[Nick Attwood]

Just wondered who uses the HTC Twister Pads

• What are your thoughts on them?

• And who do you get yours from?

• Or what do you use instead?

Cheers

Nick

[Jamie Pearson]

Hi Nick,

They work okay but not for restoration.
Lippage and grout lines shave the coating off.
There aree other brand on the market that work  good as if not better and will outlast them.
KGS or Klindex Supershines to name two. 3m purple pads are also good for maintenance use.

For proper polishing works you need diamonds, polishing powders and Training.

[Kev Martin]

It's exactly as Jamie says all pads are for Maintenance Only.  They are useless for renovation.  Some pads are better than others and some pads are just so expensive they don't warrant the price.  I like Jamie think that Klindex & KGS are the best of the bunch.  The Klindex System is 3 stage and the KGS are 4 stage.  There is however, a new system out now called the Klindex Holland System which is a cross between a pad and diamond system.

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[cleantech]

what about cheetah pads?

[david_m]

Hi cleantec

what do you want to achive with these pads
do you want to do restoration work, maintence work, our cleaning stone floors

these are three main different areas of the work we do and use different methods for each
Once you know the work that your intent on doing then we can advice further

 davy.

[Jamie Pearson]

what about cheetah pads?

They have their place depending on what you are looking to achieve. They are not restoration pads in the sense that they cant remove lippage.

 They work well on floors requiring renovation not restoration. You can however do the same with resin diamonds which you would also use for restoration. Therefore metal/resin bond diamond pads are more versatile and can be bought in the grades required rather than a full set.

[russell taylor]

Hi Nick,
 Twister pads are very good at getting Topical sealers off from say Travertine, limestone Marble etc and then re-polishing for a satin finsh.
If however you are talking about lippage removal, grinding etc from Polished stone then this is completley different area, and I would advise Training for this.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

[Kev Martin]

Hi Nick,
 Twister pads are very good at getting Topical sealers off from say Travertine, limestone Marble etc and then re-polishing for a satin finsh.
If however you are talking about lippage removal, grinding etc from Polished stone then this is completley different area, and I would advise Training for this.
  Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

Russell

Can you explain a little more to the forum members how a FLAT TWISTER PAD can be very good at getting a Topical Sealer off a honed and filled Travertine when it is full of pits and fissures?  All this of course assuming there is no problem with Lippage on the floor which there always is!  Furthermore what happens to the Grout is that just left with the topical sealer on?

Kevin Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[Nick Attwood]

Thanks for all the replies, I ordered the Klindex Supershine Soft from kev last week and had a play about with them at the weekend.

Kev when is you next course??

[russell taylor]

Hi Kev,
  What would the point of me explaining it to you, its what we teach on our Tile Doctor course you will have to book and I can show how to do it and I can assure you any problems with lippage can be overcome as well as pits in the stone its not rocket science,The grout would be treated seperatley depending of their was a sealer on it or just Trapped dirt and we do the same system for our Customers  floors have been for the last few years with excellent results allround.
Htc Pads are a third of the price as Klindex supershine.
Supershine gets a sharper finish to the shine but we find our customers prefer a more satin finsh for Travertine and Limestone.
Dont confuse this with Polished marble or Granite different system for that.
Russell at Tile Doctor

[Floor_Tony]

Russell

Twister pads are third of the price of supershine your website states £140 for the set a supershine set £99.99.

Second this is a forum for helpful support,advice and information, so i'll give you some if your customer prefers a honed or "satin" finished then I would suggest you try Aqua-Seal Hone, not only will you give the honed finished but you will be cleaning the grout at the same time! And then you will save even more money......

