There are so many myths about cleaning floors that the first thing you should do is forget everything you ever heard. Get rid of the vinegar, alcohol, bleach, soda water, acetone, household cleaners and ammonia. They will destroy your floor or make it slippery. No exceptions and no coke, it will dissolve your floor.
It is an immutable fact, dirt, dust, perspiration and foreign material, primarily body lotions, are your day-to-day enemies. There is one easy way to deal with these nastries - warm water and a detergent/degreaser, mopped generally once a week, using a dedicated mop and pail. Use a second pail of plain water to rinse the mop between applications. Detergent/degreasers, found in hardware stores or from your flooring supplier, dissolve the oils and dirt that can negatively impact the floor surface. You now know the basic and most effective way to keep your floor clean. For a 1,000 square feet studio, the cost is $25 a year plus labor.
Eighty percent of all the junk that gets on your floor comes from outside the studio. Easy ways to combat this invasion are entrance mats. Put one at your facility entrance and another outside your studio. While there are high-tech entrance mats with scrappers, brushes and absorbent strips found at the entrances of high traffic commercial centers, similar, less sophisticated will do the job almost as well, plus save you time and money. Out of pocket expense should be in the $200 - $500 range. Yes, we are not talking about a $20 welcome mat.
Third, studio owners should set aside two days a year for an aggressive, full-on cleaning of your floor. This includes renting a floor machine from the supermarket, getting a green cleaning pad and cleaning and rinsing your floor using detergent/degreaser. When you’re done, your floor should be spotless, except for dye marks usually left by cheap jazz shoes and aluminum residue (black/gray streaky soot) deposited by cheap aluminum compound taps. There are specific products made to handle these problems. Check with your flooring supplier, or call me for the solution.
To successfully maintain your floor, the overriding issue is to create a maintenance plan that works for your school. Keep a simple log of what you do, follow the basic three principles outlined in this communication and you are well on your way to saving time and money when it comes to floor maintenance.
Randy Swartz, President
Stagestep
800-523-0960 ext. 105
