Welcome to our complete guide on how to clean epoxy floors! If you have epoxy floors in your house, you know how important it is to clean & maintain epoxy floors. Epoxy flooring is in trend for tons of reasons.
Epoxy flooring has tremendous advantages that make it a go-to- choice for residential and commercial property owners, the best reasons are its affordability and durability. An epoxy floor coating can last for as long as a decade and even more, if maintained and taken care of properly.
So do you also use epoxy floor coatings for your home or industry space? If yes, then here are some everyday epoxy floor maintenance tips and care procedures for the particular flooring system that you have to carry out according to our epoxy flooring San Diego experts. But not a lot of people know how to clean epoxy floors. Everybody wants a clean epoxy garage floor but does not know the best way to clean epoxy floors. Once you know how to clean epoxy floors by using appropriate floor cleaners, you get a super shiny and tidy Epoxy floor.
It is critical to get it right, especially when it comes to maintaining epoxy garage floors. These are just some reasons why you must be keen on ensuring proper care for your epoxy floors. There are some simple maintenance tips on how to clean a floor with epoxy coating. You can use these epoxy floor maintenance tips to clean epoxy garage floors or clean epoxy floors in general.
Cleaning epoxy floors is not hard. They are generally considered easy to clean and maintain. Because of its smooth and seamless surface, dirt, spills, and stains can’t penetrate it and become trapped on its surface. Regular sweeping or vacuuming is enough to remove loose debris in most cases. With routine care and proper attention, epoxy floors can maintain their durability and glossy finish for many years.
Though epoxy floors are easy to clean, certain factors can affect cleaning epoxy floors. The amount of foot traffic, the type of stains, and the quality of epoxy coating can make the process challenging. Heavy foot traffic areas may need more repeated cleaning to maintain their appearance and keep them shiny. Hard stains and chemical spills require specific cleaning solutions suggested by a professional epoxy flooring company or epoxy floor cleaners. Now, let’s discuss how to clean epoxy floors and properly maintain them.
Cleaning epoxy floors is not an easy job. It requires proper attention and the use of proper cleaning agents to preserve the durability and appearance of epoxy floors. Here are some common cleaning challenges related to cleaning epoxy floors:
Epoxy floors are generally resistant to stains, but certain chemicals and grease can still cause discoloration if not looked after. So proper cleaning of spills and stains is required to prevent them from penetrating the epoxy surface.
Epoxy floors can gather dust, dirt, and debris over time, especially in areas with high traffic. So, regular sweeping or vacuuming is important to remove these particles that may cause scratches on the surface or degrade the floor’s shiny and smooth look.
Epoxy flooring is a popular choice in garages and showrooms where tire marks can be a common issue. The tires of vehicles can leave ugly marks on the surface. Regular sweeping, mopping, and special cleaners are required to remove these tire marks.
Epoxy floors are generally resistant to a wide range of chemicals, but certain highly acidic substances can still cause damage or discoloration on your floor. That’s why it’s essential to follow the flooring company’s guidelines and use appropriate cleaning agents to avoid these problems.
Epoxy floors can have different textures, like smooth, glossy, or anti-slip finishes. Smooth and glossy surfaces are easier to clean compared to anti-slip finishes. The anti-slip surfaces with more texture require additional detail and effort while cleaning.
Cleaning epoxy floors is not difficult; a gallon of hot water and a soft cloth is the best way to clean epoxy floors when you are cleaning regularly. Cleaning epoxy floors should not be a headache if done properly. Different floors need different cleaning techniques and maintenance protocols to maintain their life, appearance, and performance.
Your floor coating installer can also provide specific methods and procedures for maintaining a particular floor system. However, these tips include the best way to clean epoxy floors. Here are the tips on how to clean epoxy floors:
Let’s discuss each of these points briefly:
It is recommended that you use a mechanized sweeper or a broom with soft bristles to clean the space and prevent hazards at the same time. Sweeping will also ensure durability, so it is a simple way of maintaining epoxy floors. Sweeping your floors daily will ensure that dirt and dust do not pile up and you’ll have a clean epoxy floor. Sweeping is an easy and one of the best ways to clean epoxy floors. Cleaning epoxy floors with a broom are easy due to their texture.
Apart from sweeping daily, it would be best if you also mopped your epoxy floors every week, depending on traffic. If many people walk on it every day, you should mop at least once every other day. Thoroughly mop all the areas while paying closer attention to areas where there’s high traffic. You can use a soft scrub pad or a mechanized floor scrubber with soft bristles to ensure it is completely clean. Cleaning epoxy floors isn’t that hard. Cleaning them with a mop and hot water will ensure that any residual on the floor is washed off, leaving you with a clean epoxy floor surface.
Spills should be cleaned as soon as they occur, as they could be hazardous and very slippery, as is the case with epoxy floors. There are some simple solutions to make your epoxy floor not slippery. It can also potentially damage the floor if the spilled substance is corrosive, such as acids and harsh solvents.
