I goofed up… Help!

[Jayvzc]

I cleaned this rubber gym floor recently and the results are as follows (see photos).

250ft hose run, but I had my PSI way too high -800. Using a gekko 4 jet tile tool.

Obviously this doesn’t look great… what can I do to fix this?

 

[hogjowl]

I suspect you’re going to have to agitate that floor to help get a more uniform appearance. Exactly how to do that will take some patience and experimentation. I’d start by breaking in a green pad on concrete and then using it to scrub that floor and then rinsing with lower pressure. It may be difficult to get a green pad to rotate on that rubber so you may have to use a red pad.

Oh, another thing, order new jets.

 

[Mikey P]

Oh, another thing, order new jets.

or a two jet wand....

 

[Mikey P]

I agree, try scrubbing a top layer off...

I hope you have good insurance...

 

[sassyotto]

shoulda groomed it

 

[they live]

Crb or white pads and mild detergent

Rinse with 300 psi and warm water. Move the wand quickly to rinse and slow extra dry strokes for uniformity.

 

[Mikey P]

Crb or white pads and mild detergent

Rinse with 300 psi and warm water. Move the wand quickly to rinse and slow extra dry strokes for uniformity.

No way will either be aggressive enough

 

[AlienAgent]

I’ve never cleaned a rubber floor before, but, it seems like there might be some kind of restoration product you could apply to fix that. Almost like a tire black product?

 

[they live]

No way will either be aggressive enough

Going too aggressive will cause more damage. Let the detergent do it's job. He already softened up the rubber. He just needs to blend the marks in now.

You can always go more aggressive if needed but I doubt it would be needed. It does depend on how deep the jet marks are though. Speed of wanding pressure and heat all matter.

 

[scotty747]

A white pad will work fine, its rubber. Your wand will work fine if you use it to flush, not pressure wash. Speaking of which can you tell me again Mikey which gekko can use your two jet head and which cant. My raptor sucks and I have a gekko with the spinner head lying around.

 

[scotty747]

Nevermind. Found it on greenglides.

 

[Jack Zipper Zerkie]

Looks like the jets were pluged not a even spray over pressure on faulty jets.

 

[hogjowl]

Going too aggressive will cause more damage. Let the detergent do it's job. He already softened up the rubber. He just needs to blend the marks in now.

You can always go more aggressive if needed but I doubt it would be needed. It does depend on how deep the jet marks are though. Speed of wanding pressure and heat all matter.

You’re wrong.
A CRB isn’t going to be aggressive enough
But you’ll argue on
And on

 

[they live]

You’re wrong.
A CRB isn’t going to be aggressive enough
But you’ll argue on
And on

It may not. It's a guessing game. That's where I woukd start to avoid causing more damage.
Spinning an aggressive pad on those soft spots he created might create a bigger problem causing the black rubber to stick to shoes causing traffic lanes where you walk off.
He already screwed it up don't let him destroy it completely. He may get lucky. It doesn't look that deep when I zoom in on the pictures.
And his jets are probably fine. It was the 800 psi that caused it.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

I suspect you’re going to have to agitate that floor to help get a more uniform appearance. Exactly how to do that will take some patience and experimentation. I’d started by breaking in a green pad on concrete and then using it to scrub that floor and then rinsing with lower pressure. It may be difficult to get a green pad to rotate in that rubber so you may have to use a red pad.

Oh, another thing, order new jets.

A green pad will spin easily if he floods the floor like stripping or from a tank on a 175. I might try a red first, just because a green might not be needed. If he needs to use the wand as a vacuum, I wouldn’t use it to rinse. Rinse with a mop and neutral cleaner.

 

[hogjowl]

Go back and read my first sentence

 

[Kenny Hayes]

Shut up, once was enough!

 

[they live]

Wouldn't be the first time.

 

[BIG WOOD]

I've cleaned several of those. You need a butyl based treatment like grime release, no higher than a ph of 9.5

Treat it one section at a time not to let your chemical dry. Do a light scrub with a deck brush and HWE at 600psi with just a tile wand. If the head locks on the rubber, you can switch to your carpet wand with a teflon glide

 

[hogjowl]

What’s going to happen with a 10 pH cleaner?

 

[BIG WOOD]

What’s going to happen with a 10 pH cleaner?

The directions to clean that type of floor is to clean under 10ph

 

[hogjowl]

I’m not doubting you, but where did you see a picture telling you that?

 

[BIG WOOD]

I don’t remember where I read it back in 2017 at my first rubber floor but you can find it on Google search “truckmount cleaning on a rubber gym floor”


The instructions for daily mopping is to use a neutral mop chemical and since we’re cleaning with HWE, the butyl based treatment is the best because the ph isn’t so aggressive that would threaten color loss and instructions will tell you NOT to use a general cleaning chemical like purple power or that crap that all the house cleaners put in their mop water.

 

[hogjowl]

He might actually want to cause a little damage to this floor with a higher pH product and some aggressive scrubbing because I’m thinking his goal might be to even out the damage he’s already caused.
In any case, test test test.

 

[BIG WOOD]

He might actually want to cause a little damage to this floor with a higher pH product and some aggressive scrubbing because I’m thinking his goal might be to even out the damage he’s already caused.
In any case, test test test.

It's in the position to do a trial run on one of the mats.

First assume that the cloudiness is only soiling. Clean one mat to my recommendation and let it dry to see the outcome.

If it doesn't help, I guess he could be more aggressive with a higher ph product, but making it more cloudy just to hide the water jet damage lines seems risky

 

[Jayvzc]

Thanks so much for the replies everyone. I appreciate the help.

Some qualifying information to add...

This exercise room is located in a factory, right outside of production. They make electrical components. So its not "oily and greasy" but I think it could be dust and debris embedded into the flooring. I then cleaned with way too high PSI and it left clean marks.

Im thinking about recleaning with the "Grime release" then CRB then clean rinse / dry with the wand. (LOW PSI).

Ill do this in a test area. Speed dry with a fan and see what happens to that area and go from there??

 

[they live]

It's in the position to do a trial run on one of the mats.

First assume that the cloudiness is only soiling. Clean one mat to my recommendation and let it dry to see the outcome.

If it doesn't help, I guess he could be more aggressive with a higher ph product, but making it more cloudy just to hide the water jet damage lines seems risky

The cloudiness is from whatever they are spraying to clean the equipment a polish most likely and what they are mopping the floors with. It's left a haze. It's not hard to remove it you just have to use the right product and light agitation so as not to tear the rubber.
If you look at the bottom left of the picture you can see the original color and that he did go deeper than the haze. He may need to use a buffer and pad to even it all out but I would try to blend it in first so I wouldn't have to flush it as much to remove the rubber that breaks lose and could keep breaking lose if you get to aggressive.

 

[Kenny Hayes]

What we said! It not that deep