Maintaining Your Epoxy Floor
Epoxy flooring has found its place among home and business owners across the country thanks to the myriad of benefits that it provides. From its customization to its durability to its maintenance, it’s no surprise why epoxy is so popular!
If you’ve decided to have an epoxy floor installed in your space, you’re going to need to know how to keep it looking beautiful for years! That’s where we come in!
With our easy tips for maintaining your epoxy floor, you’ll be saving time, money, and energy in no time while keeping your floor sparkling clean! Continue reading to learn more!
1. Keep the Surface Free of Dirt and Grit
This is essential if your floor is in a business with machinery that needs moving frequently or in your home’s garage where it’ll experience regular vehicle traffic. Dirt and grit left to sit on your floor can be embedded or scratch your floor as these heavy objects move and grind the dirt and grit into the floor’s surface.
Epoxy flooring is a durable flooring system. However, even epoxy can begin showing damage from constant scratching over the years. The best way to prevent this from happening is to regularly use a broom or dust mop to remove all dirt and grit from your floor, preferably every day. If you have to move heavy machinery across the floor, ensure that the surface is clean before moving the machinery.
2. Avoid Soap-based and Citrus Cleaners
Soap-based floor cleaners and citrus cleaners can leave a haze across your epoxy flooring that will only build up over time. When you’re mopping your epoxy floors, you don’t need soap to get it clean. Warm water and a quality mop are typically enough to get the job done.
However, if your floors are soiled, you can use a pH-neutral cleaner to lift the stuck-on grime and make clean up easier. Just remember that if you use a cleaner, let it sit long enough to break down the mess.
3. Spot Clean When Necessary
Spot cleaning is crucial to avoid using cleaners every time you need to mop the floor. If a spill goes unnoticed, you’ll need to use a pH-neutral cleaner to lift the spill that was left to adhere to the floor when it’s time to mop as usual. But if these spills are addressed as they happen, you can avoid the cleaner and stick with warm water.
If a spill occurs, more often, you just need to clean it up appropriately depending on what the spill is and mop the area with warm water. Epoxy flooring is highly resistant to water, so liquid spills are remarkably easy to clean up.
4. Handling a Heavily-soiled Floor
The easiest way to deal with an excessively dirty epoxy floor is to sweep the entire area to remove any loose dirt or debris. Once you’ve got all the loose debris swept up, use a good mop, pH-neutral cleaner, and either warm or hot water to get rid of the built-up grime. Remember to let the cleaner sit on the floor long enough for it to start working.
5. Dealing with Stains
Epoxy is non-porous, so most stains are simply surface stains that can be scrubbed away, such as rust. Use a scrubber sponge or a soft-bristled deck brush to lightly scrub the stain with warm water to remove it. Avoid using highly-abrasive tools and harsh chemicals, such as steel wool or Comet. If the stain is too tough for warm water, you can use the pH-neutral cleaner to scrub with, and that should knock out any surface stains that you may deal with!
6. Managing a Chemical Spill
When we say chemicals, we’re not always referring to harsh industrial acids or similar. Even household paint is a harsh chemical that should be cleaned up immediately if spilled on your epoxy floor.
Whether it’s at work or home, you’ll likely deal with spills from oil, gas, grease, paint, harsh cleaners, and more at some point. When these spills occur, clean them up safely using shop towels and dispose of the towels appropriately. Finish with a quick mopping using warm water. Clean chemicals up immediately because they can prove hazardous for your floor if permitted to sit for too long on the epoxy.
Final Thoughts
Maintaining an epoxy floor is simple, easy, and fast! When you make the switch to epoxy flooring, you’ll be saving loads of time and money, avoiding unnecessary, labor-intensive maintenance and expensive cleaning products.
With our simple tips of keeping the surface dirt and grit-free, avoiding soap- and citrus-based cleaners, spot clean, dealing with heavily soiled floors, stains, and chemical spills, you should have no issues out of your new floor!