Tile and Grout with Wax transfer cleaning yesterday

[Mark Saiger]

Veterinary office....

About 30 years old...never professionally cleaned.

Cleaning people using the same mop water going from the VCT to the Tile and Grout and getting wax transfer....

Actually went pretty good....

Interlink Supply Stainless Steel Grout Brush, Some Wax stripper, Saiger Sauce Boosted with the Powdered Citra Zov, my little 7 year old 10 inch CRB....and a good old push broom (I forgot my microfiber mop )

All worked out and got by with 800 psi on the spinner (which worked good with the Zipper SS Super Spinner too)




Dirty part close to my feet....cleaner part to the North...Last 3 pics were what it looked like before starting....

 

[Mark Saiger]

 

[Cameron DeMille]

Looks great Mark, those 8" tile floors are not easy to clean

 

[Jim Pemberton]

My guess is that you already know this Mark, but just in case:

Extracting liquified floor finish into your truck mount recovery system can cause clogging in your filtration system at best, or damage to your vacuum pump at worst. Make sure you've cleaned out your turbo as well. I've seen them clogged by finish once it dries.

Since I'm 99.999999999999999999% sure you accounted for this and both protected your equipment as you did it and cleaned up well after, let this then be a word of caution to those who wouldn't be as careful.

I've seen some sad cases down in my service department due to this.

 

[Mark Saiger]

My guess is that you already know this Mark, but just in case:

Extracting liquified floor finish into your truck mount recovery system can cause clogging in your filtration system at best, or damage to your vacuum pump at worst. Make sure you've cleaned out your turbo as well. I've seen them clogged by finish once it dries.

Since I'm 99.999999999999999999% sure you accounted for this and both protected your equipment as you did it and cleaned up well after, let this then be a word of caution to those who wouldn't be as careful.

I've seen some sad cases down in my service department due to this.

Yes... Thank you for that input...that definitely needs saying here.

I do have a couple of filters in my system and also rinse out the tank as well after something like this.

Good catch on that... Thanks!

 

[Todd Millar]

My guess is that you already know this Mark, but just in case:

Extracting liquified floor finish into your truck mount recovery system can cause clogging in your filtration system at best, or damage to your vacuum pump at worst. Make sure you've cleaned out your turbo as well. I've seen them clogged by finish once it dries.

Since I'm 99.999999999999999999% sure you accounted for this and both protected your equipment as you did it and cleaned up well after, let this then be a word of caution to those who wouldn't be as careful.

I've seen some sad cases down in my service department due to this.

That is good info right there. I will keep that in mind if I ever run into this type of tile cleaning.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

That is good info right there. I will keep that in mind if I ever run into this type of tile cleaning.

There are a lot of very skilled tile and grout cleaners here who can guide you Todd. I've even seen some threads covering the wax issue.

You can contact me if you ever need some ideas on what to do in those situations.

 

[FB7777]

In those situations, my go to punch is floor stripper mixed 4-1 and boost it with Flex powder

Strong work there Mark, we go old school,with a 1.5 hp rotary with brush

The mini CRB looks like it can dig the grout lines more effectively

 

[HydroDude]

Yep...

 

[Kellie Hiler]

My guess is that you already know this Mark, but just in case:

Extracting liquified floor finish into your truck mount recovery system can cause clogging in your filtration system at best, or damage to your vacuum pump at worst. Make sure you've cleaned out your turbo as well. I've seen them clogged by finish once it dries.

Since I'm 99.999999999999999999% sure you accounted for this and both protected your equipment as you did it and cleaned up well after, let this then be a word of caution to those who wouldn't be as careful.

I've seen some sad cases down in my service department due to this.

So what do you do to protect your Truckmount in this case?

 

[todg]

That work is all YOU Mark...I don't want that work at any price...Those grout brushes are good on grout lines like in your video, too wide for most residential applications...Especially at $25 a pop...Hope you charged a fortune to do that work! All that gunk went into your devastator...right? I can't stand mopnglo and swifter no rinse sit let alone wax...Nice video and pics! Your not afraid in getting your hands dirty!

As a side note...Try a 17" floor buffer with that same chemical and a black stripping pad...Squeegee, and large dust pan...Avoid your truckmount...I believe you have a butler...Also try shorebest 2790...Let it dwell, than strip...

Side Note#2: That's not cleaning and sealing, Thats "restoration" ...Another word for charge "triple"...

