Stain Removal Products and your Tile Floor

If you have a new tile floor and don’t manage to see the stain soaking into your tile until it’s to late, never fear. There is always a solution to tile floor stains and many ways to combat them.


If you have a new tile floor and don’t manage to see the stain soaking into your tile until it’s to late, never fear. There is always a solution to tile floor stains and many ways to combat them.

Stains challenge even the most creative people, but there are a number of ways experienced individuals have come up with to fight stains and keep your tile floors looking lovely and clean no matter what ends up on them.

There are many valuable resources on the internet for cleaning tile stains and a lot of information on how to fight stains, so make sure to do the research before trying your friends ‘special’ method.

Also, remember to always wear cleaning gloves. A surprising number of people forego them and are sorry later on. They protect your hands and allow you to give the floor your all without worrying about dangerous chemicals. They are also important is you’re cleaning up such stains as blood.

An important rule of thumb when cleaning your tile floor is the general stain addict that says you should test a small, unseen spot before actually using the methods all out. Testing is easy; you simply apply the solution to a small, non-visible part of the floor, such as under a couch or chair.

If the product ruins it, you know that it shouldn’t be used. Before doing any stain removal process, you should test it. Do this by applying it to a small area of the floor that is out of sight or covered by furniture. If the remover damages the floor, do not continue. It may be necessary to contact the tile manufacturer for instructions, and ideally you should talk to them about the tile before you buy it, as not all tiles are the same.

For example, how you clean your floor and the stains up off of your floor depends on the material you’ve used. A glass tile floor is going to need different care than a mosaic or a ceramic tile floor because of the different porousness of the materials and how they are made. Different products will have varying effectsFree Web Content, and that’s why it is always important to test and do the research.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

How To give your Garage Floor a Makeover!

Tired of walking concrete dust through your house? Sick of looking at an ugly stained garage floor?

There is an answer! Tuff Coat Concrete Polyurethane.

Follow these easy steps for a cheap and fantastic looking floor.

1. Hire a polyvac sander from your local hire company ($60-$70 for the day)

2. Sand your concrete garage floor with a med grit paper back to a nice clean surface

3. Buy some feather finish (cementious underlay $50.00 per 5kg. 1 bag should be enough for an average double garage) from your local flooring shop.

4. Trowel your floor with a skim coat of the feather finish. (Must be a very thin coat, just enough to give the concrete a very thin coating. If there are any large holes etc, fill with a rapid set mix from your local flooring distributor.)

5. Allow a few hours of drying time, and then sand again with the same sand paper used for the initial sand. You should be able to see spots that have gone back through to the concrete and also other patches that should have gone a bit shiny. The more sanding you do now the better finish you will obtain at the end.

6. Completely vacuum and sweep the floor so that there is no dust at all left.

7. It is now time for your 1st coat of Tuff Coat Concrete Polyurethane.

8. Work across your garage from back to front. Start by pouring some Tuff Coat Concrete around the edges and brush up close to the skirting with a cheap paint brush.

9. Using a 12mm nap lamb’s wool roller, apply the correct amount of Tuff Coat Concrete (instructions on the can) evenly to the entire floor, working across the garage in even rows. Allow to dry overnight.

10. Once dry, repeat the above procedure of application for a perfect, polished concrete “look” floor that will be easy to maintain, dust free and stain resistant. Your new floor will last for many years without the need for re coating. If you do need to re coat years down the track, just give a light sand and repeat the above procedure.

Tuff Coat Concrete is a high solids, moisture cured polyurethane. It has a high gloss finish like no other on the market. It is simple to use, just pour straight from the can with no messy mixing required. Tuff Coat Concrete may be tinted to an opaque or solid colour or sprinkled with powdered glass for a non slip floor. Colour chartsFree Web Content, Tuff Coat Polyurethane and all the accessories for installation are available from Con-Treat Pty Ltd.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Hardwood Floor Care

Realize that if you choose to have hardwood flooring in your home, you'll have to learn the proper hardwood floor care to ensure that your floor remains in good shape. It is especially vital if you have your floor installed in a high-traffic area in your home, such as the living room and kitchen. Over time, hardwood floors lose their shine and texture so care & maintenance is essential.

