Keeping the mats clean

[Jen Thomas]

Just opened my doors the first week of January and have noticed an issue with cleaning my flooring (horse mats) and being able to get all of the body oils off of them from the sweat. I'm currently just using pine sol...any tricks/products to help with this?
It sucks that I spend my time trying like hell to keep my floors clean but they still look kind of gross even after mopping.

Thanks.

[Brian Strump]

Originally Posted by Jen Thomas

Just opened my doors the first week of January and have noticed an issue with cleaning my flooring (horse mats) and being able to get all of the body oils off of them from the sweat. I'm currently just using pine sol...any tricks/products to help with this?
It sucks that I spend my time trying like hell to keep my floors clean but they still look kind of gross even after mopping.

Thanks.

If you're a neat freak or germaphobe, you shouldn't have opened a gym.

Use the search function, there are a few posts about what others do. We just blow with leaf blower and then mob.

[Sean Dunston]

Prior to having anyone workout on them, we used a sealer.
I put down 3 coats - the first 2 with a mop, then I got smart and used a roller.
Now I use a vacuum to get up te bits of chalk and dirt that people track in, and then I mop with warm water and an anti-bacterial soap.
No big deal - takes about an hour to thoroughly vacuum and mop at the end of the night.

[Jen Thomas]

Not a neat freak, thanks. Just don't want the place looking like I never clean the floor due to stains of sweat on the floor.

[Brian Strump]

Originally Posted by Jen Thomas

Not a neat freak, thanks. Just don't want the place looking like I never clean the floor due to stains of sweat on the floor.

Easy, it was a joke. There is no easy way to clean them. If you've got $2000 to spare, there are some threads on push scrubbers that many have given great feedback.

[Tricia Magrini]

Hey Jen,
I didn't really experience the residue that you are talking about to be honest. Since you just opened you can set the standard to have folks remove their trail of sweat. I keep clorox/lysol wipes right out in the open and will hand one to someone if they don't look inclined to wipe up their sweat. Helps to keep things sanitary and requires less mopping.

[Casey Jenks]

leafblower + vacuum, and then mop w/ hot water & disinfectant soap.

[Rich Case]

Can you give examples of what brand cleaner you use? I typically use simple green or just something like dawn dish detergent. Anyone have good luck with a specific cleaner?

[Tricia Magrini]

Originally Posted by Rich Case

Can you give examples of what brand cleaner you use? I typically use simple green or just something like dawn dish detergent. Anyone have good luck with a specific cleaner?

I use Simple Green Professional. It is a disinfectant/fungicidal/virucidal cleaner. Staph and ringworm are crazy contagious so I would definitely recommend something like this over just soap.

[Joseph Vaughn]

One of the best things I have bought was our floor scrubber. I got it on Craigslist for $300 bucks. It's a machine that has four major parts:

Clean water tank
Dirty Water Tank
Vacum
and Scrub brush.

The machine drops clean water with soap on the floor, the brush spins pulling up the oils and chalk, then the vac sucks up the gunk and dirty water. This is especially important since my dog is here everyday and sheds quite a bit.

It takes me about 15 minutes to do 3000 sq ft.

Mine is a little smaller than this one: http://www.windsorind.com/Products.aspx?Pid=1 (WORK SAFE)

Joe