 

[Mark Saiger]

That work is all YOU Mark...I don't want that work at any price...Those grout brushes are good on grout lines like in your video, too wide for most residential applications...Especially at $25 a pop...Hope you charged a fortune to do that work! All that gunk went into your devastator...right? I can't stand mopnglo and swifter no rinse sit let alone wax...Nice video and pics! Your not afraid in getting your hands dirty!

As a side note...Try a 17" floor buffer with that same chemical and a black stripping pad...Squeegee, and large dust pan...Avoid your truckmount...I believe you have a butler...Also try shorebest 2790...Let it dwell, than strip...

Side Note#2: That's not cleaning and sealing, Thats "restoration" ...Another word for charge "triple"...

I was going to try the black pads also under my Rotovac 360 XL with the drive block .... And of course... I forgot them... Doh!

 

[Jim Pemberton]

So what do you do to protect your Truckmount in this case?

The simple answer is:

Don't use your truck mount to remove floor stripper. Ideally, you should apply the stripper, agitate with a floor machine, and pick the liquified finish up in a wet vac. You can buy a scrubber and a wet vac for less than the cost of a truck mount vacuum pump that you might have to replace.

But that's easy for me to say from the "ivory tower" I now live within since I don't have to do this for a living any longer. You have to make your own decisions with regard to your time, resources, experience, and of course how much room you have in your truck to haul things around.

I'll let the experienced veterans who still choose to use their truck mounts do remove this stuff share their thoughts with you. The amount of damage I see here in my service department from this practice just makes it impossible for me to recommend that you do that, however safe you might try to be.

 

[Kellie Hiler]

Thank you for the info....
We got into VCT for a short time a while back and we did just like you said using a good old Home Depot wet vac and all. We don't do it anymore but it is good to know about the possibility of running into the kind of situation Mark ran into on this job we are discussing. I had never even considered that wax can transfer to tile from shared mop water.
I am just now starting to learn by reading some of these forums that you can add a little floor stripper to your cleaning process on tile when needed. So it is good to know that I cannot use the truck mount to extract which of course makes the job more time consuming, therefore I would need to price accordingly as well. I may never do it, but it is good to know that the option is there and to be on the lookout for situations such as this one so I can protect our machine.
It is my fault that we no longer do VCT as I have OCD and would spend way too much time on the jobs. I was overly neurotic about making sure everything was absolutely perfect, would rinse and rinse to the point of oblivion, and if I saw even one mop fiber or hair, or imperfection I would freak out and worry that it wasn't done right! Drove my husband and our friend Jimmy crazy every time! So then George would tell me to stay home, but of course I couldn't because I would worry the whole time that they weren't doing it well enough and we would get a call back! And sure enough the one time I stayed home....we got a call back. George has a center vision blindness and cannot see well enough to do it right and Jimmy was always in too much of a hurry so of course the wax was not applied evenly. GRRRRRRR!!!!!! So needless to say, we decided it was not worth it for us to do as we were plenty busy with our other endeavors.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Jim is right, my local distributor replaced a blower on a local cleaners TM because the varnished wax had broke off a chunk and chewed up the blower. He also said the waste tank was just think with it and he had to chisel off some of it to do his work.
Screens were also replaced because the just filled up and dried solid. Too risky to justify the time savings.

 

[BLewis]

We use a grit brush on a 175. We do add 1/2 the amount of stripper that we use to strip VCT. We empty waste tank before starting such job, then empty at end of day and wash out all filters and inside of tank completely.

 

[D Rice]

So what do you do to protect your Truckmount in this case?

Get a cheap wet vac to pick up the nasty stuff.

 

[Mrice]

We use a grit brush on a 175. We do add 1/2 the amount of stripper that we use to strip VCT. We empty waste tank before starting such job, then empty at end of day and wash out all filters and inside of tank completely.

What grit do you like for a general grit brush 180? Thanks.

Mark, nice job on the floor!

 

[G.C.S]

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Thank you for this video. You certainly make it look easy but I know full well that is far from the truth.
I'm wanting to clean the ground in the bathrooms of the building I clean and some of the grout is discolor. I assume that is partly from the bleach the company insist on using to mop the floors. It was that way before I began cleaning for them. However, I must say it is only in a small area of the bathroom so I'm not so sure it is the bleach. for example in the women's under the hand dryers which I assume is from the water that drips from the employee's hands. Near the sinks and In the men's it's under hand dryer and in middle of floor only and these bathrooms encompass the lockers too. So it's always very busy.

In your opinion what is the best method to clean grout? What equipment/cleaner would be worth investing in and how often do you think deep cleaning grout should be done. This facility is a printing plant for food packaging, it is 24hrs and it is a constant flow of ink on foot traffic.