Maintenance of hardwood floors involves cleaning them regularly. However, you'll need to be especially careful in cleaning your floors because applying the wrong cleaning techniques can ruin your hardwood floor. Follow these do's and don'ts for proper maintenance:-The Do's of Hardwood Floor Care:1. Do use dry cloth to wipe excess water-based cleaning solutions off your hardwood floor. Keep in mind that water and water-based solutions are the biggest enemies of hardwood floors. Quickly wipe off any excess water on the floor to prevent the wood from swelling up.2. Do regularly sweep the floor using a broom with soft bristle.3. Do regularly vacuum to thoroughly clean the floor. It's a good idea to vacuum after sweeping as vacuuming will get rid of dust and dirt between floor boards.4. Do place rugs on areas that may be prone to spilling, such as around tables, beds, desks, etc.5. Do use drapes on your windows to minimize your hardwood floors exposure to sunlight.6. Do take extra care whenever you move furniture back where you have just done hardwood floor care cleaning. This is when hardwood floors usually get scratched.-The Don'ts of Hardwood Floor Care:1. Don't allow water or water-based solutions to dry up on your hardwood floor; otherwise, your hardwood floor will expand and lose its quality over time.2. Don't use a mop to clean a waxed floor.3. Don't clean the floor with a vacuum that has beater bars. This type of vacuum can put scratches on your floor.4. Don't use brushes with hard bristles for cleaning the floor.5. Don't attempt to repair the gaps between boards on your own. It's best to hire a professional who knows what he's doing. Doing repairs on your own can cause even more damage to your floor.6. Don't use cleaning solutions that can potentially damage your floor's finish. Make sure that you use cleaning solutions that work with the type of hardwood finish your floor has. Keep in mind these simple tips and your hardwood floor should last a long time.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Why Floor Mats Can Save Your Life

This story about a man’s truck floor mats grabbed my attention and will leave you questioning why you still have those stock floor mats in place.

As the working man’s vehicle has changed over the years, many make it a way of life to personalize their ride. Beyond the additions of mud flaps and toolboxes, the interior to our vehicles is where we spend countless hours driving and it is our home away from home.

To combat the harsh weather conditions in the Southern Northwest United States, Jim Dantun is now a firm believer that quality floor mats are a necessity. “On rainy days, which happen too often up here, I’m in and out of my truck all day doing deliveries. I have had a set of Husky Liners in my Silverado since I bought it and I didn’t know they would help me out in bigger ways than just keeping my floors clean. My partner has always joked around saying I spend too much time and money on my truck, but on one of our runs, he was stepping out of his truck and slipped out, breaking his pelvic bone and collar bone. If he had some mats to help him with his wet step out, his problem would have been solved. He told me that his boots were wetting from dropping off packages and he rushed out of his ride and slipped from the cab to the ground. Maybe Husky Liners should know that their mats can really do more than they would think.”

I researched floor mats and the benefits that I found for them are that they:

* Protect against unpleasant stains that harm the appearance and value of your vehicle
* Stop spilt sodas, fumbled coffees and mishandled snacks from staining your carpet
* Provide year round protection against even the most severe weather conditions
* Trap mud, water, road salt and sand before it gets ground into your flooring
Prevent wear, snags and rips caused by foot friction
* Here's a quick list of some of the most common flooring foes:
* Mud, moisture and grime that are tracked-in on shoes, and then ground deep into your carpet
* Sticky sodas, boiling coffee and on-the-go meals drenched in condiments that spill, stain and become permanent additions to your floorboards
* Foot friction caused by entering, exiting and shifting about in your seat
* Gum on your shoes that transfers to your flooring and dries into impossible slabs of minty concrete
* Crud, muck and filth that catch a ride on our shoes and end up smearing all over our nice, new and expensive vehicle interior

All-Weather vs. Carpet Floor Mats

Constructed from heavy-duty rubber, pliable vinyl or thermoplastic, all-weather floor mats put-up an extreme defense against mud, snow and other shoe-born grime that inevitably finds its way onto your floorboards.

