Elastomeric flooring Long life through correct cleaning and maintenance

Elastomeric flooring is tough. This often makes it the first choice when furnishing objects that have heavy traffic or use. It also needs correct cleaning and maintenance. Sometimes it even needs to be renovated.Elastomeric flooring is often called “rubber” flooring. It consists of synthetic and/or natural rubber, color and fillers, aging inhibitors and vulcanizing agents. It is available as smooth or structured flooring (grained, with hammered surfaces, nubs, pastilles and similar structures). The flooring is relatively resistant to mechanical influences, and is point-elastic. It can be scratched or scuffed, however, by very hard objects. Elastomeric flooring is chlorine-free and increasingly found in public buildings due to fire-protection requirements. Like all other elastic surfaces, rubber flooring is also offered with surface finishes such as PUR. But elastomeric flooring is resistant to chemicals and cleaners only to a limited degree. In particular, highly alkaline agents with a pH value over 11 damage elastomeric flooring and prematurely age it. Thus, only universal basic cleaners with a pH value of 10 in the concentrate (e.g. Linax Extreme) should be used for basic cleaning. Elastomeric flooring is also not completely resistant against acidic cleaners. The acids can irreversibly change the color of the floor. Strong solvents also cause such flooring to lose its aging protection and become brittle or even swell. Elastomeric flooring is also damaged by sunlight. UV light in particular (sunlight entering through large windows, or artificial lighting such as special lighting for plants) leads to faster aging. Cleaning and careKeeping the above-mentioned properties in mind, elastomeric flooring should not only be cleaned but also treated. Depending on how heavily the flooring is used, damp mopping with water-soluble polymers (e.g. Tawip Original) or soap cleaner (e.g. Tawip Vioclean) is recommended; if the floor is subject to heavy use, an adequately elastic (“soft”) floor care dispersion is necessary (e.g. Green Care Longlife Complete or Longlife B 250). For good floor care, all production residues (separating agents) must be thoroughly removed during initial cleaning. Special all-purpose cleaners with the proper ingredients (e.g. Tanex Allround) are particularly suitable for this. If the elastomer flooring has a PUR finish, it is imperative to carry out basic cleaning with a green pad before the first treatment pass to guarantee that the care dispersion adequately bonds. The floor can be treated after thorough cleaning and drying. No special drying time, as with linoleum flooring, for example, must be observed, because elastomeric flooring is not usually porous and thus doesn’t absorb moisture. It is treated either with damp mopping or care dispersion. Appropriate damp wiping methods use products based on water-soluble polymers or soap. Care dispersions must be suitable for use on elastomeric flooring (see below). If the floor is damp-mopped, a higher concentration must be used. After drying, the protective film should always be polished with a high-speed machine (more than 300 revolutions per minute) or even better – with a super-high-speed machine (more than 750 revolutions per minute). The polishing process compresses the protective film and increases its resistance to water and stress. Polishing also increases the shine of the floor. Fortunately, it doesn’t reduce its non-slip properties. The floor should be repolished at regular intervals – depending on the wear – during maintenance cleaning. Pre-cleaning binds dustTo preserve the protective film for long periods, pre-cleaning with a dust-binding system should precede wet maintenance cleaning of the surface. This first step removes fine dust particles and coarse particles of loose dirt that would not otherwise be fully eliminated by manual wet cleaning. Subsequently, two-stage wet cleaning with a mop is recommended. The above-mentioned damp mopping procedure with water-soluble polymers is also suitable. If no care, but only cleaning is desired, an alcohol-based cleaner (e.g. Tanet SR 15) or a modern all-purpose cleaner can be used. Alternatively, the floor can be damp-mopped in one step if it is not very dirty. In this case, however, no film-forming agent (applied with damp mopping) should be used because this usually grays the flooring. When elastomeric flooring is mechanically cleaned, nothing harder than a red pad or medium-hard brush should be used. The agents used correspond to those used in manual cleaning. It should be noted that mechanical cleaning with surface-treatment agents does not maintain the protection as effectively as manual execution. If treatment with a care dispersion is desired in areas with higher strain, it is important to select the right product. So-called hard polymer dispersions often lead to problems because elastomeric flooring is point-elastic; many hard care dispersion agents cannot withstand this strain because they are less elastic. The