Ceramic tile that won't clean easily.

[Out of Character - 0]

We cleaned 1700sf of lightly contoured ceramic t&g in a set of restrooms at a popular retail outlet. The floors are mopped 3-4 times a day, but haven't been CLEANED in a year.

We cleaned the first 6" of tile on the wall and used a few different products to see what cut it the best (out of what we had). Then we layed out the solution across the floor, scrubbed it with a 160lb buffer and .45 brush, then hit it with the turbo at 1000psi & 250F. That process made a 40-50% improvement but the tiles were still dirty while the grout was now clean. We repeated the process with a black pad instead of brush, juiced up the cleaner even more, and I taped the trigger on the turbo "on" and turned the pressure up to 1100psi triggered as that's all I can do with our machines. The end result was a job that looked 60-70% after a lot of work. After all that I noticed that I could remove the soil by hand with a damp microfiber flat mop folded over and a lot of manual action. We ended up post cleaning 1700sf by hand, obviously not a good thing.

There has got to be a better option, and we'll be doing more of them:
Would a certain type of product remove it?
Would a microfiber bonnet have worked?
Should I try a 2500psi cold pressure washer with the turbo next time?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[cbcsi]

1500-1700 PSI works pretty good for me. If you go way up 2500 you can break weak grout joints and then the customer finds grout popping out in places where they 'had never noticed that before'. Ask me how I know.

 

[steve frasier]

weird how things turn out sometimes

before you rinse with the turbo just throw a red pad under that brush block and scrub the tile, I would be suprised if that didn't work

or you can get a handle that is made to hold a big sponge and the sponge will probably take it off also, I sometimes wish they made a big magic sponge for stuff like this

I have a dining hall in a University that does the same thing

 

[Hoody]

Sounds like build up of whatever they're mopping with. Check to see what they're using. Try a stripper to remove it, go easy on the pad choice as you don't want to remove any actual tile. If you're able to remove it by a cloth, I wonder if getting a syn/natural bad pad w/ your rotary on it might help eliminate some of that manual labor ?

 

[TimP]

Did you try an acid cleaner? Some soil responds better to it (even on the surface of the tile)....soap scub in particular would. At least that's how it seems to me.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

Yes, when we were cleaning the trim in the 1st restroom we tried Viper renew, Turbo juice, stripper, purple power, Ultrapac Renovate, and Oxyblaster.

 

[Sticky]

Sometimes a good enzyme prespray will help...I've used Extreme Clean by CTI and sometimes that helps on the greasy ones....

 

[Ron Lippold]

im going with the idea of build up could be years of finish i have been bitten a few times by this

 

[TimP]

I think at this point we need to see pictures. I'd like to see what a floor looks like that wont come clean. Because I want to avoid it if I see it.

 

[Out of Character - 0]

I took a few before pics and fewer after pics but I'll gladly email to you if you pm me your address. I didn't take many during pictures because we were being threatened by a time deadline. It took two of us 9 hrs to complete the 4 restrooms totaling 1700sf.

The after pics are after we hand cleaned them. I have no pics of the film

 

[Papa]

Sometimes a good enzyme prespray will help...I've used Extreme Clean by CTI and sometimes that helps on the greasy ones....

I agree.

 

[Papa]

Sometimes a good enzyme prespray will help...I've used Extreme Clean by CTI and sometimes that helps on the greasy ones....

I agree. Enz-All by ChemSpec (don't usually like their products) works good in restaurants.

 

[BUSY BEE]

It's probably the anti-slip tile. I had a gas station bid last year and I only got it 75% clean and tried everything, I told the owner if someone else could do better then the job is theirs.

 

[packfancjh]

Sometimes a good enzyme prespray will help...I've used Extreme Clean by CTI and sometimes that helps on the greasy ones....

Hey Rob, Extreme Clean isn't an enzyme it's Pro Zyme you're thinking of.