Cleaning concrete floors is one of the mundane tasks of keeping up any concrete floor space. While you may not notice beforehand that it needs to be cleaned, after the process is over you will notice a fresh, new appearance. Read on to find out more about general cleaning tips as well as stubborn stain removals, too.
If your concrete floor has just a bit of surface dirt, chances are that a soft and nonmetallic brush and a bit of water should do the job. If it is a bit more than that, you can take a pail of soapy water to try to handle the grime. These ingredients should handle most dirty concrete floors.
For unsealed floors, some stains can be fairly difficult to get out. For example, grease stains are one of the toughest to get rid of. One of the best ways to remove a grease stain is by taking a stiff, wire brush and scrubbing with hot soapy water. This procedure, if done long enough and hard enough, should remove the grease spot from the concrete at least partially. If the stain is not grease-related, you can use a mixture of soapy water and ammonia to bleach the concrete into a state of shiny whiteness.
Sealed and polished floors are much easier to maintain. While they are usually stain resistant, they can absorb stains if the stain is left on the concrete long enough. Because of this, be sure to wipe up spills quickly after they happen. As long as you can do this, these floors are fairly easy to maintain. They basically need only a quick sweep and sometimes a mopping with soapy water to keep them in pristine condition. To be sure that you are leaving no streaks of dirty water behind, wash your floor in small sections. Mop, rinse out the mop head, rinse, and repeat in the next section. Using this basic procedure will keep your floor streak-free and shiny.
If you have a polished concrete floor, you can purchase special products that are designed to clean the floor and shine it in the same mopping pass. They eliminate the need to buff the floor and can easily help you cut down on time while keeping your floors looking fantastic. If you decide not to use these kinds of products, you can always rent a high-speed buffer machine that will put the shine back in your floors with just a little extra effort.
For garage floors, you will generally need to power-spray the floor after you have swept off all the dirt and debris. Most home improvement stores have garage floor cleaners that can be applied to get the floor as clean as possible.
How to clean concrete floors varies based on the kind of floor that you have. Most floors look wonderful after a quick scrubbing with a simple soap and water mixture. Sometimes a special product is needed to help out with extra stubborn stains or with grease spots; other times, a cleaner with extra buffing power may be just what you need to get that floor super shiny and super clean.
