FAQs – Tile, Grout & Stone

Q –
Jim,

A customer of mine just asked me to clean some grout for her on her marble floor where her dogs had their way while she was away. I checked my supplies and found that I only have a little Viper Venom.

Did I hear once that Viper Venom is just a glorified stripper??  I have stripper and was wondering if I could use that as well.

Anticipating your response,
Dan

A —
Dan,

I would be careful identifying Viper Venom with stripper, as floor stripper as a pH range that can make it very damaging to many surfaces in the home that Viper Venom does not.  However, regardless of that, I wouldn’t even want you to get Viper Venom on marble.

Viper Venom (and stripper, and most degreasers) have agents in them that help them attack minerals in the water that interfere with their performance.  That also means those agents attack minerals called calcium carbonate, which is the mineral that makes what we call marble.

The grout used in marble is unsanded, and the grout lines should be very narrow.  You can’t use a grout brush on them, nor should you as marble also scratches easily.

For your customer’s sake, and obviously for yours, I’d recommend you wait and get some Stone Perfect, which is the best product I’ve ever used for cleaning marble and other natural stone.

Dan, I also need to caution you that what sometimes looks like “dirty marble” is really scratched marble.  Those small scratches are not always evident as scratches, but when you are done cleaning the marble may look just as dirty.

That said, the Stone Perfect, applied with a clean (not a bit of grit in it) soft brush will clean the grout lines beautifully. Dan, we have some new sales help for you also! Stone Care Solutions from Bridgepoint is has created two short sales videos to help you sell your stone cleaning and polishing services. You can get this DVD for FREE free with the purchase of any set of the Stone Care pads. 5,7,17, or 20”.

Click Here to see a short video for some super information you will like!

Jim

FAQs – Dull & Hazy Marble

Question –
Hey Jim,

I just cleaned some white marble, and it looks clean, but the traffic areas look dull and hazy, what do you have to clean that?
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Answer –
Good observation!

Those hazy areas are not likely dirt, but instead scratches where the tracked in gritty soil has damaged the marble.  No matter how much cleaning that you do, you can’t fix those scratches without polishing the marble.

Depending on the depth of the scratches, you’ll either need to use industrial diamonds and a weighted scrubber, or at least the Spinergy pad system. Also, advise your customer that the higher the shine that they require, the more often you’ll be back polishing out the scratches.

Simply put:
Marble in an ancient temple in Europe is white, but not reflective (sort of like chalk).  That flat finish will not show scratches.   If they want the marble to make a mirror type reflection, it can possibly show scratches in days.

FAQs – Paste Wax on Old Wood Floor

Question -
Morning,

I was looking over your website & I have a few questions about the Bridgepoint Wood Floor Systems.

I have an older hardwood floor in a nursing home. They have preferred it to be top coated with a paste wax for the urethane.

It has become increasingly harder to find the paste wax. I particularly do not like it as it doesn’t take too much traffic to really dig into the paste wax.

My question being…would it be possible to clean the floor, use a maroon pad to clean and rough up what is left of that paste wax and then apply a Bridgepoint finish? My fear would be trying to get all that old paste wax off with mineral spirits.

Thanks for your help.

We appreciate your interest in our product line, but in this case must let you know that our Bridgepoint Wood Floor Systems will not be of any help to you.

Paste wax, once applied to a wood floor, makes our system unusable. No matter how much scrubbing and stripping that you do, the residues of that paste wax will keep the finish from adhering, and it will peel off like skin after a sunburn.

Your only option is to have the floor sanded and a fresh coat of polyurethane finish applied by a wood floor restoration specialist.

Again, thank you for your interest in our products. We hope you’ll try some of our carpet cleaners, spotters, and deodorizers some time when the need arises.

Jim Pemberton

FAQs – Specialty Antique Brick Floor

Q – Jim,

I have a valuable customer who purchases quite a few services from us each year.

We clean thousands of $$ worth of Orientals each year, and just completed a $2,000 duct job for her.

She has a kitchen floor that is constructed using the bricks of demolished French Cottages. The grout is mortar. The bricks are red. She thinks they were sealed when installed 10 or so years ago.

Your thoughts on cleaning this stuff, please.

Secondly. I have a question regarding successful commercial tile and grout cleaning being done. Is anyone using high speed t&g equipment? (Seems I recall seeing a dual head spinner somewhere).

Thanks
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A – Customers like her make up for the nickle and dime ones who demand champagne service for beer pricing.

Your should be able to clean the brick just like ceramic tile. Here is my only concern: Efflorescence. Do you remember the grout lines in the assembly hall you and I worked on where we needed acid to correct the white haze in the grout?

Some types of brick do that all over the brick, not the grout. No real way to know ahead of time.

So I’d look at trying to first clean it with a milder tile product (Spinergy 7) and a floor scrubber, followed by a clear water rinse with your SX12. If the brick is very uneven, it may need wet vacuumed with a floor attachment with a flexible squeegee head.

