How to clean & polish terrazo floors ?

[Tromp]

Ok I just bought anotjer house that has this great terrazo in it throughout.

I'm totally not against paying a professional to clean/wax/polish them. The funny thing is that practically everyone I've called in the yellow pages that advertises floor restoration/cleaning is either high on something or just plain dumb. I'm not getting the warm and fuzzies if you know what I mean.

Here's my question, anyone know how to effectively clean and wax terrazo?

[AnticorRifling]

The National Moziac and Terazzo Association might have some tips.

Ohh look cleaning and care tips (http://www.ntma.com/06_owners_guide.php)

[Skirmisher]

TERRAZZO CLEANING PROUDUCTS
http://www.roval.com/special.htm

And may I say that unless I read it wrong Terrazzo seems like a pain in the butt to care for.

Wow. This just goes to show how versatile these forums are.

[HarmNone]

I had terrazo floors in one of my homes years ago. After cleaning them thoroughly, I just laid down about eight coats of paste wax, allowing each to dry completely before adding the next. It was a job! Looks like they've got some new products that make them much easier to care for. :)

[AkMan]

There are special coatings for terrazzo products. You can use just regular floor wax but it won't hold up as good. With that being said, if it's in a residential application I would consider not coating it because once you do you are going to be putting a lot of time in it to maintain it. Wax buildup in the grout lines can be VERY difficult if not impossible to remove. Also to prepare it for coating you will most likely need to rent a low speed buffer to get any coating off that may be left over from last time it was coated.

Some people want their floor to have the 'wet look' no matter the cost or time involved and that's fine. Just remember in order to keep a floor shiny for the long term you are going to be putting alot of time in it every week to keep it up.


EDIT: For cleaning what you use depends on if the floor is coated or not. If its not you can use an aggressive multi-purpose cleaner which will easily do the job. If it is coated you will want to use a neutral PH cleaner so you don't eat away at the coating. Neutral cleaners are not as aggressive as a multi-purpose cleaner but they will get the job done.

[Edited on 4-14-2005 by AkMan]

[AnticorRifling]

Wax buildup in cracks and along floor boards is easy to remove, just use a dog tag. I know it worked when I had to do it to the entire HQ buildings floors.

2 lessons can be learned from this.

1) Dog tags do remove wax but it's a pain in the ass

2) Streaking a promotion ceremony is a good way to learn about #1.

[AkMan]

Hah you are right, it's not that hard to get it up if you don't mind getting on your hands and knees and scraping potentially miles of grout lines. Piece of cake!

[Tromp]

[i]
2 lessons can be learned from this.

1) Dog tags do remove wax but it's a pain in the ass

2) Streaking a promotion ceremony is a good way to learn about #1.

#2 just made me spit up my coffee... that is friggin hysterical!

[Parkbandit]

#2 made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. Anticor naked. Ew.

[AnticorRifling]

I wasn't naked I had on combat boots.

[AnticorRifling]

And the afore mentioned dog tags.

[Parkbandit]

Ok.. too much of a visual. Stop now or I'll ask Kranar to give you a demerit for harassment.

[Gan]

Agreed, stripping Terrazo is a pain. But once you get more than six coats of a good finish on it, its easy to buff out and shine with the right equipment.

Using a floor finish (wax) with a low metal content will allow for greater resiliency (and less pitting) in it holding up to foot traffic but will reduce the 'wet' look that you'll have. The best place to find floor finish with different levels of metal content would be a janitorial supply place (waxes by Johnson or Buckeye) but purchaseable in smaller quantities rather than 5 to 55 gallon quantities.

As far as stripping is concerned, a cold water stripping solution (also made by the companies mentioned above) would be your best route when used with a slow speed scrubber with a very abrasive pad and in some cases (when there's more than 10 coats) weights added to assist in pulling up liquified finish. The dog tag method does sound good, and in my previous management days I wish I would have thought of that for some of my more idiotic employees, but the scraping action could damage the grout and create more problems later on.

Cleaning should use the neutral pH cleaner, also made by... found at... mentioned above. The way industrial cleaning companies achieve the 'wet' look is by using high speed buffers (1600 - 2400+rpm) machines with light abrasive buffing pads after the floor has been swept and mopped.

Only reason why I know this odd knowledge is because I used to work for a contract management company who specialized in cleaning hospitals...

[Tromp]

Ok after all this I got back to reality and realized it is way too much work.

So... I hired somone who quoted me $1200 and is taking $1k cash (funny thing is when I offered him cash you can see the wheels churning in his head and he responds, "Well I have a partner so why don't I write up a bill for $800 and you pay me addition $200 in cash?".

Thus again proving CASH IS KING and make people do some really stupid things.

Where can I find a partner like that?