Use appropriate epoxy floor cleaners that are suitable for your type of epoxy coating to clean the floor. Leaving spills for too long will invite risks of having a slippery floor as well as stain spots on the floor. If you want to clean epoxy garage floors, it is very necessary to clean oil and grease spills immediately.
While some good-quality epoxy floors may have higher resistance to scratch and puncturing, it is still absolutely necessary that you take the proper steps to ensure it is not scratched at all.
Do not slide objects over it that may puncture the floor coating. Liquids can get scratched and further damage the floor. Keep the epoxy surfaces dirt and grit-free as much as you can. This goes especially for the times when you are moving machinery or vehicles on and off the floor. Dirt and grit will embed or scratch your epoxy floor surface if you let them stay there. So, make sure to use a broom to sweep and a mop to wash down the floor for cleaning epoxy floors.
In general, epoxy floor coatings can take many scratches before they start to show any damage. However, we recommend that you remove all sand or dirt on a regular basis. The most efficient way to do that is to use a shop vacuum with a soft brush attachment. How often you vacuum depends on how much dirt and grit end up on your epoxy floor.
A garage is a place in which there are chances of dropping heavy metal tools into the floor. When you need to move heavy machinery across your garage floor or heavy objects in your home, take extra precautions not to damage the floor surface, and always try to ensure the epoxy floor surface is dust and grit-free.
To learn how to clean epoxy floors thoroughly, you must learn how to remove stains from epoxy floors. If you get good-quality epoxy, it is highly unlikely that it will ever get stained in comparison with other floor coverings. If your flooring is stained, take action as soon as you notice this, and treat it before it sets in.
Epoxy floor coatings are highly water-resistant and very easy to clean when liquid or chemical spills occur. You do need to pick up any spilled liquid as soon as possible.
For filthy spots, you must avoid using soap-based products for cleaning epoxy floors. Soap-based floor cleaners leave a haze on the epoxy flooring, which will build up over time. Epoxy floors do not need soap: a gallon of hot water and a good mop or deck-scrubbing brush with soft bristles will do the job just fine.
If you need extra scrubbing power on filthy areas, use very soft soap and a well-diluted soapy solution to aid you with the tougher spills. Hence, these are epoxy floor cleaning solutions. Here’s what will happen if you do not maintain your epoxy floor regularly and with due diligence:
Learning how to clean epoxy floors is not enough, so let’s understand what makes your epoxy floors look dull. Your Epoxy garage floor has lost its shine and is looking dull. This is really frustrating because no one really likes dull-looking garage floors. You must be wondering what is it that made your epoxy floors lose their shine. Well, there are certain reasons that may have led your floor to lose its shine. The things that will make your epoxy garage flodor look dull are:
Lack of cleaning epoxy garage floor is one of the biggest reasons that it loses its shine. This one is a no-brainer. If you are not cleaning epoxy garage floors regularly, they will look dirty and hence not shiny. The dirt and dust pile up for months which covers the shiny floor below it.
If your epoxy floor is losing its shine very soon from the time of installation, it is likely the floor coating used during the process is of low quality or may have been very poorly installed. The low quality of epoxy coatings isn’t very good. They aren’t shiny or durable compared to high-quality epoxy coatings. So, the use of low-quality epoxy floor coatings may be the reason behind your floor losing its shine.
Our garage floors go through lots of abuse over the years. Heavy vehicles driving in and out of the garage. Heavy tools dropping. Cracks due to sharp objects. Grease spills, oil spills, and other chemical spills. All these things take a toll on the epoxy garage floor coatings which leads to fading of the shine of the garage floor. Also, the low-quality epoxy cannot take such a toll and gives up very soon.
Soap-based cleaners are bad for your epoxy floors. What happens is, that during cleaning, some of the residues of soap remain on the surface of the epoxy floor. When the floor dries, that residue of soap forms patterns and signs on the floor surface. This hides the shiny layer of epoxy below. Also, citrus-based cleaners react with the epoxy, and the shine and glossy finish of the epoxy starts fading away.
Epoxy floors are mostly used in garage floors. Cleaning epoxy garage floor is equally important. Tire marks can become a big issue when you have low-quality floors in your garage or driveway. But, with very little work this will never be an issue on epoxy floors. Even if you haven’t cleaned the tire marks for a while, you can remove them afterward.
The best way to remove tire marks from epoxy floors is by using dish detergent. You have to mix dish detergent with 1 gallon of water and apply it to the spot where there are tire marks. After applying the mixture clean the floor with the rough side of the sponge. You need to be careful when using dish detergent because it can leave a slippery residue. So, you have to wash the floors properly before completing the cleaning process.
It’s best to clean the tire marks as quickly as possible to make your job easy. The best thing about the epoxy floor is that you don’t need strong chemicals to remove even massive tire marks.
Now that we know what makes the epoxy floor look dull and lose its shine, we will discuss how to keep epoxy floors shiny. There are a few ways you can maintain the shine in your epoxy floors for years.
Cleaning the epoxy floor is the easiest way to ensure the shine of the floor. It’s just that dust and dirt are what make epoxy lose its shine. It’s just the same with everything, you need to keep things clean for them to look shiny. Hence keeping the floors clean will maintain their shine. Just make sure not to use soap-based or citrus-based cleaners.
