[diamond]

Did a demo on ceramic tiles of spray buffing and felt like a bit of a tool when the red pads left quite a bad red residue. Wiped it with a towel and the colour bleed was quite bad. Used chemspecs nuetral floor cleaner.
Can someone tell me if this is normal or is it the pads fault.
Cheers.

[Jamie Pearson]

Possibly the pads. If it has an antis lip treatment they can shred them.

Best not to spray buff ceramic tiles. Much better to microfibre mop them or even use a floor bonnet on machine for mechanical mopping.

Spray buffing is best suited to vinyl and marmoleum.

[diamond]

Cheers Jamie. Top advice.
I cleaned them with a blue pad, wet pick up, rinse, wet pick up and white pad to buff.
The tiles were not that bad mostly cleaners residue. Do you think this was overkill and some mopping and pick up would have been enough.
Cheers

[Jamie Pearson]

What you have done sounds fine.

It was the spray buffing demo I was referring to. IMO it doesn't work for that floor type.

[jim mca]

Take a look at the scrub pad world of clean sell they get a good write up

Jim

[russell taylor]

I would be interested to know why and for what red buffing pads are used for, certainly not for Ceramics and stone, I remember using one about 12 years ago on one of my first jobs and it turned all the grout Pink, I wasnt happy with this and had to hand scrub the grout with an alkaline cleaner from Aqua-mix at the time called Heavy duty Tile And Grout cleaner it did the job, but have never used a Red buffing pad since.
But still anyone knows what they are meant to be for I would be interested if not to pique my curiosity.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

[Griffus]

I would be interested to know why and for what red buffing pads are used for, certainly not for Ceramics and stone, I remember using one about 12 years ago on one of my first jobs and it turned all the grout Pink, I wasnt happy with this and had to hand scrub the grout with an alkaline cleaner from Aqua-mix at the time called Heavy duty Tile And Grout cleaner it did the job, but have never used a Red buffing pad since.
But still anyone knows what they are meant to be for I would be interested if not to pique my curiosity.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

This is from a suppliers website: -

Floor Pads should be cleaned regularly for longer life.

White
   Polished to High Gloss to any existing finish

Tan
   Speedy Shine to any finish & freshly applied polish

Red
   Spray Clean and Buff. Removes Scuff marks and dirt

Blue
   Heavy Duty Scrubbing and Spray Stripping

Green
   Scrubbing & Stripping Floor Finishes

Brown
   Heavy Duty Scrubbing

Black
   Heavy Duty Polish Stripping- removes old polish

[Kev Martin]

I don't advocate the use of colored pads on any stone including grout.

We use Black for occasionally when an aggressive pad is required! 
We use white as an emulsifying pad
Natural Hair (Hogs Hair) 10% & 50% for polishing & Honing.

I am not saying they are not useful on other floor finishes (Linoleum etc)

But I have never found a use for any other colored pads in Tile & Stone Restoration.  In fact when KGS first brought out their diamond maintenance pads which were bright red I rang them immediately and asked if they had been tested for bleed and they assured me they had.  Subsequently a few weeks later we ground and honed an Apple Limestone floor.  We decided to try them to finish off closing the surface tension down and they Bled all over the first area.  They have now corrected the problem.

I avoid colored pads like the plague.

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd.

[Jamie Pearson]

I don't advocate the use of colored pads on any stone including grout.

I agree. They are for resilient flooring. Unless stripping topical coatings.

[AshWhite]

What about diamond pads where white is the finest, and the coloured are used earlier in the process?

[Jamie Pearson]

Ash,

The pads you speak of are specific to stone.
We are referring to normal nylon floor pads.
In my experience if the floor is completely dry and you buff with them there isnt an issue and same if you wet scrub with them.
Its when there is moisture present and you try to run a dry pad to buff the floor that you can get them bleeding.

[AshWhite]

Ah ok, I thought the diamond resin type might suffer the same problems, but they don't?