Maintenance
Maintenance Requirements
Initial (First) Cleaning
- Sweep or vacuum, with heavy-duty commercial vacuum, entire floor surface to remove all loose dirt, dust and other foreign materials.
- Scrub the entire area with an automatic scrubbing machine (150-350 rpm), equipped with a red scouring pad or with soft nylon bristle brushes. Apply a cleaning solution pH 9-13 such as Ecolab Mariko (pH 13) and lukewarm water, or BURO NET (see par. "H"). Let heavily applied cleaner soak 10 to 15 minutes (longer if needed). Do not vacuum.
- Scrub the entire floor a second time.
- Begin where first started and while applying more cleaner at a slower rate, begin vacuuming.
- Rinse entire area with lukewarm water and vacuum.
- Check area, some stubborn marks may have remained on the floor. Remove these marks by using a cloth dampened with mineral spirits, carb-sol and rinse with clean water and dry.
Note: It is very important that all cleaning residue is removed by rinsing. Do not scrub floor with medium or hard polyester or nylon pads, steel wool, wire brushes, or abrasive flooring cleaners.
These types of materials can cause severe scratching and damage the floor surface, and cause undue wear to game line paint.
Do not apply any type of floor sealer, floor finishes or waxes of any type. Also do not sweep or dust mop floor with oil treated mops or brooms.
Daily Maintenance
- Wet floor with clean water.
- Buff entire floor using a white pad to remove the current shoe marks. Some may remain, however, this procedure should remove approximately 90 to 95 % of the marks.
- Dust mop entire floor with Hillyard Hil-Mist or equivalent.
- Spot clean the heavy marked spots, if needed.
Note: If gymnasium is not heavily used, dust mopping will normally be sufficient.
“Quick Clean” is a daily cleaning system that combines the ease and speed of dust mopping with the benefits of wet mopping. Quick Clean can be reviewed and purchased at: www.cleanoffzone.com
Maintenance of a Taraflex® Sports Flooring is a daily procedure.
It can be helpful to put walk-off mats at all entries and exits to help remove abrasive dirt and grit from the shoes of people traffic. Rubber mats should not be placed on the top of Taraflex® Sport Flooring.
Weekly Maintenance
- Maximum Weekly Maintenance
- Buff the floor as instructed in Daily Maintenance.
- Clean and scrub entire floor area with Mariko (pH 13) or NSS Concentrate cleaner (pH 13) form National Sanitary Supply or Hillyard's Shine-All (9 pH to 10 pH), or equal.
- Rinse entire floor.
- Minimum weekly Maintenance
- Clean and scrub entire floor with recommended neutral cleaner or equal.
Monthly Maintenance
- Follow same procedures as instructed in initial cleaning and/or first cleaning.
Equipment, Tools, Cleaning chemicals
needed to clean floors
- Automatic scrubber equipped with soft nylon brushes or red and white pads. Refer to Daily, Weekly, and Monthly maintenance recommendations.
- Carb-Sol, Mineral Spirits (denatured).
- Clean dust mops (not oil treated)
- Cold and lukewarm water.
Approved and recommended cleaning products
Please find hereunder list of products to use with automatic scrubbing machines equipped with soft nylon bristle brush or white scouring pad for the cleaning of the Taraflex® indoor floors. Citrus type cleaners are not recommended.
STRONG CLEANERS (pH 9 - pH13)
- MARIKO (pH 13) made by ECOLAB Huntington
- Customer service USA: 1-800 332 6522
- Customer service Canada: 1-800 465 5227
- Technical Hot line USA: 1-800 451 7191
- NSS Concentrate Cleaner (pH 13) made by National Sanitary Supply
- Customer Service USA: 1-800-428-9677
- HILLYARD Shine-ALL (pH 9)
- Hillyard Floor Treatments Customer Service located at Saint Joseph, Missouri 64502
Tel: 1-800-365-1555
- Hillyard Floor Treatments Customer Service located at Saint Joseph, Missouri 64502
MILD CLEANERS (pH 7)
- JOHNSON Shop 600
- SC Johnson Professional - St Racine, Wisconsin 53403
- Customer service Tel: 1-414-631-2000
- Technical Hotline: 1-800-558-2332 Customer Service Canada: 1-519-756-7900.
- HILLYARD Clean Scrub
- Hillyard Floor Treatments located at Saint Joseph, Missouri 64502
- Customer Service Tel: 1-800-365-1555
- TASKI PROFI
- Johnson Diversey (Taski)
- Customer Service Tel: 1-800-862-3600
Rubber heel marks and scuffing
Rubber heel marks and scuff marks can be easily removed with a clean white rag dampened with Carb-chlor, Carb-sol or equal non-flammable cleaning solvent.
Normal scrubbing procedures will often remove minor scuffs and rubber burns.
Usually Carb-chlor is required to remove excessive or heavy scuffs and rubber burns.
To help remove the black sole scuffmarks, manually spray some pure cleaning solution on the floor before starting the
scrubbing operation.
Also can use Butcher's "SPEEDBALL" Cleaner (1-800-225-9475)
Approved heel mark removers to be used
in an automatic scrubber
Follow same procedures as instructed in initial cleaning and/or first cleaning. This cleaning procedure is identical to the monthly maintenance program and could replace the monthly maintenance if floor conditions require this application.
BURO NET (pH 12.5) made by SANI-MARC (Mix 1 to 2 cups per gallon of water.)
Local Distributors
Warthan Associates, Inc.
Customer Service: 1-800-458-6321
42 Rue de l’Artisan
Victoriaville, Québec Canada
Customer Service: 1-819-758-5800
Fax: 1-819-758-5800
Miscellaneous
- Remember maintenance is a daily procedure; daily maintenance will extend the useful life of the flooring and protect the Manufacturer's warranty.
- Your Taraflex® floor has been specially treated with the exclusive Protecsol@, maintenance surface. It is therefore important that you do not apply any types of floor sealers, floor finishes or waxes of any type.
- Taraflex® Sport Surfacing is very resistant to staining and chemicals. However dirt and spills should be removed as promptly as possible. Certain materials can cause serious damage such as organic solvents (acetone, finger nail polish remover); tar, rubber pads, rubber wheels. Wheels on equipment should be plastic or composition and should not be metal.
Important information regarding auto-scrubbers
Gerflor recommends the use of variable pressure “floating” scrub deck auto scrubbers. Generally, a pressure setting between 100-200 lbs is sufficient to clean the material. Remember that letting the floor “soak” with the cleaning solution will have a greater cleaning effect with less effort. Allow the cleaner to do its work just like the soak cycle is used when washing clothes. It is unnecessary to over scrub the floor and it can be harmful to the finish.