Whether you work out of your vehicle or just play in it, the all-weather floor mats give you a virtually indestructible barrier between your carpet and the world. Not only that, they are also incredibly easy to clean - just give them a quick bath with a hose, and they're as good as new.

Stitched together from durable nylon and Berber yarns, carpet floor mats are soft to the touch, but put up a hard line of defense against your floorboard's enemies. Not only do these floor mats replace the ones that came with your vehicle, they're thicker and heavier to provide added protection and a longer life-span. On top of color selection, you can further personalize your floor mats by embroidering either logos or your own personal catch-phrase.

Who Makes Them

Two well-know floor mats, Husky Liners and Weathertech floor mats are semi-custom-designed. What this means is that these particular floor mats fit well in your vehicle as well as in various other makes and models. Just as GM and Ford reuse the same floor plan in multiple cars, trucks and SUVs, so Husky and Weathertech follow suit. These floor mats are anything but the dreaded one-size-fits-all floor mats that many retail shop are trying to pawn off on its unsuspecting customers. They are still guaranteed to fit exactlyArticle Search, and the manufacturers have over 50 patterns to match your floor with great accuracy. I plan on following in Jim’s footsteps (pun intended) as apposed to his work partner’s and looking forward to getting a set of new floor mats…. :)

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Choosing A New Floor

Is it time to give that tired kitchen floor a face lift? Are you looking for just the right finishing touch for your new living room? The floor you choose can brighten a dark room, make a small one appear larger, or set the mood and tone for the rest of your decorating. There are so many flooring options available on the market these days that you're biggest problem will be deciding which floor you like best! Here are a few suggestions to ease your decision process.

With all those choices available, how do you decide what type of floor fits your lifestyle and design sense the best? There are a number of factors to consider, including the mood you want to set, the style and colors of your furnishings, and what the room will be used for. The perfect floor for your work-in kitchen may be too dark for your bright and airy living room, and the floor that you love for your living room could be too formal or too delicate for your back patio. Rest assured though, that there is a perfect choice for every room in your home.

Things To Consider When Choosing a Floor

How much traffic will the floor get?

The amount and type of traffic that your room will see should be one of the largest deciding factors in the kind of floor that you choose. A family room floor with a ping-pong table and busy, active life needs a floor that will stand up to lots of foot traffic and the occasional spill. In addition, you want a floor that won't show wear, will be comfortable underfoot, and easy to care for. Vinyl floor tiles or linoleum might be your best choice there, though a good, durable wood laminate floor might do well, as well.

What's the moisture level? Is the floor likely to get wet or is the room naturally 'damp'?

Some floors just aren't suited for damp areas. A basement playroom with a high moisture content, or a bathroom are seldom candidates for a solid wood floor, though there are some choices in wood laminates that might work if finished properly. Instead, you might choose slate or ceramic tiles with area rugs for the bathroom for a dramatic look that wipes up well and keeps its gloss for years.

What's your personal style? What mood do you want in your room?

Want a luxurious feel? A thick pile rug over polished wood is a classic, elegant look that is pure luxury. A floor to accent a spare, modern style? Stone or slate, polished to a high sheen is a beautiful backdrop for leather and steel furniture and ascetic lines. A wooden parquet floor can be a dramatic focal point in an open foyer, or can lend a touch of Continental elegance to a formal living room. Wooden floors can hit any mood from rustic to royal, and the choices of colorFree Reprint Articles, pattern and style in vinyl or ceramic tiles can fit any active room in your home.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Instructions on How to Install Floating Hardwood Floor Panels

