This is a question that is, unfortunately, familiar to many people in the cleaning industry.

With floors, dirt is transported from a floor to a mop head, then to a wringer, a bucket, and then a drain. If what you use to pick up the dirt is not absorbent, your floors will look filmy.

Many times, the applicators used to clean a floor are wetted with a cleaner and that cleaner is rubbed around on the floor. This leaves a layer of water, plus detergents and dirt behind. To prevent this, thoroughly dry the microfiber or flat mop before using it so it transports dirt back to the bucket.

Here is one way to demonstrate the effectiveness of a cleaning tool, string mop or flat mop, to clean an area:

1. Allow the string mop or flat mop to dry.
2. Place a very white gym sock over one of your hands.
3. Moisten the gym sock with warm water and squeeze out as much water as you can.
4. Rub your hand on a section of the floor and inspect the sock.

A very sloppy wet mop head leaves so much solution behind that it takes a long time to dry, no doubt leaving dirt behind – this is the most common situation where a floor is left looking filmy.

Next, gently rub that area with a soft cloth. Then wipe up the water with a clean cloth, and reapply the quarter sized drop of water. This time, the water will bead up since there is no detergent present to help it wet out.

If your filmy floor issue still persists there could be a different problem. In some cases, the cleaning compound may attack the floor finish, leaving it dull. This can be caused by using aggressive cleaners like pH degreasers or floor strippers, or even from the use of moderate pH cleaners such as all-purpose cleaners.

Normally, Buckeye Blue diluted at 2 ounces per gallon and mopped on a floor does not attack floor finish. Buckeye Blue can attack a floor finish, however, when the floor is being mopped and solution is left behind on the floor heavy enough that it takes a long time to dry.

During that soak time, the pH of the solutions slowly rise as the water evaporates and, as the water evaporates, the concentration of the active ingredients become stronger and stronger until the last 30-40 seconds of dry time.

You can also use Straight-Up^® pH Neutral Cleaner to prevent filmy floors. The chemistry in the true pH neutral cleaner does not suffer a pH spike no matter how long it is diluted or how long the solution takes to dry. Just remember that even though filmy floors can be a nuisance to deal with, they can easily be fixed with simple changes. If you have questions about the chemicals you are using, contact your Buckeye representative.

Cleaning floor grout can be a challenging task. The first thing to remember is that cement-based grout, like a concrete floor, may not be uniform. After grout has been thoroughly cleaned, there may still be some darker spots next to lighter areas due to factors of installation. This is not something that can be changed with different methods of cleaning. When there are soils that need to be removed from grout, first wet the floor with a degreasing or general purpose cleaning solution. Next, let the solution sit for several minutes, and scrub the floor with a brush that can reach down into the grout. Then pick up the solution with a wet vacuum or mop, apply rinse water and scrub, and then pick up the rinse water.

Buckeye offers effective degreasers and general purpose cleaners that can be used for this purpose including Buckeye Maurader^® and Eco^® Hydrogen Peroxide Cleaner E15. Both of these products contain hydrogen peroxide and have excellent detergency for wetting the surface and suspending soil. The hydrogen peroxide reacts with some soils to make them more soluble in water which can physically loosen soils. If your facility has grout that won’t come clean after using a good cleaning solution there may be a discolored coating covering it. You can remove it with a Buckeye floor stripper, and follow up with a Buckeye water-based cleaner to scrub the floor.

Another option you can try is to used an acid-based cleaner such as Buckeye Eco Acid Cleaner E16 and Buckeye Gel Scrub^™ Tub and Tile Cleaner. These products go after soils that are sensitive to acid chemistry and based on phosphoric acid. This allows them to attack the grout itself and loosen soils that can then be flushed loose from the floor. But do be careful to seal after the use of acid chemistry, since the use of acids is not meant to be a regular cleaning process. If you are unsure which solution is best use to clean your cement-based grout, try a small-scale test. This can reveal the winning solution without too much unnecessary work.