result in many cases is a crumbling protective film. This is why classic surface treatment with care dispersions is often not recommended. If such products are used, sufficiently elastic self-shine dispersions should be selected. Usually, soft (e.g. Longlife B 250) or viscoplastic (e.g. Longlife Complete) products are recommended. Soft care dispersions have the disadvantage of being less resistant to mechanical stress than viscoplastic products. These are often applied in two to three thin layers on the dry, clean surface. A damp-mopping product is used for maintenance cleaning, just as with surface treatment. RenovationIf visual damage occurs over time due to great stress (foot traffic, scratches), the protective film can be restored by suitable measures that need no elaborate, expensive wet basic cleaning. The so-called spray cleaner method is highly recommended. Here, the specified concentration of the previously used protective product is sprayed section by section (approximately 1.5 to 2 square meters) onto the worn surface, and then subsequently polished with the one-disc machine (at approximately 150 revolutions per minute) and red pad. A blue pad can also be used for more heavily damaged surfaces. The area is polished until the protective covering is almost completely dry. The advantage of this method is that the entire area does not have to be completely treated – only the worn ones. Following this, the one-disc machine is used to polish the entire surface with a beige or white pad to achieve a uniform gloss. Here, too, a high-speed or super-high-speed machine is recommended. Despite the great robustness and generally good cleaning properties of elastomeric flooring, problems may occur in individual situations. Most of these are due to the aging of the rubber flooring. This is a natural process that cannot even be halted by suitable care – only delayed. The aging process is fostered by the use of strong solvents and highly alkaline cleaners on the surface. Strong direct sunlight and intense UV light also lead to faster aging. This is why technical cleaning problems on elastomeric flooring is often seen in front of or below large windows. Sometimes, the aging protection has been removed from the surface and the rubber itself is decomposing. What remains is a relatively porous layer of color and fillers – the surface chalks. Mechanically, this layer is very stable and usually not fully removed by normal basic cleaning. Light chalking can be eliminated with a strongly diluted acidic product. If residues are not removed properly for long periods, chalking progresses. Over time, this layer builds up more and more and grays. If the chalking is treated with a protective film after basic cleaning, the surface behaves similarly to a linoleum floor. This layer often prevents the applied protective product from bonding; it detaches again after a short time (crumbling). In this situation, the only solution is abrasive renovation. The surface is first handled with a suitable basic cleaner (e.g. Linax Extreme) and a green pad, and then abrasively treated. This works best with a high-speed one-disc machine (about 400 revolutions per minute). For very structured surfaces (rubber nubs), a fine grit brush (also known as a SiCa or SC brush) is used. Diamond pads (e.g. Glit Diamant Blu) in various grains (400, 800, 1,500) can be used on smooth or lightly structured (grained) surfaces. In such cases, the surface is polished with water and a surfactant-free all-purpose cleaner. The area is processed until all aged residue has been removed. The effort is usually higher than normal basic cleaning. Abrasive treatment only removes a few µm of the surface. It is important to ensure that a soft-bristled brush is used on highly structured surfaces (nubbed or with high pastilles) because hard bristles cannot entirely penetrate the floor contours. Nubbed surfaces can also be treated with a suitable roller-brush machine and the corresponding grit brush. Smooth surfaces can be processed in several stages. The first step (rough finish) is carried out with a coarse-grained pad (about 400). After every treatment step, the grinding sludge must be carefully removed with the wet vacuum and the surface rinsed with clear water. Following this, the second step is done with a medium grain (about 800). If the surface is to be protected afterwards with a protective dispersion, the third step is unnecessary. If the surface is to be damp-mopped, it should be further polished using a fine grain (about 1,500). The use of a super-high-speed machine and a fine grain polish ensures a glossy, attractive surface. Because a high-speed machine ends up heavily spattering walls and objects, these should be covered with plastic beforehand. After renovation, the elastomeric flooring should be processed again with a suitable protective care product as described above. Jürgen Otterbein | peter.hartmann@holzmann-medien.de

Elastomeric flooring Long life through correct cleaning and maintenance

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