Have you ever wondered how to install hardwood floor panels to make your home beautiful inside? There are many methods of installing hardwood flooring currently in use. One of the best do it yourself hardwood floors is the floating hardwood floor. The term floating doesn't refer to a floor that is sitting in liquid. Floating means that, while the floor is fastened to itself, it is not fastened down to the subsurface.
A floating hardwood floor has some disadvantages you should be aware of before proceeding with your installation. These floors will sometimes feel like you're walking on a bubble. And, each bubble you step on will have a creaky sound. On the other hand, those bubbles give the floor a much softer feel than a well-fastened hardwood floor. And, the floating floor is much easier to maintain. Best of all, it is one of the cheapest types of hardwood floors to install.Before continuing with the installation of a floating hardwood floor, we highly recommend that you consider using oak as your hardwood floor material. Oak looks beautiful and provides lasting durability.Tools Needed to Install a Floating Hardwood FloorBroom and Dust Pan - It is important to keep everything clean as you go. It is particularly important to keep the saw dust out from under and between your panels where it can really throw things off kilter. If it gets in there, there is no way to get it out without the very difficult process of hardware floor disassembly. Carpenter's Crayon - You'll have to cut up your panels to make them fit in the corners and make them go around objects that cannot be removed from the room having the hardwood floor installed. You may also want to use your carpenter's crayon to mark a layout pattern of where to place your flooring panels.Circular Saw - Your saw is what you will use as you cut along the lines you drew with your carpenters crayon.Claw hammer - In most places, you will use a rubber mallet to help push the boards together, but in those places near the wall where you don't have enough room to swing the mallet, you can use the claw hammer to fit them together.Cushioning Surface - You can make your floating hardwood floor feel even softer to the feet with the use of a cushioning surface under the floor. You would be shocked by the difference between a floor with the surface and a floor without the surface if you could try the two side by side.Cutter Knife - The cutter knife comes in handy in more places than you would expect as you work on your floor. But the main reason we recommend this tool is so that you can make minor cuts on the panel ends when you just can't quite make them fit together. Glue - Floating hardwood floors aren't supposed to be glued together. However, you might find you get better results if you just put a bit of glue at the end of each panel as you connect them. Of course, this will mean you'll need to be very careful not to get any glue on your floor surface.Nails - You will need to nail the floating floor to the wall strips. It may help to use a drill to do pilot holes to prevent the wood from splitting, but if you're a gambler, you can just hammer these nails in without pilot holes. Most people do that anyways.Rubber Mallet - The rubber mallet is what you use to fit the panels together at the joints. However, you need to be very careful not to hit the panels too hard and damage the panel surfaces.Preparing to Install Floating Hardwood Floor PanelsBefore you install your floating hardwood floor panels, you need to get your cushioning sheet installed. You can use your cutter knife to make it fit. Some people find that making it into many small pieces is much more manageable than trying to fit a large piece in the room. These pieces should be laid in the same direction as your panel rows.One of the nice parts of using a cushioning sheet is that debris on the sheet or lumps in the surface below it have a less dramatic effect on the floor. However, you should still try to get all of these straightened out to the extent you can see them. For debris, just use your broom and dust pan to remove them. It's not such a big of a one-time task when you consider the implications are pretty close to permanent if you fail to remove them.Installing a Floating Hardwood Floor1. Place your first panel in the corner with the ends with a cavity in them towards the walls.2. Put a little bit of glue in the cavity of the next panel.3. Attach the next panel to the first panel quickly after step two.4. You may need to work with the rubber mallet gently to ensure that the two panels come together snuggly. If the wall gets in the way of the rubber mallet, you can use your claw hammer to nudge it in place.5. Continue this until you get to the end of the row where you will need to mark off the excess length of your last panel with the carpenter's crayon. Then cut the panel to fit using the circular saw.6. Use the remaining piece of the panel to start the next row of hardwood.7. If you are using the glue, as in step two, you'll need to be careful to get the entire adhesive off of each row as you complete it or it may do permanent damage to the hardwood surface.8. Make sure you fit your entire pieces well, especially the last corner piece. If you have fit everything together just right, your floor will be much more stable. And, it will look better after the next step.9. Now you go around all of the room walls and place the wall strips. You should nail these strips to the wall and to the floor. This will stabilize your floor. This will also make the edges of your new floor look better.How to Install Floating Hardwood Floor - Clean UpAs with any big woodworking project, you can expect to have a mess as you go. There are such debris as saw dust, cut splinters, glue spots, and more. While you were trying to clean as you went, you should really do a final inspection and cleaning at the completion of the project. You don't want any saw dust or wood chips scraping across your new floor before you even get to admire its smooth shine.After your floor has had a day to settle you can clean it with a mildly wet mop to get everything else up that you might have missed. You need to dry the floor up right away after mopping, of course. Otherwise, your wood will swell and lumps will form.Hindsight Tips for Installing Your Floating Hardwood FloorYou do not need to be terribly careful with the cushioning sheets. Don't spend all day trying to get exact measurements. As long as there are no major overlaps or separations between them, your floor should be just fine.When you are working with your hardwood panels, it is important not to rush. You should not be moving on and placing another panel until the current panel is completely and firmly connected to the other panels. But be very careful when using the rubber mallet and other tools on the panels not to cause surface damage. The surfaces are quite fragile when they are not yet anchored in place. It is very hard to go back and fix later if you missed a panel early in the installation process.Be careful when measuring your panels for cutting at the end of the row that you are marking off the right part of your panel for cutting. One of the most common mistakes is to have the panel backwards while measuring it and then end up with the wrong pieces being the lengths you need. Save yourself some time and be careful.Feeling Good after You Install Your Floating Hardwood FloorYou have saved a lot of money by installing a floating hardwood floor yourself. And, if you don't like it, you've chosen one of the easiest hardwood floors to replace. But, of course you like it. Hardwood floors look great. And, your new floating hardwood floor feels great too with its cushioning surface. Your neighbor's glued down floor may not creak muchFree Articles, but your neighbor's feet don't feel like they're floating when he walks on his floor.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Basic Hardwood Floor Repair

