Office Cleaning: Tiled Floor Surfaces

One of the most challenging areas of commercial cleaning for the Duticall Team in Brisbane, is the care and maintenance of hard floors, particularly tiled floors. There are a wide variety of floor tiles with many and varied structural properties that ultimately determines the service regime required to keep them clean and hygienic. A recent trend, particularly in new buildings or where renovations have been carried out, is to install floor tiles with good non-slip properties. This is great for the users of facilities, as the risk of ‘slip and fall’ incidents is significantly reduced but the downside is that the cleaning regime in order to maintain these non-slip surfaces in a presentable state, is much more involved and potentially expensive.

A non-slip tiled surface can be achieved during production where the tile is created with either an uneven or a textured surface. These patterns and textures invariably become a trap for build-up which is not only unsightly but also unhygienic. These small deposits of grime can become a breeding ground for bacteria as they serve as a ready supply of nutrient. This can also lead to lead odor issues, particularly in washroom areas. There are also ‘in situ’ processes available to make existing tiles ‘non slip’. These processes usually involve the chemical etching of the tiled surface, in order to create microscopic holes that create the non-slip surface. This surface can creates problems for commercial cleaners, as it is extremely difficult to remove buildup from these microscopic holes on the surface of the tile with standard cleaning practices such as damp or wet mopping. In some extreme cases, we have resorted to high pressure cleaning at up 3000 PSI, after trying machine scrubbing and the majority of specialized hard floor products. Even high pressure cleaning was ineffective on these surfaces. The most effective solution with removal of buildup on these non-slip surfaces, is scrubbing with high-density microfibre blocks, similar to the White Magic range of products. The microfibre is obviously fine enough to remove the buildup from within the pores of the tile but the wear out rate for the microfibre pads is relatively high. The build-up is also likely to return and this process will possibly need to be introduced as part of the standard cleaning regime.

Some of the commercial tile cleaning options available, offered mainly by accredited commercial carpet cleaners, are quite effective but expensive. These solutions are more as periodic maintenance procedures, not as a ‘daily’ cleaning option.

There is no silver bullet when dealing with these hard floor surfaces, particularly when the client has high expectations for the presentation of their facilities. The key to developing the correct maintenance (cleaning) is to manage those expectations at the start of the process and put in place correct procedures to deliver the right result within the budget.