Steve Robinson, founder of Building Janitorial Service in 1984, along with his crew, has the knowledge and experience about professional cleaning techniques, and how to professionally clean with chemicals, equipment, and supplies.
This article explains how Building Janitorial Service cleans ceramic tile floors. The following chemical, equipment, and supplies are used: tile cleaner, deck scrub brush, mop bucket and ringer, plastic mixing pail with handle, drop cloth, and paper towels. Before we begin, we clear the floor and put the drop cloth down on the adjacent floor we will step on to when we exit off the floor we are scrubbing. We start by mixing the tile cleaner with water in the mixing pail, according to the directions on the back of the tile cleaner gallon jug in regards to its dilution ratio.
We mix the tile cleaner with tap water, not hot. Hot water is not needed. The chemical is what does the work, not the temperature of the water. Next we pour about a one quarter inch coat of the solution from the mixing pail onto the ceramic tile floor, immediately wiping up any overspill on the baseboards, walls, doors, etc. with the paper towels. We spread it with the deck brush so as to completely cover the entire square footage of the area of the floor.
When we spread it, we do not want to scrub it, not yet. We want the tile cleaner to soak in to the floor first. When we put the tile cleaner down on the floor, it bubbles, for a while. This is normal. The chemical is activating and working. We want it to work by itself, doing the work, before we scrub it. We wait twenty minutes. If spots of the solution on the floor dry while we are waiting, we add more solution to the dry spots and spread it evenly again. We continue to mark the waiting time period from twenty minutes from when we first put the first solution down on the floor.
After twenty minutes expires after we put the first solution down on the floor, we scrub it with the deck brush. Now, it is relatively easy to scrub, because the chemical has loosened the retardants in the floor already, and when the brush is applied, the retardants that are not detached from the surface of the floor, come loose rather easily. After scrubbing, we remove the soiled solution. On most jobs, we suck it up with a wet vacuum. On some smaller jobs, all we need is a mop, bucket and ringer to mop up the soiled solution.
Whichever way we remove the scrubbed solution from the floor, we make sure we completely remove it, especially from the grout. If we do not completely remove it, it will dry sticky, and we will have to do everything over again. After the solution is removed from the floor, we rinse it by mopping with clean, clear tap water. Once the water becomes dirty we empty it and refill the bucket with clean, clear water. We continue to mop the floor, empty the water when it gets dirty, and refill the bucket with clean, clear water until the new clean, clear water remains clear. When the clean, clear water remains clear after mopping, we know we have completely removed all of the soiled solution. It should not take long to rinse the floor because most of the soiled solution has already been removed.
After rinsing the floor, we make sure we do not leave any standing water in the grout. If we do, it could dry sticky, and we would have to do everything over. If we see standing water in the grout, even if it appears to be clean, clear rinse water, we take the thickest weave of the head of the mop head and bear down into the grout and absorb the standing water out of the grout. We stay off the floor until it dries. As the floor is drying, we will check it once and mop up any solution or rinse water that comes out of the baseboards. After a week, or sooner, we begin doing our regular maintenance by mixing two ounces of the tile cleaner in three gallons of water and mopping.
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