Recently a lovely lady from South Australia called XO2. Her name was Carol. Her and her partner own a dentistry clinic. Hygiene and cleanliness is a very high priority for them. Carol asked me a question we’ve been asked literally thousands of times. She said, “We have used everything we know to use and just can’t get our floors to look clean, especially in the busy parts of the floors where people walk… heeeelp!”.
At XO2 we hear about cleaning problems like Carol’s all day every day… and other problems like…
• My floor is streaky…
• My floors always look dirty…
• Is my floor really clean and hygienic?
• My floor is dull…
• My floor is greasy…
• My floor takes too long to clean…
• My floor gets dirty really quickly…
Don’t worry, there is an answer.. and XO2 loves to help.
If you’re having trouble cleaning your floor you’re not alone… it’s an epidemic!
To help Carol out I asked some questions to try and understand her problem a little better. After all, you can’t recommend a solution without knowing all the facts first. I asked her questions like…
1. How often are you cleaning the floors?
The best cleaning chemical and procedure won’t work if they’re not used regularly enough.
2. What cleaning chemicals are you currently using?
The right cleaning chemical at the right dilution is essential.
3. How often are you changing the mop water?
Floor cleaning can quickly become dirt spreading if the mop bucket water is not changed often enough.
4. What mop or floor cleaning machine are you using?
How you clean really does matter.
5. Are you wanting an everyday cleaning solution or do you need a heavy duty solution to get the floor right first?
Sometimes a shock treatment or initial heavy duty clean is needed before a good everyday cleaning process will be effective.
6. Is there a floor sealer on or in the surface? and has the floor been sealed lately?
We want to be sure a cleaning procedure won’t affect any floor sealers or coatings you have paid good money for. Or maybe the floor is getting difficult to clean because it needs to be sealed or resealed.
7. Is the floor streaky after cleaning?
On surfaces like marble, timber, vinyl, ceramic and polished porcelain this can be especially frustrating…. it’s most commonly a sign of existing residues (eg. from cleaning chemicals) on the floor or in the grout lines.
8. Do you find your floor is getting dirty fast after cleaning or where people walk?
This is often caused by the wrong chemical or too much chemical being used.
9. Are you doing the cleaning yourself or does someone else do the work for you?
Sometimes people want to blame problems on external factors and not take responsibility and more care for their own quality of work.
Asking Carol these questions gave us a better idea of what was going on and how we might help. There’s always a reason why problems exist and our job at XO2 is often to identify the problem so we can provide a solution.
What are the common causes of problems when cleaning floors?
There is a fantastic article well worth reading called… Struggling With Streaky Floors? 7 Deadly Streaky Floor Mistakes
Here’s a summary of the 7 mistakes to avoid in that article. Are you?...
1. Using the wrong chemical?
2. Using too much chemical?
3. Using a dirty mop?
4. Using dirty mop water and not changing the mop water regularly?
5. Residues on your floor you didn’t even know about?
6. Over-wetting when cleaning?
7. Poor soil recovery?
So what’s the answer to solve streaky floors? Here’s 6 steps to get you started.
Let’s start heading in the right direction and beat the streaks.
1. The right chemical
Use a product like Bobby Dazzler as your everyday super cleaner.
Be sure to use the right amount of cleaning chemical concentrate. To help you calculate dilution rates this article can help you out… How To Quickly Calculate Cleaning Chemical Dilution Rates And Ratios
If required, for a once off initial clean use Bonza heavy duty cleaner with a scrubber, then recover the solution with a wet and dry vacuum cleaner. Then repeat the process with just water as many times as needed to ensure any residue is gone.
If you do this remember to thoroughly wash or even better, replace all your mop heads and cleaning tools before restarting your floor maintenance program.
2. The right mop
Use a great damp mopping system incorporating high quality microfibre like the XO2 microfibre floor mop system.
3. Use clean water. Less water. Go damp or dry.
If you’re using a wringer mop, replace your mop water regularly.
Or don’t use a wet mopping system at all… go damp, you’ll love it! Cleaning with more water does not give you a better clean. Use as little water as possible. This will reduce streaking and watermarking issues. Cleaning damp or dry also means floors will dry faster after cleaning. And that’s great for safety.
4. Stock up on replacement mop fringes and keep swapping the dirty ones out.
On well maintained floors it’s not uncommon to see 20-50 different replacement mop fringes used in a shift. That’s right! When the mop gets dirty or an area is completed, the mop should be placed in a laundry bag and a new one gets used. XO2 even supplies disposable microfibre floor pads that can be thrown out after each use so laundering is not required.
This stops residues getting spread over large areas, it’s more hygienic and means you actually remove far more soil. Most floors where there are cleaning problems are using one or two mops. Unfortunately, regardless of how often you change the water in your bucket and wring the mop out you’re doing more dirt spreading than cleaning. Over time this leads to dirt and residue build-ups.
5. Clean more regularly
This is possible without extra cost or time. When you start cleaning your floors damp or dry the cleaning process becomes faster and more convenient. You could clean several times a day instead of once a day. With damp or dry microfibre floor cleaning there are no buckets to fill, chemicals to dilute, pack up is quick etc. If you’re cleaning dry, grab your mop and just go for it.
6. Still got problems?
If you continue to have streaking and dirty floor problems a restoration clean may be required where machine scrubbing and vacuum extraction is needed.
Remember that if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the same result. When you next clean keep this in mind. These 6 steps may mean a completely different way to clean for you. You might be thinking, “That won’t work”. Don’t be afraid to try something new. The answer for cleaning your streaky, dirty floors is just around the corner.
There is always a reason for streaking and dirty floors…
Sometimes it’s one thing, other times it’s many things that contribute to floor cleaning problems. If you eliminate the problem which causes streaking or soil build ups, the solution becomes very clear. But be patient with any solution you try. Look for continual improvement, don’t give up if there is not an instant result.
For more advice about streak free floor cleaning products give the XO2 customer care team a call today on 1300 123 499 or check out XO2's floor care products online.
Have a great day.