Hey everyone, I hope you all had a fabulous bank holiday weekend. What are you doing this week? I started my week by joining our extraordinary stone floor specialist, Brandon, at a customer's house to learn more about what we do on stone floor cleaning jobs.
So, I went out on purpose for us all. I thought it would help us to know exactly what will happen if you have a professional come to clean your tiled floor. When spending your hard-earned money on any investment, you probably want to know it is done with more than just a mop and bucket! I'm pleased to say it is.
I now know why the cost of getting your stone floor cleaned had a minimum charge.
Now, before I go too far, this is very long, so if you don’t have time but want to read it, maybe save it for later. If you would like only to read how a professional cleans your floor, then go to the part headed ”How your professional will clean your tiled floors”
Our specialist technician will come with our van-mounted machine, cleaning solution and all his equipment as seen in the picture.
The technician first starts by prepping the room. He will lay dust sheets at exits/entrances, so we don’t walk water and cleaning solution through. It also protects the carpets from any splashes that may happen. He also masks any edges that are exposed that may need protecting.
Application of the floor cleaning solution is the first step. Brandon applies this with a spray bottle to evenly apply to the floor. and spreads the solution a little more with a pad:
Now is when the fun part starts. Well, it seemed the fun part for me. Next time I go, I will need a lot more training and non-slip shoes!!
Brandon has been doing this for a long time and is a master of all the machines he needs to use. And in this clean, he makes it look easy.
It has two different attachments to clean the tiles. It has one with brushes and one that’s a pad. Here is a picture of the machine:
Brandon tilts the device ever so slightly along the grout line, always ensuring the grout has as much attention as possible.
Then to go left and right, you must tilt the machine up or down depending on which way you want to go. Forward and backwards is just pushing and pulling but let me tell you, it was not easy! The machine may be the light of the machines, and even though this ceramic floor is smooth, I thought it was pretty heavy to use.
Brandon tells me on some stone floors, it can be a lot harder.
Remembering it’s the lighter out of all the cleaners we have, I would not want to do this every day as our tech guys do! Even just trying it was enough for me! Definitely more, than just a mop and bucket!
They then go along the grout with a brush. The brush we use looks like this:
I must stress… Grout is almost unlikely to clean up as well as you would like. This is often worse on the older grouts as most modern grouts have things added to prevent them from soaking up and staining the grout. Sadly, in most cases, it’s still not good enough. It helps a little, but once substances have seeped into the grout, there is very little that you can do.
They will go over the area with the cleaning machine once more, and then they are ready to rinse and extract.
Little extra information for those who want to know – We have three other machines we choose from depending on the job needs. We have the tile master 40, which is more of a maintenance machine. Then we have ”Bertha”, a big orange vibrating beast. Bertha is a rough & tough one, so this is good for hard to get rid of those stubborn marks. And finally, we also have the Wirbel, which takes weight and works for cutting and polishing stone floors. Also, using the right brush is really good for removing tough sealants.
Rinsing the floor is very important as any residue will collect dust again and make the floor dirty quicker.
Brandon used this in the first step of extraction:
As you can see, it has small spray nozzles, which blast water out, and the holes are where it extracts the water. It shoots water onto the floor and sucks it up so that not too much is left down. Blasting water is another way to clean the grout a little more, as the power in the blast is high.
The part that blasts the water moves any residue from the edges, and then the part that looks like a vacuum attachment sucks it all up and nearly makes it dry. Again, fun to watch and very satisfying!
Drying is another process you shouldn’t miss. Once we have removed as much water as possible, Brandon brings in our driers and dries the floor completely.
We seal all tiles unless they are non-slip. The technician who visits you to do the quote will decide when he sees what he is doing and what type of sealing is needed.
Written and edited by Tracey Gilbey, Marketing and Admin Coordinator at Art of Clean.
For further advice or information on our Carpet and Soft Furnishing care, please do not hesitate to contact the Art of Clean team on 01223 901551 in Cambridge. Our services include Carpet Cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, oriental and area Rug Cleaning, Curtain Cleaning, Patio, and Driveway Pressure washing, Leather Cleaning, Stone and Tile Floor Cleaning, and Wood Floor Sanding and Restoration. We also supply new flooring and carpets through our sister company Art of Flooring. Our Dry-Cleaning service is provided by Farthings Cambridge
