How To Clean Terrazzo Floors

In the most general terms, there are two different types or processes for cleaning terrazzo floors. The first and most common is what we call “Maintenance Cleaning” or light cleaning. This is a regular cleaning process (ie daily or weekly) and is designed to maintain a good level of floor hygiene and appearance. The second type of floor cleaning is referred to as “Deep Cleaning”, where you apply a more intensive process to achieve a substantial improvement in floor appearance.

In the case of terrazzo floors, this may also involve either scrubbing back to partially remove a topical sealer from the floor, or the more intensive process of stripping which involved completely stripping the floor of floor sealer. The stripping process is not covered in this article.

Here we break down these two types of floor cleaning. We have focused on cleaning with the i-mop, however you could apply these steps with most types of floor cleaning machines.

Read about the differences between squeegee rubber types.

Maintenance cleaning:

1. Dust mop or sweep floor to remove dust, hair and debris.

2. Use safety signage to warn passers by that cleaning is in progress and floors may be slippery.

3. Fill i-mop solution tank with water

4. If required, add chemicals.

(Note: Unless your floor is particularly dirty, we recommend only adding chemical every second time you clean your floor. Regular cleaning with just water helps ensure you avoid soil-attracting chemical residue build-up):

4.1 Insert the appropriate i-dose pod into the i-dose chamber:

4.1.1 Bathroom floors: use i-dose E33 Washroom cleaner (Pink)\ ii. Kitchen or workshop floors: use i-dose E73 Degreaser (Green)\ iii. General areas: use i-dose E33 Sanitary Floor cleaner (Blue)

4.2 Press i-dose injector button to dispense chemical into tank.

4.3 If you do not have an i-dose tank, manually dilute chemical into i-mop tank according to chemical manufacturer's recommendations.

5. Select and attach brushes. Refer to the i-mop Accessories Guide for further information on brush options, however the most common brushes for cleaning terrazzo are;

5.1 For best results, use pad drives with Green Twister pads on the i-mop. Alternatively, red pads can be used.

5.2 If pad drives/pads are not available or on rough, dull terrazzo floors, use the regular blue brushes.

6. Lower the i-mop deck and turn i-mop control knob to normal cleaning mode (brush, water & vacuum) to begin cleaning the floor. Refer to our Operator Training Video for detailed Operator instructions. For maximum efficiency, cleaning in long straight lines, overlapping slightly.

7. Anytime you need to refill the solution tank, ensure you empty the recovery tank.

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Deep cleaning: terrazzo floors

1. For best results we strongly recommend you have a Deep Scrub Bracket fitted to your i-mop (only available for i-mop xl/xxl).

2. Dust mop or sweep floor to remove dust, hair and debris.

3. Use safety signage to warn passers by that cleaning is in progress and floors may be slippery.

4. Fill i-mop solution tank with water:

4.1 Insert the appropriate i-dose pod into the i-dose chamber:

4.1.1 Bathroom floors: use i-dose E33 Washroom cleaner (Pink)\ ii. Kitchen or workshop floors: use i-dose E73 Degreaser (Green)\ iii. General areas: use i-dose E33 Sanitary Floor cleaner (Blue)

4.2 Press i-dose injector button to dispense chemical into tank.

4.3 If you do not have an i-dose tank, manually dilute chemical into i-mop tank according to chemical manufacturer's recommendations.

5. Select and attach brushes. Refer to our Accessories Guide for further information on brush options, however the most common brushes for deep cleaning terrazzo are;

5.1 For best results use pad drives with blue pads on the i-mop. Alternatively, green pads can be used.

5.2 If pad drives/pads are not available or on rough, dull terrazzo floors, use the regular blue brushes.

6. Ensure scrub bracket is lowered to lift the squeegee off the floor.

7. Lower i-mop deck and turn i-mop control knob to deep scrub cleaning mode (brush & water, no vacuum). Refer to our Operator Training Video for detailed Operator instructions.

8. Begin scrubbing the floor, ensuring enough chemical is applied to keep the floor wet for at least 5 minutes. It is recommended to deep clean the floor in sections of no more than 20-30 sqm at a time.

9. Once you have sufficient chemical on the floor you can switch to scrub only mode and continue agitation, ensuring floor does not dry out. Switch to brush & water mode again if floor is drying out.

10. For best results give chemical at least 10 minutes of dwell time and complete at least 2 scrub passes over each section of floor.

11. When you are ready to extract soiling, raise the scrub bracket so the i-mop squeegee is in full contact with the floor. Switch i-mop to brush/vacuum or brush/water/vacuum mode.

12. Remove soiling from the floor by cleaning the entire tiled floor as you would for a regular maintenance clean.

13. Important: If you have refilled your solution tank with more cleaning solution while scrubbing, remember that you will have to empty your recovery tank partway through to ensure it does not over-fill.

14. It would be normal when deep cleaning or “scrubbing back” sealed terrazzo to at the very least buff the floor after you have completed the scrub, and in some cases you may also want to reapply several coats of sealer to the floor in order to improve gloss levels.

Watch the video below to see how to use the i-mop for deep cleaning: