Auto Scrubber or Truckmount on Concrete?

[Mikey P]

Are you missing out on potential business right under your feet?
By Doyle Bloss, HydraMaster
I was perusing some industry flooring statistics the other day published in a weekly floor covering magazine published mainly for floor covering retailers. Through a research company, they were doing a report on the growth (or shrinkage) in sales and shipments of different types of floor coverings during 2011. The good news? Floor covering sales overall were finally headed in the right direction. Sales were up in most categories. A funny thing happened while we were watching the evolution of floor care coverings. Certainly, stone and ceramic tile continued to gain market share in both the residential and commercial markets. Wood floors, whether they be laminate, engineered, solid or even bamboo are getting lots of press. The article indicated that the sales of area rugs, oriental rugs, and investment textiles had slowed down significantly, even retreating by a couple of percentage points. There was a lot of discussion and dialogue comparing carpet-rugs-ceramic tile-resilient tile-hardwood flooring and stone .What was really interesting though is they did not make any kind of projection, nor even talk about the growing market share for finished, polished, or stamped concrete floors. This may well be one of the fastest growth areas for indoor floors. The Concrete Network has this to say about the growth of concrete flooring:


Read more HERE

 

[floorguy]

ok a few things....seeing as i skimmed through a lot of it because it was more an infomercial on "buy our stuff"

ANYWAY

the nooks and crannies part was correct in regards to a spinner type tool vs an auto scrubber...which is the same as with T&G....duh you need to vacuum/remove the soiled water....and the TM has a better vac, then an autoscrubber does..

now here is where it gets tricky

polished smooth type concrete...autoscrubber is a better option....as a lot of these floors have been treated with densifiers or special coatings, that help make it shine a little better each time you run a PAD over them....and in a lot of cases...a black or brown/green type pad...they thrive on the friction.....as always test...some do not and it could simply scratch it....(and no odds are the mgr wont know which type)

some other types could be classified as "Splash and Dash" where they have gone into an old store, thrown some acid or some other dye, may or may not have PROPERLY sealed it, let alone prepped it right.... You go in there with an autoscrubber or you spinner, and you may be flaking a cheap overlay or seal job or worse yet bleeding the dyes....

The story is right, that these floors are NOT as clean as everyone thinks...(everyone wants a cheap easy fix ha) but much like the T&G craze, it will take sometime for these guys to notice it and figure it out...

the wrong part of the story....BIG BOX RETAILERS.....sure we would all love to get into these places....guess who has them??? DREADED MMM....... STAY AWAY AND QUIT FEEDING THE BEAST...

In the end, yes you need to learn to diversify, and how to clean these floors....every part of the country has different levels of saturation for different floors....

oh and from a few messages i have gotten about these epoxyed floors.....(and i have done it to....but educate your custy 1st, then let them decide) IF THE FLOOR HAS FAILED, AND THEY WANT YOU TO "FIX IT" DONT PUT A STANDARD FLOOR FINISH ON IT!!!!!!

That has become the "oh just put that on there" fix for EVERYTHING....funny thing is...it fails after about 1-6 mths depending on the type of biz it is....

mine is a Dentist office, so its only foot traffic...and we "recoat/seal" it once a year....same with their laminate...and it DOES FLAKE, and i told them it would...but they like how it looks for the in between, so I do it...

EDUCATE YOUR CUSTOMER of the pit falls 1st...then they dont look at you with the "what the f did you do to my floor???" And MOST should appreciate it...

 

[Desk Jockey]

Doug won't your production rate be a lot higher with the auto scrubber too?

We do all we can with our inhouse equipment but when the project gets larger we usually rent an auto scrubber to get those production numbers up there.

 

[Shane Deubell]

99.9% of the concrete we run into is in a warehouse setting and they only want an autoscrub and once in a while seal.

The only exception i can think of is a parmaceutical customer we used to have. As long as we hit our margin, really don't care either way.

 

[Desk Jockey]

I agree I don't care what tool we use. Plus Doyle is right although I've not tested with a ATP meter but I sure the pressure and heat have to be doing better job at lowering the counts.

 

[floorguy]

generally....but it also depends on how "good" you want it....

I know lots of people who strip with their autoscrubbers

I wouldnt do it that way for nothing....rather my propane beasty...or cimex if needed....or 175

but I wouldnt use a shop vac to clean it up either...autoscrubber all the way....

there are sooooo many ways to do things, in the end it depends on what you are comfortable with