Simply sweeping and wiping your floors using a cloth might suffice for regular cleaning. They will however not contribute much towards the floors’ durability and shine. Floor care machines are essential to handle the polishing, stripping and buffing of your floors regularly irrespective of their type.
One of the essential machines all commercial establishments should own is a floor scrubber. There are three kinds of floor scrubbers. Walk-behinds are designed for cleaning narrow aisles and hard-to-reach areas, while ride-ons are for large open spaces.
A rotary commercial floor scrubber machine is a piece of multi-tasking equipment. It will strip, polish and scrub your floors. When buying a floor scrubber, there are different elements you should consider irrespective of its type.
Its accessories are among the essential elements. One of the key accessories to consider is the scrubber’s pad. This is generally colour-coded for different applications. Here are your scrubber pad options.
Stripping Pads
These are used for the removal of finishes and hard-to-remove dirt on your floors. The pads are meant for aggressive floor cleaning and feature an open weave.
Most manufacturers have their stripping pads in dark colours like brown, purple and black. They cannot, however, be used to remove mastic glues and are only designed for low-speed use.
Scrubbing Pads
These are meant for aggressive cleaning without removing a lot of finish from a VCT-styled floor since they dull a floor’s finish. Though too aggressive for the regular cleaning of epoxy-coated floors, they will work well for unfinished concrete floors and those in automotive shops.
Most manufacturers have their stripping pads in green and a standard blue. They are intended for low-speed cleaning.
Buffing Pads
These are suited for daily floor cleaning. They contain a light abrasive on their surface but not too much to damage most floor coatings or floors.
You can use buffing pads for low-speed applications such as spray buffing to give your floors a clean shine. The pads are generally available in tan and red colours and only used on low-speed machines.
High-Speed Pads
There is no standard colour for high-speed pads. These pads are typically at least 20 inches. They are generally used for buffing and comprise different materials. The common materials used for high-speed buffing pads are variations of nylon and polyester blends or natural fibres, such as hog’s hair mixed with abrasives.
Most opt for pads with a lot of hog’s hair mixed with abrasives since these handle the bulk of a floor burnishing’s process and often yields a shiny floor. Other than the material however you should pay attention to the pad’s grit size. A higher grit size generally means a higher gloss though it might require more work.
Other than matching the above pad types to your task, you should ensure they match the machine you are using and the floor you are cleaning. Conventional floor scrubbers with 175–300 RPM, for instance, work optimally with basic pads, but most modern equipment with higher RPMs need burnishing and high-speed pads. Most machines operate on water, but some require a cleaning solution so you should also consider this before picking your floor scrubber.
