Commercial cleaners have a lot to offer you. They have numerous services for your residential or commercial cleaning needs, making your life a lot easier than before.
When we talk about commercial cleaning, floor cleaning holds paramount importance. For your customers to visit you often and think of your business as a high-end brand, you must have a clean and nice-looking floor. However, when cleaning your floor, you may get confused between different cleaning methods such as scrubbing, buffing, polishing, or burnishing. These terms are often used interchangeably, but there is a significant difference between them.
This article discusses the difference between floor buffing and floor polishing.
Floor Buffing Vs Polishing
Floor Buffing
Floor buffing is carried out with a buffing machine. It has rotating buffer pads underneath, which constantly rotate to clean the floor. Unlike other machines that move side by side, the buffing machine goes forward and backward to clean the floor. Buffer pads take out the dirt and scuffs from the floor and add shine to them.
Floor buffing is a good practice for buildings with high foot traffic. Carrying out floor buffing once a month will keep your floors in a good-looking condition. You can perform buffing at high speeds from 1,250 RPM (Revolutions Per Minute) to 1,500 RPM and low speeds from 170-300 RPM. You can use a spray bottle to spray your cleaner on the floor. You can then buff them to clean and create shine on the floors.
There are handlebar controls that allow easy steering while buffing. It also removes the wax from the floors. Floor buffing is a slower process than floor polishing and allows for more precise cleaning.
Buffing is ideal for concrete floors as they are more prone to dirt and trapped dust. Floor buffing can clean all that trapped dirt and give a better shine to your floors of almost all types.
Floor Polishing Or Burnishing
Floor polishing is also called burnishing. This method is a faster process than floor buffing. The floor burnishers also move forth and back to clean the floors. Floor polishing optimizes the shine of the floors and gives them a more glossy outlook. Because burnishers are faster than the buffers, their speed is about 1,500 RPM to 2,500 RPM.
In the floor burnishing or polishing, you take out the outer layer to make the floor even. It then creates the shine. This means that floor polishing is limited to only adding shine to the floor.
What Is The Difference?
Both floor buffing and polishing are used for floor cleaning. Floor buffing is a more comprehensive process that involves floor cleaning and adding shine. In contrast, floor polishing is more about making the floors look shinier. Floor polishing cleans away the chips and bumps to create an even floor. However, special care should be taken, and sufficient coats of finish should be applied to avoid any permanent damage to the floor.
Type Of Floor Buffers
Different types of floor buffers are available depending on the motor type, gearbox, and size. The motor can have a horsepower of 0.5 to 1.5. Moreover, you can find single, double, and triple gearboxes. The gearbox provides stability to rotate the pads. The size of the buffers can vary between 13 to 20 inches.
Type Of Floor Burnishers
The most common size of the floor burnishers is 20 inches. Floor burnishers come with more advanced features such as automatic height adjusters, noise and dust control.
Which One Is Better?
Both floor polishing and buffing are essential for effective floor cleaning. Once you have the right kind of cleaner in your hand, you can have amazing results. However, floor buffing is better than polishing as it helps in maintaining the floor’s longevity. If you want to make your floors shiny, floor polishing might be the option for you.
Floor buffing machine
It is a machine used to clean the floor. Most of the finish will highlight the damage and imperfections of the sealant that protects your hardwood floors. You may want to polish the floor instead of polishing if the inner surface looks dull and scratched. You can also scrub floors made from other materials, such as tiles, to bring back the luster.
1. Bissell BigGreen Commercial Easy Motion Floor Pad Machine
Advantages
Easy to use
Easily polish and sand
Hardwood floors
Ideal for all types of flooring
One of the most affordable stamp machines
Dry cleans the carpet and removes allergens.
2. Low Speed Pad for Viper Cleaning Equipment
Disadvantages
Easy to use controls
Made of durable steel
Gives floors a new look
One of the best floor pads on the market
Ideal for those who want to polish their floors without leaving scratches.
3. Mercury Lo-Boy floor polishing machine
Advantages
Ideal for stripping, scrubbing and polishing all types of floors
Can also be used for dry cleaning and removing dirt from carpets
Built with a powerful 1.5 HP electric motor
Designed with a brush that rotates 145 times per minute.
Floor buffing service
Floor buffing service includes the following points:
The cleaning staff sweeps and dusts the floor to remove dirt and debris. After sweeping, we wipe the floor and let it dry completely.
Professionals choose the best upholstery and cleaning solution that suits the flooring. Linoleum, tile, and hardwood floors have unique specifications for the type of cleaning solution and pad that will work best.