If your epoxy floor is pretty much worn out, it is better to apply a clear top coat. Sometimes the epoxy floor goes through a lot and the shine cannot be restored by simply cleaning the floors. You have to apply a clear top coat. This will ensure that the cracks are filled again and the shine is back after the top coat dries.
A low-quality epoxy floor coating will not ensure durability and shine for years. They start to crack and fade very soon. So, in order to get shiny epoxy for a long time, you need to make sure that you use good-quality epoxy coatings during the installation. Good quality epoxy coatings when properly installed by a professional epoxy flooring company last for a long time. If properly taken care of, the epoxy floors last over 15-20 years. Hence, these are the ways to keep epoxy floors shiny.
You don’t need strong and expensive chemicals to clean epoxy-coated floors. In most cases, you don’t need any chemicals at all. But, if you last cleaned the floor a while ago or your floor sees high foot traffic daily, you need something more than hot water. Here are two of the best epoxy floor cleaners:
One of the best epoxy floor cleaning solutions is diluted ammonia. You can make the diluted Ammonia yourself at home. It is very easy to make, You simply need to put half a cup of Ammonia into a gallon of hot water to make the solution. This combination will result in a very effective epoxy floor cleaner. Using diluted ammonia is one of the best ways to clean epoxy floors.
This is the best epoxy floor cleaner that you can make at home. Or, you can simply purchase another product from the market to clean the epoxy floor.
You can purchase a cleaner named “Simple Green” from your closest supermarket.
You can simply use that by mixing it with hot water. You should use it in a ratio of 1:8, 1 part Simple green, and 8 parts of hot water. This epoxy floor cleaner is very good for floors and is industry recommended. You can choose among these two to clean your epoxy floors.
If you’re not able to clean the epoxy floors on daily basis, a deep cleaning may be required. Excessive dirt & liquid spills can pile up and create a mess that cannot be fixed with a simple cleaning.
Before the deep cleaning, make sure to remove any object present on your floor. For deep cleaning, you can use the cleaning chemicals found in the market. But, when cleaning epoxy floors, always make sure to mix them with warm water. Deep cleaning involves a lot of the same stuff. You have to wash the floor and clean it with a mop. But, it takes longer time than normal cleaning.
Another method of deep cleaning is pressure washing. When pressure washing a floor with epoxy coating, you don’t need the pressure washer to be too powerful. 1500 – 2000 PSI will be enough to clean epoxy floors. Keep the nozzle of the pressure washer close to the ground when using it on epoxy floors. Excessive pressure can be damaging to the floor.
Knowing the best epoxy floor cleaners and knowing what not to use is equally necessary. While cleaning epoxy floors, avoiding certain products that can damage the floor is essential. Here are some products you should not use when cleaning epoxy floors:
It would be best not to use a soap-based cleaner to clean your floor. The reason is that the soap-based cleaner will likely leave soap stains if not washed and cleaned properly. After drying, the residual soap will create different ugly patterns on the floor and make your floor slippery.
Citrus-based cleaner or vinger contains acids that can degrade the shine of your epoxy floor. Most cleaners come in Lemon flavors, which isn’t suitable for epoxy—the acidic solution results in fading of the glossy finish of the epoxy floors.
Enzymatic cleaners are specially made for cleaning oil residues, so they are not compatible with epoxy floors. They can break down the carbon in epoxy, which can cause long-term damage to your floor. Instead of using enzyme cleaners, you can use warm water and mild soap to clean epoxy floors.
The simple epoxy floor maintenance tips above are a guide on how to ensure the cleanliness and shine of your floors, enabling you to enjoy a beautiful, long-lasting floor. Do consider the five epoxy floor maintenance tips mentioned above for cleaning epoxy floors.
Hope the epoxy floor maintenance tips discussed above were of help to you and that now you know a lot more about how to clean epoxy floors. Do drop down your views in the comment section below! If you need epoxy flooring installation services or any type of flooring services in California, then do not forget to contact Best Coast Epoxy Coatings.
You should never use a strong chemical like bleach to clean epoxy floors. In most cases, using water is enough to clean the epoxy floor. Bleach will be more harmful than beneficial when used for cleaning epoxy floors.
Using diluted ammonia is the best way to clean epoxy garage floors. But, don’t use just ammonia to clean your garage floors.
You can use diluted ammonia or “Simple Green” cleaner to clean epoxy floors. You can make the diluted ammonia solution by mixing half cup of ammonia with a gallon of hot water.
Warm water is one of the best cleaners for epoxy floors. Using water, a mop and mild soap is the best way to wash your floor.
No, you can’t use vinegar to clean epoxy floors. Vinegar can wear away the epoxy surface, making your floor dull or discoloured. So, avoid cleaners containing vinegar or citrus.
You can follow the below methods to keep your epoxy floors shiny:
1) Clean and shine your floor
2) Apply a top coat if your epoxy floor is worn out
3) Use High-Quality Epoxy Coatings
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