If that doesn’t clean it, prespray with Spinergy 11, but do not allow more than about 5 minutes of dwell time before rinsing in the same fashion with the SX12, but now you can run Spinergy 7 through the machine.

If there is any efflorescence after it dries, try to remove it dry with a green pad run “dry” on a scrubber. If that doesn’t work, try Viper Renew, but pretest to make sure it doesn’t etch the brick so badly that it gets a washed out look.

Obviously you want a release.

We have nothing larger for T & G cleaning. If there is, be aware of the need to limit jet size so that you don’t get pressure and volume loss on your machine.

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Q – Jim,

The “dry green pad” is totally new to me. Can you elaborate on that. Also, what else are green pads used for. How are they as to aggressiveness compared to other colored pads.

Thanks

A – The green pad is usually used for scrubbing of tile floors without stripping. Both it and the slightly less aggressive blue pad are used for this purpose. The next more aggressive is the brown pad for light stripping. The next less aggressive (after blue) is the red pad.

Using the green pad “dry” simply means you apply no moisture to the surface, but just use the pad to aggressively brush off the mineral residue. By adding no water, you don’t get any more efflorescence.

FAQs – Tile & Grout Question

Q: Hey Jim,
I have 300 SQ ft of tile I need to clean and was looking at the Viper Venom. Is one gallon enough and do you sell a sealer too? Is there free shipping if you exceed a certain dollar purchase amount?

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A: Good choice Joe,
Viper Venom has a variety of dilutions according to soil level. At its strongest, a 50/50 dilution, 1 gallon will still be plenty for 300 square feet. By the way, what method of cleaning will you be using for cleaning the tile and grout?
And, yes we do offer sealers as well: just go to . . .
http://pembertonstore.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&keyword=grout+sealer

You will find a number of products listed; I recommend the Hydroforce Grout Sealer (despite its name, it seals tile and stone as well).

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Q: Hey Jim,
I have a small tile cleaner machine I bought from Lowes. Will this type of unit be able to handle this type of solution? I have six properties and Coit showed me this product and I thought I would give it a try since all the other solutions I have used so far have been sub-par to date. What sealer would you recommend after using this type of cleaning product?

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A: Joe,
Viper Venom has been formulated to be used with high pressure extraction, which requires equipment that generates 800 pounds of water pressure per square inch at a minimum.

A word of caution regarding your tile cleaner, I have reason to doubt that the system you bought at Lowes can produce the pressure & water volume needed to achieve the results you want.

I’m not convinced that Viper Venom will be able to help to restore your grout with the type of application equipment you presently own.

You are welcome, of course, to try the product, but I cannot guarantee that you will be happy with the result.

Again, the sealer I recommend is Hydroforce Grout Sealer.

FAQs – Tile & Grout Questions

Q – Listen Jim, is the SX-12 a good machine?
A – Yes, the SX-12 HARD SURFACE TOOL can be an excellent accessory to a heavy duty, high pressure portable or a truckmounted system. In fact it is the latest technology for cleaning tile and grout!
It works with an easy front-to-back and side-to-side motion, it even works on uneven stone, tile surfaces & smooth concrete. It is light-weight and I find it non-fatiguing: as it glides so easily over the floor.

Q – Jim, what kind of pressure do you need to operate it?
A – 800 psi. The SX-12 blasts soil and dirt from tile, grout, and smooth or rough hard surfaces. The rotary arm spins to create amazing soil blasting power working from 700 to 2,000 psi while the vacuum ports pick up all the waste. The SX-12 is ready to work with truckmount or heavy duty, high pressure portable carpet machines, pressure washers and vac systems.

Q – I am just wondering because I am starting to do work for a local company who installs tile and I might want that in the near future.
A – Tile and grout cleaning is very profitable. You’d be better to use a truck mounted unit, or a portable designed for the purpose. The portable units are very heavy, though.

Slate floors

Within the past few months, I’ve fielded over a dozen calls or emails about how to clean or (more accurately) restore slate floors. I hadn’t had this many request for slate floor restoration in the past several years, so I wondered why I’m having so many now.

I think I know.

Here in the Pittsburgh area, many homes were built with slate foyers in the 60′s and early 70′s. People cleaned them the best they could, and often put floor finish on them to give the stone some shine. Years of VCT floor finish application (not a recommended practice) eventually leave these floors even more dull, and sometimes yellowed.

The reason people seem to be wanting to have these floors cleaned is likely because they either have decided to stay in their home longer than they expected, or because of falling home values they are trying to “spruce up the house” and know that a dull, discolored entry area creates a negative first impression.

I think this is a good sign for our industry. First, its a service that you should be providing (I’ll give you some tips in my next blog entry), and second, even if you don’t choose to restore slate, it proves that people are finally moving into the “clean rather than replace” psychology that usually goes with an economy in recession.

What services do you offer that can help to make your customer’s home more pleasant in which to live, or will make the home have the most possible value when its up for sale or rent?