In spite of the guarantees you see in the store about how many decades a hardwood floor should last, they seldom last anywhere near that long. There are so many ways in which a hardwood floor can become damaged that it is common for owners to begin repairing hardwood floor boards at some point during the first two decades.

It isn't that hardwood floor repair becomes necessary after so few years because of a flaw in the wood itself. It is just that a floor is something you use regularly. You have people with all sorts of debris passing through the rooms. You have days when you decide to move the furniture. If you kept it cordoned off with ropes in an environmentally controlled room, you would never have to learn how to repair it.Basic hardwood floor repair skills are necessary because it is not cost effective to replace a floor each time it gets dinged up in various places. When you are trying to fix scratches from a dog chasing your cat through the room or a divot from dropping the desk as you passed through the room, it just makes a lot more sense to do some basic repair.Hardwood floor repair begins when you go after each blemish on a case by case basis, finding the best repair method for each blemish. Here are a few ideas to throw into your mental hardwood repair kit:-Floor Scratches - check your local hardware store for some color putty and instructions on how to apply it. Roughly, this process is just cleaning the hardwood floor and then applying a color putty stick to the damaged area.-Deep Floor Scratches - these gouges in your floor will require wood filler matched to your hard floor color tones.-Gaps Between Boards - you floor will naturally shift over time, particularly if you do not have a firm foundation under your house. Most minor gaps should be ignored, but when they become major you'll need a special gap removal tool.-Buckling Boards - this is the opposite of gaps. Your floor boards will buckle when they are pushed together, exist at high humidity, or receive severe water damage. As the floor boards have nowhere to go but up, dangerous tripping areas will be created. You need a heavyArticle Submission, complete flat weight to place on these buckling boards for a few days to make them even again.Tackle each problem on a case by case basis and you'll be able to restore your hardwood floor without spending all that much money.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

A Guide to Hardwood Floor Protection

Before you can initiate some hardwood floor protection measures, you first need to know what could potentially damage your floor. Basically, your hardwood floor has 5 big enemies: dirt, dust, spills, water and sunlight. We'll cover each of these in this article:

-DirtFoot traffic is how dirt typically gets on and in your hardwood floor. When you, other members of the households and visitors come in from the outside, your shoes carry dirt with them. Not only does dirt make your floor look bad, it can also damage your floor. Dirt is pretty tough to clean. You'll either have to mop the dirt off or scratch it off using a tool. Both methods can damage your floor. If you use too much water in your mop, water will get absorbed and cause the floor boards to expand. If you use a tool to scratch off the dirt, you could potentially scratch the floor.Best thing to do in order to avoid it is to regularly sweep the floor, preventing the dirt from settling on the floor and in between the grooves and solidifying. This way the dirt won't harden and won't be hard to remove later on.-DustIt is not possible to prevent your hardwood floor from getting dusty. What you can do is to make sure your floor is protected from the effects of dust. Sweeping, vacuuming and occasionally mopping are some of the hardwood floor protection measures you can take. These measures prevent dust from settling on the floor and causing your floor to corrode and age.-SpillsSpills are inevitable. Spills in all manners can take their toll on hardwood floors.