Team members apply the cleaning solution to the floor and move the machine back and forth across the floor in rows.
The buffer rotates at an impressive rate. After treating the entire surface, we repeat the process in all areas that still need to be cleaned. If necessary, we also change the cleaning pads to make sure we never use a dirty or worn pad.
We repeat another sweeping and wiping to completely remove any cleaning solutions left on the surface. We can also use a wet vacuum to ensure that all traces of the cleaning solution are removed.
Businesses may request a final polish with a polishing pad to keep the surface sparkling.
Buffing tile floors
Ammonia-water mixture
Combine 1/4 cup of ammonia with 1 gallon of warm water in a bucket.
Soak a mop in the solution and wring out the excess water.
Wipe the tile floor to sanitize it.
If the tile floor contains strange yellow discoloration or mold, the ammonia will bring the tiles back to their original shine.
Buffing porcelain tiles
Porcelain tile is one of the most popular floor coverings due to its high durability, variety in terms of color and texture, and ease of maintenance. While porcelain tiles are beautiful in low-traffic areas like the bathroom, they work very well in high-traffic areas like the living room, kitchen, and patio. Cleaning porcelain tiles is a simple task that requires the right tools. Washing, wiping and buffing will keep the tile shiny and looking new for many years.
Hand polishing of porcelain tile floors is very easy with a soft cloth or porcelain tile scrubber. No polishing solution is needed when using the pads, you can scrub the tiles in a circular motion to restore their original shine. Unglazed porcelain tile will not shine in the same way as glazed porcelain tile. But it still looks bright and has a noticeable sheen.
Some places with a lot of foot traffic will bring a tile scrubber to clean and polish the porcelain tiles. Although this is useful for areas such as museums, courts, or other public areas with a large amount of coverage, But it is not recommended to polish the porcelain tile in your home, especially the glazed tile.
On the one hand, a scrubber is heavy enough to break most glazed porcelain tiles installed in kitchens and bathrooms, and it’s a good idea to avoid dragging such machines onto the surface. tile Instead, use a soft microfiber cloth or special polishing pad to scrub the tiles by hand.
Buffing marble floors
The most common marks that you will see on your marble flooring are watermarks or streaks of cleaning solution. The best way to remove them is to polish the surface with a soft, dry cloth such as a chamois leather. Use a circular motion and your floor will be shining again in no time.
To care for and maintain your marble floor, you need to understand: Marble is a natural limestone that has been transformed by heat, pressure, and time. Providing a beautiful and durable building material that results in one of the most beautiful flooring in the world. Strong and sturdy as it is, it is also very porous and stains easily.
To do this, we must first
determine if your marble is: natural or cultivated.
There are three basic methods you can use to do this all listed below.
Temperature method: put your hand on the surface. Natural marble is generally cooler to the touch than the surrounding air. Cultured marble will have roughly the same temperature as the surrounding air.
Acid method: choose an inconspicuous area; put a few drops of vinegar on the surface to be tested. If it is natural marble, you will see bubbles or fizz, immediately wipe off the vinegar with a damp cloth to avoid damage.
Scratch Method: In the same hidden spot, lightly scrape the surface with a nail. Use a magnifying glass to see if there is still a visible scratch. Natural marble is easily scratched, unlike cultured marble.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)
Q: will buffing remove scratches hardwood floor?
Clean the scratched area. Use a soft rag and some hardwood floor cleaner to make sure the floor is free of dust or dirt. … rub the scratched area with a clean, soft cloth and buff the wax. Polishing the wax will smooth the scratched area, remove excess wax and restore the shine of the floor.
Q: how long should floor wax dry before buffing?
To wax and polish, you apply the wax with a rotary polishing machine. Place a small amount of wax on the floor then buff evenly (a golf ball-sized spoonful will cover about a square meter). Leave to dry for about 30 minutes then polish until a lustrous shine is apparent.
Q: how to clean floor buffing pads?
Clean the floor cushions after each use - water to clean / polish / strip the insulation, “dust off” for dry polishing pads. Switch between several floor coverings for each cleaning task. Also, never leave a pad under a machine with its full weight on the floor. Avoid damaging the edges against shelves.
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Related: How Often Should You Clean Your Commercial Kitchen?
Conclusion
Every one likes clean and shinny floor. People want their house to look good so they keep it maintained. Floor buffing is the most important thing for the home. In today’s modern world, new tools have been invented that are very useful. New home cleaning tools are also invented that are making the life of people easy and simple. Floor buffing techniques are doing the same. It is very popular among people.
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