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Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster

 

Marmoleum floors are a type of “eco” lino made from organic materials. Marmoleum floors have gained a lot of popularity over the past few years with schools and sport rooms being the biggest users of marmoleum floors as they are easy to clean and maintain. These type of floors come in a wide range of colours and can be cut to fit all forms and shapes. You might find marmoleum floors in domestic houses but it is generally not that popular within that market.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – Polishing

 

Marmoleum floors need to be polished before use to avoid causing irreparable damage. The floor has to be sealed with a primer and finished with 2 coats of high traffic floor polish. You can opt for matt, satin or gloss finishes. Marmoleum floors are sealed from the factory but that sealant is not suitable for very high traffic floors. Any scratch on a marmoleum floor is permanent damage. It cannot be repaired. It is for this reason that the floor MUST be sealed before use. All the traffic and any wear and tear or damage caused by this will only affect the sealant. Once in a while, depending on traffic, the sealant will need to be removed and a new coat of polish applied.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – Polishes

 

Picking the right floor polish for your particular type of floor is very important. If you have marmoleum floors in your home, you don’t need to get the strongest floor polish in the world but if the floor that you plan to polish is fitted in a school or a gym with high footfall, you need to get the strongest floor polish available. Commercial floor polish is highly recommended when sealing commercial floors. The level of gloss in a polish does not affect its durability. Many people worry that very glossy floor polishes can be very slippery, but this is not the case.

A domestic floor polish can be used on a commercial floor but it will require refinishing more often than a commercial floor polish.

 

-solvent based floor polishes

-water based floor polishes

 

Over the past few years many companies have started selling “permanent” marmoleum floor polishes. We can assure you that such a thing has not been invented yet. What these companies are selling is an acrylic solvent based floor polish that cannot be removed with standard floor strippers. The permanent floor polish is a great product while it lasts but when some areas wear off more than others and you will want to remove the existing floor polish and replace it with a new one, you will discover that the polish is unremovable. You are stuck with it.

 

Use quality water based floor polishes to seal your marmoleum floor. Seal the floor with a water based floor primer before polishing. It will create a great smooth surface and it will improve durability. We recommend Evans Sealant B.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – Stripping

 

If your marmoleum floors looks patchy and stained, you will need to strip it with a floor stripper. You will need to get rid of the old floor polish and you will need to reseal the floor. Floor stripping is a very dangerous operation and you can easily burn your fingers or burn your floor. Most floor strippers will require a dilution of 1 to 10 or 1 to 20 if you are using a very strong commercial floor stripper. Get a 10 l bucket of warm water and add 1 l of floor stripper. Apply the stripper all over the floor with a cotton mop. Avoid touching painted surfaces or any glossy surfaces. The stripper will create permanent damage. Allow the stripper to work for 10 minutes. After 10 min you will need to scrub the floor well with a green or black floor pad and remove the waste. If the floor still looks patchy after the first stripping operation, repeat the operation. Most floor strippers can only remove 3 coats of floor polish at once. If the floor has 10+ coats of floor polish, you will need to strip it at least 3 times.

 

*** always wear safety protection***

 

After all the polish is removed you will need to wash the floor a few times to get rid of all stripper residue. Use a neutral floor cleaner. When the floor is dry, apply the first coat of floor primer. 1 hour later apply 1 coat of floor polish and within 30 minutes, apply the second coat of polish. Job done.

 

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – Maintenance

 

The maintenance is most important part.  99% of marmoleum floor owners have no idea how to properly clean, maintain and buff their floors. It is for this reason that most of the marmoleum floors in Ireland do not last as long as they should.

 

Your marmoleum floor was just polished. From this point on, you will have to clean your floor with a good non acidic floor cleaner. The cleaner will break all types of dirt and fats. The floor will scratch and it will suffer damage from daily traffic but a quick buff with a 400+ RPMs floor buffer, will sort out that issue. The buffer will spin the pad at very high speed. In this process, the floor will heat and it will become more flexible. All small scratches will be smoothed out and the floor will achieve a glossy finish. Polished marmoleum floors HAVE to be buffed regularly. We recommend red floor pads. You do not have to buff your floors daily but try to do it weekly.