You can protect your hardwood floors from spills by placing mats or rugs around those places that are likely to get spills. These areas are typically around tables, counters and desks. Should a spill occur, don't go for a sweeper right away. Get an absorbent cloth and try to absorb as much of the liquid as possible.-WaterLike other liquids, water can cause damage on hardwood floors. Water can cause the boards on your floor to swell and contract. This swelling and contraction are what pushes the floor into the side walls, resulting in cracks.Save for regular spills, water can get on your hardwood floor in two ways: a mop that uses too much water or water that seeps from the outside (e.g., rain or flood). Best is to ensure that you don't allow water to remain on your floor longer than a few minutes. If you clean your floor with a wet mop, make sure you finish off your mopping by wiping off the floor with a dry cloth. -SunlightIf parts of your hardwood floor are constantly exposed to sunlight, they would become discolored. Depending on the type of wood used, these exposed areas of your floor would either become lighter or darker. Whatever the case, your hardwood floor is going to look old and nasty. To protect your hardwood floor from sunlight, use drapes on your windows. You can also cover up areas of your floor that get exposed to sunlight with rugsFree Articles, mats or even furniture.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Types of Floor Coverings and Basic Floor Care Tips

There are so many different types of hard floor coverings these days, it's hard to keep up with learning how to care for each of the different kinds. And if

you're a cleaning contractor, you don't want to make a costly mistake by using something on a floor that could be harmful or damage the floor. Listed below are some of the common floor coverings and basic floor care tips:

1. Resilient Floors, especially VCT (vinyl composition tile) flooring is used commercially on high traffic floors such as retail or grocery stores. VCT tile is durable and holds up to heavy traffic. However there is a lot of maintenance involved in keeping these floors looking good. They should have a sealer or finish applied to them, which gives the floor a high-gloss look. The floor also needs to be swept and mopped with a neutral pH cleaner on a regular maintenance schedule to keep the floor looking shiny and clean. The floors may also need interim maintenance with slow speed or high speed floor machines and occasional stripping and re-coating of floor finish.

2. Stone products include marble, granite, and limestone. There has been a dramatic increase in the use of stone flooring in the past 10 years, even though it is some of the most costly flooring available. You must be very careful when caring for stone floors because you could easily damage the surface permanently if using the wrong chemicals. Use of entry mats and daily sweeping and mopping is key to keeping stone flooring looking like good. Mop the floor with a neutral pH floor cleaner or a stone soap, and never flood mop stone flooring. Never use alkaline or acid cleaners for daily maintenance, as this can damage the floor over time.

3. Masonry products include ceramic tile, clay tile, and concrete. Ceramic and clay tiles come in a variety of styles and textures, so this may determine the type of maintenance needed. Ceramic tile will either be glazed or unglazed. Glazed tile are shiny and have a non-porous surface layer and are more stain and moisture resistant, whereas unglazed ceramic tile is more slip resistant. Concrete flooring is now more fashionable with the use of color additives and texture. Concrete floors can be sealed and finished like a VCT tile floor, and will require similar daily maintenance using a neutral pH floor cleaner. Daily maintenance of ceramic tile floors include sweeping and mopping with a neutral pH cleaner. Do not use acid or alkaline cleaners for daily maintenance as it can damage the tile and grout over time. Grout may need periodic cleaning with the use of a slow speed floor machine and a nylo grit brush, which can get into the grout lines where soil accumulates.

4. Wood Floors are being widely used in residential homes. To keep the floor looking good, protection from abuse, stains, soil and moisture is very important.