Gloss retention is reliant on the equipment being used. The operation of the autoscrubber and burnisher, the dust mop, and the selection of the proper cleaner, can all impact the longevity of a floor care program. An important factor to consider is the variables between staff and the technique used to apply floor finishes.

For example, let’s say that there are three different cleaning staff members applying the same floor finish. The first one applies the coats very thin. At the end of the day there are only two coats, instead of six coats applied. Each of the coats covered at 6,000 square feet per gallon, producing a very thin coat. The second person applies medium coats, each at 1,500 – 2,000 square feet per gallon. This results in better looking floors for a longer amount of time. The third person applies heavy coats, each at 800 – 1,000 square feet per gallon. Since the coats are so heavy they take a very long time to dry tack-free. The residual moisture and solvents in floor finishes can take months to fully evaporate out of the film. This extremely long time to cure means an unusually soft coating that doesn’t wear well.

Even though each person used the same floor finish, they each ended up getting different results. The Buckeye^® Floor Care Program includes a comprehensive training program for your staff to ensure the products are being used correctly and efficiently. The program can be tailored to meet your specific needs and Buckeye is dedicated to providing the most extensive customer support.

Schools and universities can be a challenge to keep clean with the amount of high traffic every year. The Buckeye Honors Program is a complete online custodial training program for schools and universities. It presents the products, procedures, and training needed to meet your school or university’s highest standards.

The goal is to make cleaning and maintenance procedures easy and rewarding, while providing products that are safe for workers, students, and staff to be around. It is also important that the products are safe for the environment, but still produce excellent results. Quality products are key to having an efficient cleaning program at any school or university, but so is providing staff with the knowledge of how to use the products. The Honors Program website provides online training in routine cleaning, restroom, shower and locker room cleaning, carpet care, hard floor care, gym floor care, food service procedures, and product safety. The procedures are presented with easy to follow directions that are researched and proven to increase efficiency and make any clean goals maintainable.

The website features the complete program and materials that are available 24 hours a day for your convenience. You and your cleaning staff can login and view training videos broken into segments including routine cleaning, restroom, shower and locker room cleaning, carpet care, and more. There are also corresponding customizable PowerPoint presentations, training manuals, Safety Data Sheets (SDS), product literature, and wall charts. An additional benefit is that you and your staff can assess your Honors Program knowledge with tests that are available for each video segment.

The Honors Program website also makes cleaning simple with five basic steps for any area in your school or university including classrooms, hallways, lobby/entrances, cafeterias, gymnasiums and more. The five basic steps are high dust, spot clean, dust mop, empty trash, and damp mop. There are also surveys that are part of the program that allow supervisors to rate the cleanliness of a particular part of a facility. Whenever a school first implements the program they can use the surveys to rate the cleanliness and appearance of the entire facility. This can act as a baseline going forward with the program, and can be repeated after a few months of training. These results can show the staff were there has been improvement, and where certain areas are lacking. While using the survey the user can add comments, and take and attach pictures of the areas in question.

Whether your school has the largest campus in the area or the smallest, the Honors Program can be customized to your needs. Watch the video here to learn more.

 

Facilities often have trouble keeping textured floors clean. First, it’s important to know how floor types and floor finishes work together to provide clean and attractive floors. To start you need to ask yourself, why apply floor finish?

The answer is not simply to make floors shiny and pretty. Some facilities, such as hardware stores, may not care if the floor is pretty. The coating of a floor finish creates a protective layer on your floor, preventing heavy traffic patterns from wearing it down quickly. Floor finish also makes cleaning much easier. A smooth surface is easier to clean than a dull, coarse, or textured floor.