 

[Mark Saiger]

Thank you for this video. You certainly make it look easy but I know full well that is far from the truth.
I'm wanting to clean the ground in the bathrooms of the building I clean and some of the grout is discolor. I assume that is partly from the bleach the company insist on using to mop the floors. It was that way before I began cleaning for them. However, I must say it is only in a small area of the bathroom so I'm not so sure it is the bleach. for example in the women's under the hand dryers which I assume is from the water that drips from the employee's hands. Near the sinks and In the men's it's under hand dryer and in middle of floor only and these bathrooms encompass the lockers too. So it's always very busy.

In your opinion what is the best method to clean grout? What equipment/cleaner would be worth investing in and how often do you think deep cleaning grout should be done. This facility is a printing plant for food packaging, it is 24hrs and it is a constant flow of ink on foot traffic.

Thanks for the kind words.

If you were able to maybe post a few pics of the floors that would maybe be helpful to give some suggestions.

Some floors have a lot of other issues, or are just different to clean.

Pics maybe could help us give some ideas and then maybe we can all come up with some ideas that would be best for you and that situation.

Looking forward to helping

Thank you for being here and posting by the way.

 

[G.C.S]

Saiger" data-source="post: 4399192" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

Thanks for the kind words.

If you were able to maybe post a few pics of the floors that would maybe be helpful to give some suggestions.

Some floors have a lot of other issues, or are just different to clean.

Pics maybe could help us give some ideas and then maybe we can all come up with some ideas that would be best for you and that situation.

Looking forward to helping

Thank you for being here and posting by the way.

 

[G.C.S]

will these do?

 

[Mark Saiger]

Hey there Stephanie,

Looking at the pics, it looks like there is mainly a lot of embedded soils in the grout.

Not sure what you are cleaning with right now, but it will take a good alkaline based cleaner and some scrubbing to maybe be able to get the soils out of the grout lines.

It might take some wax remover such as the Zep wax stripper mentioned...but you also see that wax stripper could be hard on certain equipment and precautions maybe needed to be taken.

Do you or the company y0u are doing the work at (this work place) supplying equipment and chems?

What are you using now for your cleaning? Are you also doing carpet cleaning there too?

Maybe with these questions answered, we might be able to help a bit more with some equipment and cleaning recommendations.

Those tile and grout squares look pretty similar to what I just cleaned.

With the correct products and tool, a bathroom might not take too long and you could probably make it work out to clean them up.

The Bleach you mentioned they insist on using is maybe to do a sanitize type cleaning, but with those soils still in the grout....there is still not much total sanitizing being accomplished, but it probably just makes them think it is sanitized....and that is their "feel good" feeling.

Removing the soils will help accomplish more of that clean and sanitized moment.

 

[G.C.S]

The company provides all their cleaning supplies and insist on 'cleaning' with chlorine. That is their cleaner even tho we know it's not they will not budge on it. I can buy Zeppelin and take it in as a one time deal but I can't use anything but the chlorine. It's a very difficult situation. They have a chemical 'cleaner' called Solvsit which they say I can use on the grout however it doesn't seem to do anything to these areas. Basically if I bring it in and don't leave it in the facility then I can use it so if you have some suggestions I'd be happy to give it a whirl and upload pics of how it looks afterwards. I don't offer carpet cleaning.

 

[Mark Saiger]

The company provides all their cleaning supplies and insist on 'cleaning' with chlorine. That is their cleaner even tho we know it's not they will not budge on it. I can buy Zeppelin and take it in as a one time deal but I can't use anything but the chlorine. It's a very difficult situation. They have a chemical 'cleaner' called Solvsit which they say I can use on the grout however it doesn't seem to do anything to these areas. Basically if I bring it in and don't leave it in the facility then I can use it so if you have some suggestions I'd be happy to give it a whirl and upload pics of how it looks afterwards. I don't offer carpet cleaning.

If you can maybe get a picture of the Solvit and even an msds sheet that we could see, would give an idea what you are working with. Sounds like they have put you in a tough situation and the results are not going to be much better with the limitations they are putting on you. Msds would help me a bit

 

[G.C.S]

Alright I can get that tomorrow. Ty

 

[Old Coastie]

Nice work, Mark. On such floors I use the Nacecare DP420 to scrub and recover slops. If it needs more, I use superheated steam. MUCH slower process, but highly detailed and great results. I especially appreciate your tip to use towels as a dam! Guys, no words can express your joy at having to refinish a damaged floor, free.