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| Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
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| [Monday, December 04, 2006] |
| While scrubbing a VCT floor in a large medical facility, I had two buffers running, working toward one another from opposite ends of the building. Another person was running the wet vac, with the plan being to remove solution from one end, then go to the other end.
We got sidetracked by another issue, and the solution was almost evaporated from a large part of the floor. We removed the small amount of remaining solution, then mopped before applying finish.
I was taught that allowing the solution to evaporate from the floor is a problem. My question is, why is that a problem? Isn't the goal really to remove the solution from the floor? If I'm going to mop afterward anyway, is there really any reason to fret if some of the solution has evaporated?
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| Hard & Resilient Floor Care - Burt Forney |
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Answer # 2:
When any cleaning solution containing soap (originally made from fat and lye) or chemically synthesized detergents (from the 50s on) is allowed to dry on a finish during a cleaning process, a new chemical bond is formed. The "old-time" floor guys called it “resaponification", a term that was in common usage long before I came into the jan/san industry 35 years ago, although it is not much used in the industry any more.
Dried stripper and partially stripped wax (later, floor finish) created the greatest removal problems, proving far more difficult to remove than finish that had only had one wet contact with the detergent (or soap) solution. Perhaps you remember saponification from your chemistry days.
I saw a new product in action a few weeks ago in St. Louis. Zing Quick Strip, it stays wet for up to six hours, so the dwell open time is much greater and there is less chance of the stripper slurry drying and readhereing to the floor.(zingfloors.com) It's amazing. I see it as a breakthrough where it is hard to keep the stripper wet throughout the entire stripping cycle.
John Walker, President and Founder
ManageMen, Inc., Janitor University
Answer # 1.
You are correct; the goal is to remove the solution from the floor. The fallacy is in thinking that evaporation does that!
We must remember that a floor cleaning solution is a liquid mixture made up primarily of water, to which we add detergents or strippers. As the floor is scrubbed or a finish stripped, the loosened soils or old finish also become part of the solution. In the case of the floor finish stripping, this heavy mixture is called a slurry due to the abundance of thick solids temporarily suspended. We say temporarily because, given any ventilation of the area at all, the solution will soon dry.
What evaporates into the atmosphere? From chemistry class, you will recall the answer to be...water. So rather than say, "some of the solution has evaporated", we must recognize that some of the "water" in the solution has evaporated. The chemicals and suspended matter are still there on the floor.
Yes, I know that there may be some stripper VOCs that evaporate as well, but what we are trying to remove from the floor will not and that is the point! We never have a solution of water-soluable materials where it all will turn into gases and disappear into the air. In fact, with the water gone, the once-suspended solids will dry onto the floor and, especially with old floor finish that can harden, that is not a good thing. In all cases, we will have to repeat the whole agitation operation to loosen them once again. Hence, the caution about never letting the solution dry on the floor.
This is obviously more critical with finish stripping and heavy scrubbing than in a light scrubbing operation, but any scrubbing undoubtedly loosens damaged finish and ground-in grit and adds them to the solution. Letting it dry adds time to the project, because these must be loosened and placed into solution a second time. If this is incomplete, the remaining film will affect the floor's final appearance.
A wet vac is very helpful for complete removal of the dirty solution and will save time, making it a best and obvious choice.
Can we use a mop, as you did? Certainly, but with a few concerns. For instance, unlike the wet vac squeegee pickup tool, a mop head must be laundered frequently so it can successfully remove the dirty solution from the floor. This takes time, and the tendency of many is to use the mop well beyond the point where it is loaded with suspended-soil solution, making it a means of redistributing the dirty solution rather than removing it, which is the objective in cleaning. In the mop usage you describe, the amount of dirty solution left as a light residue may have been easily loosened once again by the mop's agitation and carried away to the rinse bucket. However, a heavy stripper slurry would quickly overwhelm the mop head and lead to an exhausting cycle of pick-up and laundering that would be unacceptable in all but the smallest areas. I have found that a final mopping with a microfiber flat mop even after a careful wet vac pick-up is excellent for leaving a film-and-debris-free floor ready for refinishing. Just don't keep going once the mop is loaded and needs laundering or changing out.
Lynn E. Krafft, ICAN/ATEX Associate Editor
lekrafft@juno.com
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| ICAN representative |
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