However, smooth and shiny floors are slippery when wet. That is why you will typically see textured flooring where water is present, such as the entrance to a public building. Have you ever ran into a building on a rainy day and slid as soon as you stepped inside on the shiny flooring? Unfortunately, slips and falls can happen, but there are ways to manage them. One option is to put walk-off mats in place, or use temporary walk-off mats when it is raining or snowing. Some stores even have 40-50 feet of walk-off matting before you step on regular flooring to prevent falls. Another way to help prevent slips and falls is to post wet floor signs. Either way, management must exercise proper care to provide a safe walking surface for the general public. If management doesn’t want to take chances on slips and falls, installing textured flooring can be a solution.

If you have textured flooring, fine bristle brushes on auto-scrubbers or swing machines can help get the dirt out of low spots. Another option is to use a pressure washer or orbital scrubbing machine. These machines clean not just the high spots, but can get into the low spots unlike spinning brushes, which move so fast they only clean from high spot to high spot and do not get down in between. A good floor finish to use on textured floors is Clarion® 25 Floor Finish because it doesn’t need burnishing. Applying a few coats will make the next deep clean easier to do and the coating underneath might act as a release agent if you use a strong, hot solution like Buckeye Blue® All-Purpose Cleaner. Buckeye’s full line of products can help clean smooth or textured flooring. You can be certain that all of Buckeye’s floor care products are compatible. With Buckeye’s Hard Floor Care Program, you can customize the most successful floor care program for your facility. Contact us today for more information.

It can be challenging to keep any floor surface clean, and doing so without removing floor finish can be extra difficult. Floor pads can help keep any floor surface clean and last longer. There are many factors to consider when using floor pads such as types of floor pads, choosing the right floor pad for your facility, proper floor pad maintenance, and how to use them correctly.

There are different types of pads to fit your needs such as burnishing pads, polishing and cleaning pads, stripping pads, and specialty pads. Some burnishing pads can be used for burnishing multiple times per week, even nightly, and can provide a “wet look.” Other burnishing pads should be used when the finish is freshly applied, helping the finish to cure while increasing the gloss and reducing black marks. A strip pad is for wet stripping with the properly diluted floor stripper. A heavy-duty strip pad is an aggressive, open weave constructed pad that will not clog up and should also be used with the properly diluted floor stripper.

You may have to use specialty pads to remove all of the dirty finish down to the base coats and for wood floor prep. Several brands of auto-scrubbers and burnishers have operator-adjustable pad pressure. It is easy to grind off your finish by dialing up too much pad pressure. If you have a young finish and a machine with pre-set pad pressure, the use of softer pads is the better choice. This means you could use either a white or high-speed buffing pad. When a floor finish is cured and harder, use a red pad. You may be able to use a red pad when the finish is young, applying modest pressure. Then, as the floor finish becomes harder and more cured, use a red pad, applying more pad pressure. The best philosophy to practice is this: if you aren’t intending to apply a fresh coat of finish and don’t want your auto-scrubber dulling out the floors, use softer pads and less pad pressure.

If you are using a plug-in electric machine and you are early on in the floor buffing stages, a gorilla light pad is recommended. Later, you can switch to a more aggressive full hair pad, especially if you have deep scratches. Aggressive pads do a better job repairing floors while softer pads produce better shine. If you are using a propane machine early on in the floor buffing stages, a white pad is recommended. And later you can switch to a more aggressive gorilla light or moderate pad such as blue ice or beige. If a floor needs serious repair but you also want the best shine, buff floors once with aggressive pads for repair. Then buff again with a soft pad to remove the buff haze that happens with more aggressive pads.

You can use floor pads in conjunction with the Buckeye Hard Floor Care program. Buckeye floor finishes are formulated with proprietary technology that never yellows or powders, and the butyl-free floor strippers remove floor finish in one application without harsh odor. Buckeye’s quality products prove to customers that safety and improved product performance can coincide. Buckeye offers an extensive branded line of cleaning and maintenance products that work together to create a customized program for your facility. Each product is designed with quality, innovation, and integrity in mind. Check out more about the Buckeye Hard Floor Care Program here.

