3 Ways To Clean Restaurant Flooring For Immediate Results

Get Rid of Slippery Restaurant Floors

Knowing the chemistry behind products for the best results can be complicated. It's not as easy as using more product when your kitchen floors are slippery. We all are guilty of falling into the trap of, "A little good, a lot is better." 

Luckily for you, this isn't your responsibility!  As a serious provider of high-performance chemicals and a devoted service company, we are going to show you how to achieve great results for your commercial floors.

TYPES OF SOILS AND LEVELS

Soil is classified as the organic and inorganic matter on any surface that needs to be cleaned.

• Protein soils
• Fats & Natural Oils
• Mineral Deposits
• Greases lubricating oils

For all food service establishments, any remaining soils on equipment and floors can result in food safety incidents. Take a look below at the most common soil types and how your business can take action for the best results.

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Protein Soils

Protein Soils are identified as a blue or multi-colored film. In a food establishment, this is one of the most common types of soils employees will encounter.

Produced by foods such as milk, eggs, and meat, it is the carbon-nitrogen bonds (C-N) that are removed from the surface by detergents.

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Fats & Natural Oils

Fats and natural oils such as milk, poultry, meats, and terpenes adhere to surfaces. Visibly recognizable as a greasy film that typically forms as white beads is best removed with a hot alkaline solution.

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Mineral Deposits

Referred to as waterstone, milkestone, and sometimes beerstone, mineral deposits vary differently in their appearance. The deposits found, primarily near equipment utilizing water or steam, can easily be removed with an acid detergent or specific delimer.

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Greases & Lubricating Oils

Under or near equipment such as mixers and slicers can be found large amounts of black film-like lubricating greases and oils. Detergents with strong surfactants are broken down by either acids or alkali products. When washed away with water, these compounds become suspended and lifted from the surface.

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PROCEDURES

Best practices include clearing and mopping floors every day during off-hours. Unsanitary floors can lead to negative results for employees, customers, and health inspectors. Such results can easily ruin an establishment's reputation.

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Getting Started

A crucial step to any cleaning program is having access to proper cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE). Your mop and bucket should always be cleaned after each use to avoid re-soiling your floors. Using a dirty mop or bucket will reapply grease and other types of soil, making your floor worse. Follow the mentioned steps to perform a thorough cleaning.

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Step 1. Remove Debris

Begin by sweeping to remove large and small debris from your floor. We recommend using a broom with synthetic bristles. Be thorough when sweeping and reach between, under, and behind equipment.

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Step 2.  Prepare Chemical Solution

Referring to your chemical representative's instructions, begin to prepare a diluted solution of the chemical product required. Every application can differ depending on soil levels, soil types, and floor types. Below you can find three liquid products offered by ACS that handle most applications. You chemical representative should adjust your dispenser to ensure the suggested amount of chemical is received.

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 Step 3.  Apply Solution to Floor

With your recommended diluted solution, apply liberally to the floor with a mop or sprayer. Allow the chemical product to dwell and activate with soil levels. For the best results, allow the full amount of time suggested on the label.

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Step 4.  Agitate the Floor

Using a deck brush, agitate the solution working the chemical solution into the grout. Grout is a porous material that can easily trap grease and continually produce bacteria. Allowing your solution to penetrate soil levels followed by agitation with a stiff deck brush will help remove embedded grease.

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Step 5. Remove Solution

Remove any excess solution by pushing the product towards your floor's drain with a squeegee. 

Continue to remove any excess water and solution by using a clean mop. In a figure 8 motion, work in small sections flipping your mop halfway through. 

Be sure to use a clean mop and bucket to remove as much soil and grease as possible.

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Step 6. Allow Floor to Dry

Once you have successfully removed the excess water and solution, the floor has to dry. You can either allow the floor to air dry or take a manual approach. You can manually speed up the drying time with a dry mop or air blower

As slip and fall accidents are a top liability for restaurants, be sure to notify guests and employees when floors are wet. We recommend performing floor cleaning operations during the off hours to further limit an accident. 

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For All Surfaces & Daily Use

Using a Natural Citrus Solvent water-based product can be a great way to achieve results for your Daily Cleaning Operation. A product like Citrus Sol is a perfect non-toxic cleaner degreaser that eliminates soils, without the use of harsh solvents, and deodorizes leaving a fresh scent.

A Safe Solution On All Surfaces

A natural cleaner degreaser is typically recognized as a neutral product. This means it has a neutral pH balance between 6-8 and is considered to be a safer solution for people and surfaces. Since products like Citra Sol contain no butyl or similar types of solvents, no harsh fumes are created when using this product. A neutral pH solution will keep surfaces clean without stripping or damaging floor coatings, which is important for wood or VCT flooring (Commercial Vinyl Composite Tile). In addition to the superior cleaning capability, the natural citrus solvent ingredients deodorize as you clean.

