads or put a carpet bonnet between the drive board and pad.

Scrub north to south, east to west pick up and rinse. Use q spot of acid rinse, Prorinse or a couple tabelspoons of White vinegar in cold water to rinse and Hewitt use the alkalinity.

Give it a buff with a red floor pad afterwards to even out the appearance if you aren't applying any floor finish.

Currently the best floor intensive cleaner for floors I have used is Dr
Schutz Turbo Strip.

Jamie Pearson

  • Posts: 3407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #5 on: May 05, 2011, 08:31:56 pm »
Use the best quality pads you can afford. My preference is the 3m premium pads. I find others blunt quickly and stop cleaning.

If you can get some vileda grey super pads or 3m spp pads these will lightly sand the surface removing topical discoloration.

I have had good results using twister style diamond pads for this.

Paul Simpson

  • Posts: 999
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #6 on: May 05, 2011, 08:54:14 pm »
Thanks for the replies.
Yet to hear from the client if they are happy as I didn't finish untill this evening.
But will take a note of your advice.
Thanks again.

Neil Mc Anulty

  • Posts: 407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #7 on: May 05, 2011, 10:44:04 pm »
Wow :o what a price for th Dr Schutz £107 for 10 litres of stripper ???. Is that right?

Jamie Pearson

  • Posts: 3407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2011, 10:57:34 pm »
Probably.

Where did you see that Dreamfloors?

Jim_77

Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #9 on: May 05, 2011, 11:27:29 pm »
They're "Marley" tiles (vinyl composition tiles to give them their correct name).  As said above, they normally respond best by far to a floor stripper, but mixed at about half the strength (or less) than you'd use for actually stripping sealer off if it was there.

But that brings another question, is the floor finished in any way? Could throw the whole conversation in a different direction!

I'd be very wary about using stuff like citrus concentrate on these, because solvents can damage them.  You're not using orange juice, you're using some unpredictable solvents.  If you applied a d-limonene based product to them I'm sorry but you've probably screwed them.  I learned this the hard way, luckily on my mum's old kitchen floor shortly before it was ripped up and replaced!

Be very wary about over-scrubbing as you'll start to remove the dense, compacted surface layer of the tiles which is smoother and shinier than the "biscuit" inside it.  On a good conditioned surface, a black pad is way too much, blue should be the heaviest you'd need and I'd start of with red.

If they're already worn then it's too late to worry about that, so in which case I wouldn't even do the job unless they wanted the floor finished with a good quality sealer afterwards.  If you leave these tiles in a very worn state with no sealer on them they will just suck up soiling and look pants in no time at all.  An already trashed and worn floor will not come off too badly from a black pad, it will lose some more material but at least you'll get it clean!  You'll see the colour of the tile material washing up in your slurry whilst scrubbing.

Have fun whatever you do ;)

p.s. you shouldn't be paying any more than about £15 or so for 5L of a decent floor stripper.  Don't listen to BS marketing

Jamie Pearson

  • Posts: 3407
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #10 on: May 06, 2011, 07:47:36 am »
In this case a cheap floor stripper will be adequate.

On materials such as marmoleum however high pH and the prescence of sodium metasilicate (in most strippers) will cause discolouration.

The Schutz stripper is expensive, however, on large projects with years of build up it is unrivalled in my opinion. Often saving the need for multiple applications and maintains longer contact time without evaporation or dispertion.

It is expensive, for sure, it also saves a load of labour on a large project.

John Kelly

  • Posts: 4461
Re: Best vinyl cleaner
« Reply #11 on: May 06, 2011, 09:26:42 am »
Yes they are Marley tiles. The vast majority of these contain Asbestos as a binding agent. Unlikely that scrubbing would expose any fibres but be aware of any damaged areas. As Jim says they are probably knackered. These were usually laid as part of the damp proofing along with the bitumen adhesive. Also as a dust suppresent on dusty concrete slabs. Don't think they were actually designed as a floor finish as such as they are not exactly pretty. If they have been exposed since being laid then its likely that dirt has been ground into the top layers of the plastic and no ammount of cleaning will remedy that.