Whether your epoxy floors are in your living room, throughout your home, or in your garage, epoxy flooring is super simple and easy to clean. Many businesses use epoxy flooring in their warehouses because it is so easy to maintenance and keep clean with minimal effort. Over the years epoxy flooring has become much more common in residential spaces.
What Is Epoxy Flooring?
In a nutshell epoxy flooring is concrete coated with epoxy, which in turn makes the concrete have a glossy appearance that is stunning to look at. To keep up that polished, glossy look some up keep is required.
How To Maintain Your New Epoxy Floor
There are a few steps to take when maintaining and cleaning your epoxy floors. First of all, there are certain cleaning products that are safe to use and others that can damage your epoxy flooring.
Clean Epoxy Floors With Warm Water
The best, and easiest way to clean your epoxy floors is with warm water and a sponge mop. Put some muscle into it and you’ll have a flawless looking floor.
Avoid any soap based cleaning products on epoxy flooring. Over time it can cause some serious soap build up that will be more of a hassle to clean. It will also take away from that beautiful glossy finish your epoxy floor has. The soap build up will also make the floor slippery if it gets wet, making your amazing flooring a slipping hazard.
However, if you must use a soap based product just make sure to rinse your flooring thoroughly afterwards to prevent build up and keep your floor looking shiny.
Simple Green For A Simple Clean
If you want to use a cleaning agent to clean your epoxy floors then the best cleaning products to use are either ammonia or “simple green”. Simple Green is great at cleaning up spills that have an oily texture. With ammonia you should mix a gallon of warm to hot water with one half cup of ammonia. This is a safe and effective solution to clean your floors with. Ensure you are rinsing the mop off regularly to keep it from forming streaks.
Simple green we feel is a better option if you have grease stains, embedded dirt, or hard to remove stains on your epoxy floor. It is also best to mix a gallon of warm to hot water with one half-cup simple green solution. Be careful though, if you add too much simple green solution it will leave an obvious layer of film on your flooring. If that happens just rinse the floor with plain water.
Avoid Vinegar, Citrus & Abrasive Cleaners
Whatever you do, do not use any cleaners with vinegar or citrus in them. These types of cleaners have acid in them that can destroy the glossy finish your epoxy flooring has. Items such as comet and steel wool should never be used on epoxy flooring but scrubbing pads can be, just make sure not to scrub too hard.
Sweep Epoxy Floors & Clear Debris
The second key step in keeping your epoxy floor clean is to make sure you keep the floor void of any debris or dirt. If debris and dirt are left to collect piles on the floor then over time it can actually cause scratch marks in your flooring. This is especially true in garages where cars are driving back and forth, leaving bits of debris and dirt every time they move in and out of the garage.
Furthermore, if you are moving large furniture items throughout your home and you have debris and dirt collected over the floor, then that will cause scratching as well. For most epoxy flooring a good dust mop is the way to go on clearing out any debris or dirt.
How Often Should You Clean Epoxy Floors?
Epoxy floors within the home should be cleaned about once a week but areas like a garage, where there is much more use, and much more dirt collected should be cleaned every few days.
However, with a good quality dust mop, a quick once over will do the trick in just a matter of minutes. A shop vacuum with a brush attachment is another option to quickly, and effectively clean your epoxy floors.
Use a Broom With Soft Bristles For Flake Epoxy Floors Containg more than 75% Broadcast
Moreover, if your epoxy flooring has an anti-slip aggregate (floors with flakes of over 75% broadcast) , usually found in garage epoxy flooring, then it is best to use a push broom with soft bristles. These push brooms remove the dirt on this type of flooring much easier. In addition, make sure if you have any cracks, or points where the floor conjoins, to clean them out of any debris and dirt that may get trapped in them.
Looking For A New Epoxy Floor?
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Maintaining Your Epoxy Floors
The third step in easily cleaning and maintaining your epoxy floor is to spot clean as needed. Whether you track in a bunch or dirt or spill some liquid on the floor, a quick clean up is all you need to do. With a shop vacuum you can suck up any liquid or dirt and then sweep the area.
Next, mop up with warm water and that is it. Epoxy floors are extremely water resistant but if you let a spill sit for too long it can damage the flooring. Keeping towels nearby is a great idea since you can wipe up small spills quickly.
Clean Chemical Spill From Epoxy Floors
The fourth step includes clean up instructions for spills that include various chemicals, oils, and car chemicals. This happens especially in garages. These chemicals and oils can include radiator fluid, gasoline, antifreeze, engine oil, paint, and severe household chemicals.
The best and easiest way to clean up these spills is with shop towels or paper towels. Shop towels can be found at any auto parts store and are much better at quickly cleaning up chemical spills rather then just your average paper towels. However, paper towels can do the trick if you are in a pinch, you just may need more of them.
Don’t Let Chemicals Sit
It is essential that you clean up these types of spills as quickly as possible. Most of these chemicals and oils can destroy the epoxy coating if left unattended for too long, leaving permanent stains. Overall, epoxy flooring is extremely durable and resilient, but overtime, without regular maintenance and cleaning, debris and dirt will take its toll. Most importantly, epoxy floors are one of the easiest flooring options to keep clean and are a beautiful option to make any home or garage stand out.