 

Never apply more polish over pre-existing floor polishes. You will trap dirt between the polish coats and you will create patchy finishes on your floor. A nice smooth floor can turn out all stained if you polish over dirt. Many schools and gyms are doing this and they just destroy their floors. Even worse, you will create a very thick coat of polish by over-polishing your floors and this coat in many cases cannot be removed without damaging the floor somehow. A flooring contractor will have to strip your floors 10 times with very strong polish removers and this can damage your floor glazing. If your floor was polished right, you should not have to re-polish it for at least 3 years.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – Buffing

 

There are low speed floor buffers and high speed floor buffers. To be able to buff your floors and achieve a nice shiny finish, you will need to use a high speed floor buffer and a red pad. A polisher is a buffer with at least 400 RPMs (rotations per minute).  Deep clean the floor. Allow time to dry. Make sure that the floor is residue free. Buff the floor. Job done.

 

*** a tiny grain of sand under the red floor pad can destroy your floor.Make sure that the floor is spotless before buffing***

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster- Mistakes

 

Our company is regularly called to assess and find a solution for marmoleum floor discolorations and damage. The floor seems to stain very easily and even if it is not that old, it looks old and tired. In most cases there are a few factors that can cause this.

 

Mops – Even if a marmoleum floor was designed for commercial traffic, if the floor is not polished it will wear off faster in areas with more traffic. Usually, areas around door entrances, toilets, halls and corridors. But in 99% of the cases the old looking floor is old because it was bleached. Your cleaners may be using the same mop heads to clean toilets floors and then they use it to wash marmoleum floors. Even if the cleaning solution was changed, there will be still small traces of bleach on the mop. Those small amounts of bleach will burn the floor.It is highly recommended that you use different mops for different floors.

 

Chemicals – you have to wash your floors regularly with decent floor cleaning products. You do not have to buy acidic or very strong cleaning products. If your floor is washed daily, use a lower PH floor cleaner, somewhere between 0 to 6 PH. Daily exposure to harsh chemicals can create discolorations on your floors

 

Rough Feeling – the glazing on your marmoleum floor can change from smooth to a sandpaper like finish in seconds. Usually, it happens when the floor was stripped too many times or with stronger than needed floor strippers. The floor stripper can damage the glazing and will crack it. In these cases the glazing of the floor has to be rebuilt with floor primers. Up to 10 coats of primer will be needed to rebuild it.

 

Holes & Scratches – Even if the floor is polished, it can scratch. Dragging heavy furniture or very heavy stuff on the floor can create very deep scratches. Those scratches can fill up with dirt and can make your floor look bad. If a scratch happens, it has to be filled up with polish to avoid dirt getting in. High heels are the no 1 enemy for marmoleum floors. The heels can easily penetrate the floor and can fill it with small holes. Avoid wearing high heels on your floors and you should make it a rule for all other users.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster – DIY

 

Marmoleum floor is a very sensitive floor. Seal it fast, wash it regularly, use the proper floor cleaners and buff it regularly. If you do all this, it will last for many years. But in their attempt to cut costs many places are attempting to seal their own floors without proper tools and equipment. In most cases this ends up bad. Polishing marmoleum is a very time consuming operation and great skill is required to achieve streak free finishes. Here is a list of basic tools needed to strip, seal & polish marmoleum floors:

 

-mop and bucket

-edging pads

-200 RPM floor buffer

-blue or green buffer pads (do not use black pads)

-wet vac

-a floor cleaner

-a polish applicator

-floor stripper

-floor polish

-primer

 

If you have never polished floors before, you should not start with marmoleum floors. Hire a professional floor cleaning company and have it done right.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – Costs

 

Marmoleum floor cleaning and marmoleum floor polishing is a very time consuming operation. It costs a lot of money to buy proper floor polishes and quality sealants. A decent marmoleum floor polish can cost about 40 euro for 5 l while a floor primer can cost 30-50 euro. A floor could require small amounts of polish or a huge amount of primer. You will only find out after you remove the old polish and you can see the floor.

 

A standard living room will cost around 250 euro to be done. Commercial marmoleum floor polishing is charged per square meter. More floor to be done, less money per square meter. If the floor is new and it only requires priming and polishing, it will cost 3 to 5 euro per square meter. If the floor is old and requires a few stripping operations, primers and 2-3 coats of floor polish, you should expect to pay 10+ euro per square meter.

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster

 

If your marmoleum floor is done right, you should not have to spend any money for a couple of years. Less money you pay per square meter initially, the more often you will have to polish your floors.

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster

 

Book a site visit with www.dublin-floorcleaning.ie and let us do our magic. A free no obligation estimate will be provided and at least 12 months guarantee. Have your floor polished by the masters of floor cleaning in Dublin. We use highly efficient floor polishes from Cleanfast, Carefree & Taski. We have been polishing floors for the last 12 years and most our of work comes from repeat customers and recommendations.

 

Marmoleum Floor Cleaning – How To Do It Right & Faster