How To Care & Maintain For Terrazzo Floors

Terrazzo Care & Maintenance

Helpful tips for terrazzo maintenance: your terrazzo has been ground, polished, and sealed. This protects your surface from immediate stains, but no spillage should be ignored and allowed to soak and dry into the floor. Good housekeeping procedures require that your floor remains clean.

Read below for some helpful tips in caring for your Terrazzo flooring system.

How to Care for your Terrazzo Flooring System

DO ask your installing terrazzo contractor to recommend the proper neutral cleaner and sealers to be used on your floors.
DO dust mop your floors daily, this not only picks up the dust, but also the grit tracked into your building. The grit acts as an abrasive on your hard surface floor.
DO scrub your floors a minimum of twice a week, where a new terrazzo floor has been installed for the initial two to three months, as the construction dust is still in the air, and will eventually be deposited on your floor. After this period, once per week, depending on the amount of foot traffic, will keep your floor clean in appearance. Always rinse your floors well to prevent a build-up of cleaner residue that could become slippery.
DO seal your floors with a water-based sealer in accordance to the manufacturer’s instructions. Normally, a new floor requires two or more coats, which provide a good sheen for a period of 45 to 60 days, before needing additional coats. Sealer should be classified by Underwriters Laboratories, as slip resistant with a rating of minimum 0.5.
DO use maintenance products designed for terrazzo.
DO allow your neutral cleaner, once applied to the terrazzo surface, time to react as designed to loosen foreign matter. Several minutes should be adequate, but DO NOT allow solution to dry on surface.

What to Avoid with your Terrazzo Flooring System

DON’T use purely surface waxes, or all purpose sealers. Employment of such can result in slippery surfaces.
DON’T use all purpose cleaners containing water soluble inorganic or crystallizing salts, harmful alkali or acids. Use of such products could prove harmful to your terrazzo floor.
DON’T use cheap cleaners or sealers since the majority of your maintenance costs is labor.
DON’T try miracle cleaners or sealers on your floor without getting an opinion on such products from your terrazzo contractor, Terrazzo & Marble Supply (T&M) or the National Terrazzo & Mosaic Association (NTMA).

Industrial Flooring Maintenance Recommendations

Terroxy Industrial Flooring Systems are easily maintained due to seamless, durable finish. Floors actually take the most abuse of any surface in the building, therefore requiring regular maintenance. Consider these few basic maintenance guidelines when caring for your industrial floor.

Initial Cleaning:

Due to the amount of construction debris, vigorous cleaning may be necessary. Use a soft blue brush on a buffer using mild detergents. Vigorous cleaning may cause some loss of gloss. Loss of gloss does not affect performance of the system. See Additional Considerations.

Daily Maintenance:

Dust mop with clean non-oily dust mop. Remove fine dust particles frequently from the mop with a vacuum hose. Remove any wet spillage by damp mopping. NOTE: Aggressive skid-inhibiting surfaces, require brush scrubbing followed by water rinse. Normal cleaning with a mop will not properly clean the textured surface. See “Weekly Maintenance” for maintaining a skid-inhibiting surface.

Weekly Maintenance:

Damp mop the surface with an All-Purpose cleaner. Scrubbing is required with a skid-inhibiting surface or when a smooth surface becomes very soiled. Use a bristle brush or a bristle attachment on a power scrubber (not a nylon pad) using a detergent solution to dislodge the dirt. The type of detergent will depend on the degree and type of build-up on the floor surface.

Use an All-Purpose cleaner for areas exposed to light traffic dirt. Extremely heavy duty soils, oil, grease, and rubber marks, etc. may be removed using a cleaner / degreaser to remove tire marks and other tough stains. After scrubbing, the floor should be rinsed and vacuumed to prevent the dirt from resettling on the floor.

Heavy Maintenance:

Terroxy Industrial Flooring Systems are resistant to wear and chemical attack. However, if it becomes necessary, the surface may be renewed by cleaning and re-coating with the appropriate resin. Before coating, the floor must be completely cleaned and preferably sanded to insure a sound bond.

Additional Considerations:

Some cleaners will affect the color, gloss or texture of your polymer floor surfaces. To determine how your cleaner will perform, we recommend that you first test each cleaner in a small area, utilizing your cleaning technique. This precaution will demonstrate the effect of your cleaner and technique. If no deleterious effects are observed, continue with the procedure. If deleterious effects do occur, modify the cleaning material and/or procedure.

Helpful Hints for Industrial Flooring Maintenance

The implementation of a routine maintenance program will prolong the life of the surface in addition to enhancing the appearance. Floors should be swept daily, treated cloth mops should be used to pick up fine abrasive dirt. As floors become soiled, they should be scrubbed with a detergent solution and properly rinsed. Harsh cleaners and sealers may damage the floor surface.

Avoid all-purpose cleaners or soaps containing water soluble, inorganic or crystallizing salts, and harmful alkalis or acids. Also avoid oil based sweeping compounds which can permanently discolor your floor.

CARE & MAINTENANCE

Care & Maintenance