Key Benefits In Using a Neutral Citrus Cleaner

• Non-Butyl
• Non-Fuming
• Non-Corrosive
• Safer on Surfaces
• Easy to Use

How To Use Citra Sol For Better Results

GENERAL CLEANING:

1. Dilute at 1 to 8 ounces per gallon of water, depending on soil conditions.
2. Apply solution liberally onto floor surface with a mop and allow the solution to stand on floor surface until solution penetrates soils
3. Agitate floor surface with a mop using a figure 8 motion.
4. For heavily soiled areas use a deck brush or machine scrub as needed (depending on floor type).
5. Squeegee excess solution toward the floor drain.
6. Rinse floor and remove excess water

HEAVY DUTY CLEANING:

1. Dilute at 1:10 to 1:4 with warm water.
2. Follow previous steps 2-6.

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Into The Future With Bio Active Enzymes

Utilizing the latest cleaning technology, try a product that employs bioactive enzymes to digest oils and food soils without the use of harsh caustic chemicals.

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The Best Solution For Quarry Tile

This new generation foaming cleaner and degreaser is specifically designed for use on quarry tile floors. A product like Easy Clean has powerful surfactants and builders help penetrate the pores in quarry tile, terrazzo, marble, and grout, carrying the bioactive enzymes along to accelerate cleaning. The bioactive enzymes eat away at organic soils to reduce slippage, provide positive tractions, and in turn make a safer work environment.

As an added benefit, as the excess product is flushed down the drain, the bioactive enzymes go to work on soils and greases present in the drain.

Key Benefits In Using Bio Active Enzymes

• No Harsh Caustics
• Concentrated Surfactants
• Improves Traction
• Brightens Grout Lines
• No Rinse Formula

How To Use Easy Clean For Better Results

Using a Bioactive Enzyme Floor Cleaner such as Easy Clean can provide huge labor saving benefits. Don't be surprised if using this product cuts your cleaning time in half. [For daily cleaning of quarry tile or another porous flooring]

1. Dilute one ounce of product per gallon of warm water.
2. Apply solution liberally onto floor surface with a mop and allow the solution to stand on floor surface until solution penetrates soils.
3. Agitate floor surface with a mop using a figure 8 motion.
4. For heavily soiled areas use a deck brush or machine scrub as needed.
5. Squeegee excess solution toward the floor drain.
6. Discard mop water down drains to reduce grease build-up and eliminate odors.

And that's it, no need to rinse again.

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Covering Organic & Inorganic Soils

Using a high strength alkaline solvent degreaser will help clean floors that experience a combination of soils - soils including Lubricating Greases/Oils and Fats/Natural oils. A product such as Stout incorporates advanced concepts in chemical soil removal to remove a wide range of soils. Safe for use on detergent resistant surfaces, a high alkaline solvent degreaser makes fast work of even the toughest cleaning tasks.

Key Benefits In Alkaline Solvent Degreasers

• Multi-Purpose
• Easy to Use
• Corrosion Inhibited
• Safer on Surfaces
• Removes Soils Fast

How To Use Stout For Better Results

Stout is a versatile and multi-use product that is perfect for kitchens that create a buildup of soils - specifically grease and oils. It can be used on floors, surfaces, and to clean solidified grease buildup in fryers and kitchen hoods. Check out ReadyChem Stout for a ready to use pre-solution.

GENERAL CLEANING:

1. Dilute at 1:10 to 1:50 ounces per gallon of water, depending on soil conditions.
2. Apply solution liberally onto floor surface with a mop and allow the solution to stand on floor surface until solution penetrates soils.
3. Agitate floor surface with a mop using a figure 8 motion.
4. For heavily soiled areas use a deck brush or machine scrub as needed (depending on floor type).
5. Squeegee excess solution toward the floor drain.
6. Rinse floor and remove excess water

HEAVY DUTY CLEANING:

1. Dilute at 1:2 to 1:10 with warm water.
2. Follow previous steps 2-6.

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Local Chemical & Service Professionals

Think your ready to upgrade your service and chemical professionals? Advanced Chemical Solutions provides a complete range of high-performance floor-care products needed for cleaning and preserving commercial flooring. Every application is different, and you need a product to match that application. Our inventory provides options from light or neutral cleaners to heavy-duty and industrial strength degreasers.  

Our products are dispensed accurately by innovative dispensing equipment from leading manufacturers. ACS techs are trained and knowledgeable on dilution rates and service solutions. Contact our main office or speak with your local ACS representative about upgrading your chemical service.

Head over to our resource center for more in-depth technical product information.