Need help cleaning church floor tarps/mats

[curt johnson]

We have a church here that holds services in their gym. They put down tarps over the wood floor for their weekly services. The tarps appear to be vinyl/plastic, pretty indestructable. Has anyone cleaned these before? If so what method did you use? Also, I don't want to do anything to hurt the wood gym floor beneath.

Any ideas? It's a large surface, picture a full size basketball court......

 

[glenboy]

i bet u could use a floor scrubber and a white or green pad and and a mild detergent

 

[Fred H]

HOST

Sorry Glen I couldn't resist.

 

[FLYERMAN]

If they are indeed vinyl you'll need "vinyl cleaner." You can get it at Winsol Labratories (google it). Everything else, well almost everything else will strip the plasticisers out of the vinyl. Think about it. Would you use anything not made for leather on leather? Same idea on vinyl.

So get your stuff it's called Vinyl Cleaner and Protector if I remember correctly. Mix it up and spray it down and if you have to scrub it use a white pad under a doodle pad. If you think it can handle a floor machine then try that but I doubt it will come to that. As for getting it up off the floor I would mop it up by squeegeeing it over to a stationary vacuum instead of vacuuming the entire surface.

Good luck and take pics.

 

[The Great Oz]

Ken's right about the vinyl, the same goes for building awnings. We use Winsol products for outdoor fabric cleaning.

It would be safer to take the material to an open expanse of parking lot if you're concerned about the floor, otherwise just be cautious around seams and look out for holes. After extraction you can use towels wrapped around a push broom to get things dry quickly.

 

[Jim Nelson]

A damp mop.

 

[Demien]

We have done similar material. We put neutral floor cleaner in a 20 inch CX (Clark's OP) scrubbed with a broken in red pad .
Then sucked up product with a walk behind floor squeegee and moped with clear water.
Worked fantastic!!!!!
No issues with moisture under mats

Demien