Tony

[Kev Martin]

Hi Kev,
  What would the point of me explaining it to you, its what we teach on our Tile Doctor course you will have to book and I can show how to do it and I can assure you any problems with lippage can be overcome as well as pits in the stone its not rocket science,The grout would be treated seperatley depending of their was a sealer on it or just Trapped dirt and we do the same system for our Customers  floors have been for the last few years with excellent results allround.
Htc Pads are a third of the price as Klindex supershine.
Supershine gets a sharper finish to the shine but we find our customers prefer a more satin finsh for Travertine and Limestone.
Dont confuse this with Polished marble or Granite different system for that.
Russell at Tile Doctor

Your reply says it all

Kevin

[russell taylor]

Hi Tony,
  You dont give any details about supershine for £99, Amir at Klindex sells them for 4 times this price and he is the agent, I would be very interested to know where your getting them from for this price, sounds to good to be true.
I have nothing against Klindex so if the price is right im in.
Regards Russell at Tile Doctor

[Floor_Tony]

He's not the only agent

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Klindex-Diamond-Floor-Pad-System-Set-Stages-1-2-3-Supershine-Soft-17-/140614806872?pt=UK_Flooring&hash=item20bd4bad58#ht_1908wt_952

[russell taylor]

Thanks for that Tony, I have a set from Amir thye look a bit different to yours as well as the price, they are more of a solid board than a textured diamond pad, yours look like Twister pads, no doubt I will give them a try when I need some more see what there like.
I do like The Satin finish that Twisters give though, it seems more Natural on Limestone and Travertine.
Regards Russ at Tile Doctor

[Floor_Tony]

Different ball game the original supershines where designed for perfectly ground floors designed more for the European market, we are not  properly ready for that system over here the twister system is usually over used in my opinion and usually leaves a plastic finish as I have said Aqua-Seal Hone leaves the best results for a honed looked and comes in a variety of grits and as I have already stated will clean the grout and strip most sealers/topical at the same time.   

[Jamie Pearson]

I have to say we are using honing powders more and more every week.

Now that we have all the grades in stock it gives us great versatility.

Twister/KGS/Rhino/Supershine etc etc are good but work out expensive if you are doing a lot of floors that have lippage as it eats the active layer too quickly.

Unless its a floor we have ground down previously we pretty much now only use pad systems on terrazzo, concrete and large areas of LVT to quickly take off scuffs.

[Kev Martin]

I have to say we are using honing powders more and more every week.

Now that we have all the grades in stock it gives us great versatility.

Twister/KGS/Rhino/Supershine etc etc are good but work out expensive if you are doing a lot of floors that have lippage as it eats the active layer too quickly.

Unless its a floor we have ground down previously we pretty much now only use pad systems on terrazzo, concrete and large areas of LVT to quickly take off scuffs.

Jamie

I can only re-iterate what you already know.  The Aqua-Seal Honing Powders are killing the Pad market.  Endless testing and five hard years of developmenjt have proved it is 4 x faster and 5 times more efficient than a pad system.  We are now exporting it to Australia, Denmark, Germany and Sweden.  In fact I would like to throw open a challenge to anyone who is prepared to meet me and restore a Travertine or limestone floor with their pad system quicker than I can do it with Aqua Seal Hone!!!

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[Jamie Pearson]

The pads well and truly have their place.

That is , imo, with cleaning contractors on their buffer, scrubber dryer, with your client for aftercare or someone looking to do a one off job.

I am not taking that challenge Kevin.

In defence of the pads here is a picture of a terrazzo floor in a church that we stripped off all the topical finish using Course KGS Flexis Pads and a little stripper to boost then finished working through each grade of KGS Flexis pads on  generic 17" scrubber dryers. Normally we would have used diamonds or polishing powders to finish. This wasnt necessary. The church now "religously" maintain using the same pads on a small battery scrubber dryer.

[Kev Martin]

Jamie

Nice job mate!  I agree with your sentiments on the pads and I have always said they have a place in floor maintenance.  In fact on several of our larger projects we actively encourage cleaning managers to use them for maintenance.  This said however they still need to be controlled in use.  You know the story manager says to cleaner time to run a pad over the floor!  The cleaner doesn't even look at grits or grades they just slap anything on the bottom of the scrubber drier and off they go

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd