by Mark on December 14, 2009
Had to do a sample clean today.128 units, all 4 bedroom with ensuites lounge dining kitchen veranda and stairs.Did 1 unit.This is how its done.Scrub tiles with a heavy duty cleaner and use a grout cleaning tool for cleaning grout joints. We used a blue pad on the polyvac machine. We then neutralised with S4S a marble cleaning product. S4S works great on porcelain as well as being a marble cleaner.Wet all mess. Simple but effective. The doodle bug scrubs the edges where the machine won’t reach.
If you don’t neutralise, the residue of the heavy duty cleaner remains and attracts dirt.
by Mark on September 21, 2009
The easiest way to keeping your grout clean is to have it sealed once it is laid. Failing this, you can follow the following procedure:
1. It really depends on the tiles laid surrounding the grout. For highly polished marble, semi polished marble or any other porous stone use a ph neutral cleaner only. S4S marble cleaning products work fantastically well. Simply mop the designed amount of solution on the surface ensuring you fill the grout joints. Using a grout cleaning tool, rub up and down a few times in both directions, allow to sit for another minute then repeat. Wet vac dry the mess or using a semi dry mop, remove all excess waste. You could then repeat with fresh water.
2. For non – porous tiles, ceramic, porcelain, sandstone etc, use a alkaline cleaner first. Apply the same as above to clean the grout. Then repeat the same as step 1.
When the grout joints are 100% dry apply a suitable sealer to the grout joints. Use 2 x coats and wipe any sealer off the tiles
by Mark on September 5, 2009
The terracotta tiles were about 15 years old and were sealed with a heavy duty solvent based sealer. We had to get a 20ltr drum of xylene to strip the old sealant. A 5 hour job turned into 17 hours. The result was great but exhausting. We then scrubbed it with a brown pad on [...]
by Kirstin on September 1, 2009
I got a call from a lady who explained that her laid ceramic tiles were very clean but the grout was filthy. The idea is to clean the grout then seal it.
Step 1. Using a grout cleaning tool and a strong high alkaline cleaner. Soak the grout for a couple of minutes. Do sections of [...]
by Kirstin on August 24, 2009
On new surfaces the initial pre seal is very important. Prior to grouting , the tiles need to be pre-sealed. Usually a water based pre-seal works well. This ensures complete clean up of all grout which smears into the porous surface of the tiles. After grouting you then need to use an acid based cleaner [...]
I went and did a few touch-ups on a job by myself and left Matty and Jayden at another job. Its a resort with 2-3 bedroom units. Probably about 60 units all up. Their problem is the tiles. Very dirty that a mop and bucket just wont do.
What we need to do is machine scrub [...]
I got a call from Susan the other day just asking about cleaning her marble bathroom walls and floor tiles. She said that they just didn’t look as good as they should. It had been about 4 years since they had been installed and sealed. On testing the floors they were in need of a [...]
by Kirstin on May 19, 2009
Taking a lot longer than first anticipated to sand floors. Finished 320, 600, 800 and today finished doing 1200 sanding with water on the floor doing it wet. Finished all the floors. ( see photo). Today we will start polishing the marble with marble polish on the floor repetitiously back and forth over each [...]