Basic maintenance of wood floors is similar to other floors, however wood is very sensitive to water, and scratches much more easily than other types of flooring. Extreme care must be used, so avoid dragging anything across a wood floor, and never use excessive water when cleaning. It's best to use a well wrung out mop or microfiber flat mop, which uses less water than conventional mops. Use a commercial wood cleaner, but avoid using oil-based soaps or furniture polish on wood floors, as they can make the floor slippery and leave a residue.

5. Laminate Floors are also being widely used in residential homes. Laminate floors are made of a combination of wood and cellulose products (mostly wood).

Melamine (clear resin) is applied to the surface to make a strong outer layer. Manufacturers say that little or no maintenance is needed on laminate floors.

They recommend regular sweeping and damp mopping using a laminate floor cleaner. As with wood floors, laminate floors are sensitive to moisturePsychology Articles, so never use excessive water when cleaning.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs

Floor Stripper and Floor Finish Basics

If you'd like to offer floor care services for resilient tile in your cleaning business, you need to know some of the terminology in order to understand how the chemicals work. It's also important to know the differences between floor strippers and floor finishes.


If you'd like to offer floor care services for resilient tile in your cleaning business, you need to know some of the terminology in order to understand how the chemicals work. Following are some of the characteristics for floor strippers and finishes, as well as definitions of some of the terminology you need to know.

Characteristics of Floor Strippers:

* The purpose of floor stripping chemicals is to dissolve the existing floor finish, so it can be removed without harming the flooring.

* Floor strippers have a high pH, usually between 10 to 14. High pH chemicals are on the alkaline side of the pH scale.

* Most floor strippers contain high levels of VOC's (anywhere from 10% to 30%), which can be harmful to the environment. There are now "greener" alternative floor strippers, which contain lower levels of VOC's (as little as 6%), if you'd like to offer green floor care services.

* Strippers are created to work with a floor cleaning system, so you want to use a stripper that is designed to work with a particular floor finish.

Characteristics of Floor Finishes:

* Floor finish is a liquid applied to a clean floor in thin layers, in order to protect it from damage and daily use. Floor finishes are used on floors that are not harmed by water, such as VCT (vinyl composition tile).

* Floor finish is primarily made up of polymers, waxes, solvents, plasticizers, and surfactants.

* Floor finishes are created to work with a floor cleaning system, so you want to use a floor finish that is designed to work with a particular line of daily cleaners, burnishing chemicals, and floor strippers.

Definitions:

* pH Scale - Determines the acidity or alkalinity of a solution. The scale ranges from 0 to 14. At the 0 to 6 end of the scale is where solutions are acidic. At the 8 to 14 end of the scale is where solutions are alkaline. Pure water has a pH of 7, which is neutral.

* VOC (volatile organic compound) - Organic chemicals that produce vapors that can be harmful to the environment.

* Solids - What is left on the floor surface after the floor finish cures. Usually expressed as a percentage of weight. The higher the percentage, the more coating that is left on the floor after it dries. However, keep in mind that a higher solid content does not necessarily mean the finish has better durability or gloss.

* Polymer - Synthetic compounds of usually high molecular weight. The solids content of the floor finish usually contains 50% polymer - this is what forms the film on the floor, and is what gives the finish its durability and shine.

* Wax Emulsions - Wax consists of anywhere from 5 - 20% of the floor finish, and is what enables the floor to be "buffed". Synthetic waxes have now replaced natural waxes because of their slip resistance, black mark resistance, and durability.

* Plasticizers - Substances added to floor finish to keep it soft and pliable. Plasticizers allow the chemicals to work together to form a film without flaws and imperfections. They also help the finish to be impact resistant.

* Surfactants - Used to increase the contact of two or more materials, sometimes known as wettability. This allows the floor finish to be spread more easily onto the floor.

Visit your local janitorial supply house for more information on the product lines they carry. Again, do not use a stripper from one product line and a finish from another linePsychology Articles, etc. Floor care products are designed to work together as a floor care system. There are many lines to choose from so ask lots of questions of your supplier before choosing a line to use.

Laminate Flooring Installation
Betta Fish Care
Breeding Betta Fish
Discus Fish Care
Keeping Discus Fish
Breeding Discus Fish
Dragon Tattoo Designs