Commercial Cleaning The Floor Of The Future?

Keeping up with the dynamic growth and trends of the commercial cleaning industry can be challenging, but I thought this article would be worth talking about because we are seeing this trend happen with buildings in the St. Louis, Missouri region.

Concrete has been around for a very long time. It has been used since the Ancient Egyptian times and later by the Romans. The Romans used concrete in many building projects for more than 700 years from 300 BC to 476 Ad. It’s funny that we take concrete for granted in our day and age, but back then concrete was a revolutionary material used for building.

Fast forward to today and you will find that concrete has evolved even further and is used in almost every building site in the United States. While concrete usage is on the rise, here are some of the challenges with using concrete as a floor system.

• Dust
• Loose granules of sand
• Loose or missing aggregate in the surface
• Spalled surfaces
• Cracks
• Seams
• Blotchy appearance

These are just some of the problems that will arise with a concrete floor system. But that is just one side of the story. There is a huge interest and increase in using concrete floors as a finished floor. If you diamond polish a concrete floor you can create a gorgeous, mirror-like floor that takes very little care. This minimal maintenance is one of the biggest reasons that more companies are moving to a polished concrete floor as their preferred floor.

How do you clean them?

The good new is you can use a variety of chemicals on a polished concrete floor. No, they don’t clean themselves just because they are concrete. Make sure you use pH-neutral cleaners, mildly alkaline cleaners or even bio-enzymatic cleaners. Just make sure you follow manufacturer’s guidelines as not all concrete floors are equal.

Challenges in polishing a concrete floor

The idea of a beautiful polished concrete floor is appealing. Be aware though that properly cleaning and polishing a concrete floor is not easy. Polishing a concrete floor requires multiple steps that can be very challenging. In the first steps, you will need to properly degrease, scarify and/or grind in order to level the floor. This removes any contaminants on the floor. The next step is using a hardening agent like sodium, potassium, or lithium-based hardening agent and any dye colors you want to enhance the color of the floor. The last step is diamond polishing. This will require several steps in this part of the process.

Concrete floors open up a vast amount of opportunities for all types of businesses. Concrete has been around for thousands of years and is a great way to stay modern, functional and reduce costs.