What is Safety Flooring?
Many businesses use safety flooring to reduce the chance of customers or staff slipping. The most well-known manufacturer of safety flooring is Altro.
The way to tell if you have this type of floor is run your nails over it. If it feels like sandpaper, then it is a safety floor. If the floor is smooth & silky, then it is probably vinyl or rubber. It is the gritty and rough texture of safety flooring that grabs the soles of your feet, giving loads of traction and plenty of grip. Unfortunately, the rough texture also grips & holds onto dirt which can be very difficult to remove.
After many years of visiting sites to advise on cleaning this type of floor, we have come up with solutions that really work.
After 50+ years of supplying cleaning machines, we have identified the following machines to suit a limited budget.
Using Dry Steam to Clean Safety Flooring
The Karcher SG 4/4 Dry Steam Machine heats water to produce dry steam heated to 150 degrees. This steam is injected into the floor, making ingrained dirt seep out. This slurry can then be picked up using a flat mop. An advantage of using steam is that it is chemical-free, reducing your use of plastics & chemicals. Another essential use of dry steam machines is sanitising work surfaces, sinks, showers, door handles.
Kärcher has tested the effectiveness of its steam cleaners in fighting viruses in an independent laboratory. If used properly, the machines remove up to 99.999% of enveloped viruses, such as covid or flu and 99.99% of common household bacteria from hard surfaces.
Using a Scrubbing Machine to Clean Safety Flooring
Another way to clean safety flooring is with a rotary scrubbing machine. This is more expensive than using a dry steam machine but cheaper than using a scrubber dryer.
With the right pad & chemical, the rotary scrubbing action can effectively scrub ingrained dirt up into a slurry. We recommend the NLL415 fitted with a Vileda micro safety floor pad. The best chemical we sell for safety flooring is Ubik 2000. An advantage of NLL415 is it folds flat for easy storage, as shown here:
Method:
- Fill the tank of the Nll415 with water & add 1 cup of Ubik 2000.
- Fit the drive board & the Vileda pad to the base of the machine
- Scrub the floor until all the water has turned dark grey. Make sure you keep the floor wet at all times.
- Use a mop or a wet vacuum to pick up the slurry.
Using a Scrubber Dryer to Clean Safety Flooring
The advantage of a scrubber dryer over the two options shown above is that it leaves the floor clean dry without having to use a mop or vacuum. A scrubber dryer applies the cleaning solution to the floor, scrubs the floor & sucks the dirty water back up. This makes it by far the quickest of the 3 options. The disadvantage is that its the most expensive of the 3 options.
The TT1840 from Numatic is available in 2 versions. One that plugs into the mains or one that runs on battery.
The best machine for small areas is the I-Mop Lite Battery Scrubber Dryer. This scrubber dryer is about the same size as an upright vacuum cleaner, so it is ideal for confined areas.
Method for Deep Cleaning a Safety Floor Using a Scrubber Dryer
- Fill the tank of the scrubber dryer with water & Ubik 2000 diluted at 1:50
- Fit the scrubbing brush to the base of the machine
- Press the button to apply the cleaning solution to the floor.
- Scrub the floor until all the water has turned dark grey. Make sure you keep the floor wet at all times.
- Turn the vacuum on to collect all of the dirty water through the built-in squeegee.
If the floor is not too dirty, use a dilution rate of 1:100 instead of 1:50 & scrub & vacuum simultaneously in a single pass.