Gloss retention troubles on hard floors are a common issue in many facilities. Floor equipment can easily help gloss retention, but can have the opposite effect when used incorrectly. Several brands of auto-scrubbers and burnishers have operator adjustable pad pressure. It’s easy to grind off your finish by dialing up too much pad pressure. Walking slowly generates more friction for the floor than moving faster. For machines that have pre-set pad pressure, we recommend using a softer pad when floor finish is young and not yet cured. When the floor finish hardens daily cleaning with moderate pads won’t necessarily dull a floor finish.

If you plan on applying a fresh coat of floor finish, you want to see the floor fairly dulled by the auto-scrubber before applying finish. Move slowly, use aggressive pads, and apply more pad pressure. If you’re not planning to apply a fresh coat of floor finish, you don’t want the auto-scrubber to dull the floor. Move more quickly, use softer pads, and apply less pad pressure.

Be sure that no equipment is dragging on the floor such as metal, which can abrade the floor finish. A clogged vacuum motor that leaves dirty water on the floor can even hurt a floor’s finish. Try having designated auto-scrubbers for the “problem” floors. You can also damage floor finish by using dirty, used floor pads. Change floor pads as needed. Make sure your floor equipment helps your floor program be as efficient as possible, leaving your floors with high gloss retention.

For further help with floor finishes or to find a new floor finish program, contact Buckeye International today!

What types of flooring do you have in your facility? Whether your facility has hardwood, concrete, laminate, tile, or any other type of flooring, it is crucial to value floor care. There are many benefits to following an effective floor care program at your facility: improved appearance, durability to hold up to heavy traffic, safety, the list goes on. Your floor care needs are specific to you because no floors are exactly alike.

Floor care doesn’t stop at having a good cleaner. You need a program that also includes floor finish and floor stripper – you will extend the life of your floors and people will notice. Buckeye International has developed cleaning/maintenance products that make caring about floor care easier. Any flooring is in investment that should be taken care of for years to come. No matter what your floor care needs are, Buckeye will customize the most successful and efficient program for you.

Click here to learn more about the Buckeye Hard Floor Care Program.

Floor Finish Products from Buckeye International

Finishing floors has the reputation of being a costly and time-consuming task and, additionally, the approach to floor maintenance has changed over time with a considerable emphasis on indoor air quality. Buying an innovative, quality floor finish that offers durability combined with a high gloss will not only keep your facility looking its best, but will also help save time and money on maintenance costs and procedures. Buckeye offers some of the most efficient and cost effective floor finishes available!

Buckeye floor finishes provide a superior gloss, excellent durability, and an unmatched response to burnishing. Because Buckeye floor finishes are non-yellowing, floors stay clear which reduces stripping frequencies.

Buckeye floor finishes are also non-powdering, which enables them to last longer. Non-powdering means that floor finishes respond well to propane burnishing. Buckeye floor finishes will harden rather than powder when burnished. Harder finishes are more durable and will look better for much longer than a powdering finish. A finish that powders will create more work by not only increasing strip cycle frequencies, but also by creating dust that requires cleaning. Dust and powder from floor finish also lowers indoor air quality.

Slip Resistant Floor Finishes

Another consideration is that the finish should be U.L. listed for slip resistance or certified to meet ASTM D 2047. A good finish will make the floor less slippery than an unfinished floor and keep the floors safer for customers. Even though the floor looks wet, it should never be slippery. All Buckeye floor finishes are U.L. listed for slip resistance.

Additionally, a self-leveling finish will make application easier and less time-consuming for maintenance staff. Buckeye self-leveling floor finishes dry to a smooth, non-rippling surface and provide the best results whether your climate is humid, dry, or somewhere in between.

Buckeye floor care products save time and money too. Customers report increased savings using Buckeye floor care products because they work the first time, requiring less maintenance and often fewer coats over time than other floor finishes.

Buckeye is dedicated to the research and development of innovative products to meet the demands of today’s floors. Safety and effectiveness can coincide. Let Buckeye show you proven results. Contact us to learn how to use floor finishes for your floors.