Gym Floor Cleaning: How to Protect the Finish

by | Feb 4, 2015

The gym is the heart of a school. Its big expanse of hardwood floor needs to stay clean and shined for many school activities. Some school custodians rely on dust mops for gym floor cleaning. However, dust mops do nothing to remove sweat, spilled drinks, or other fluids that can build up on the floor.

Traditional mops can remove some of the soil, but they leave water standing on the wooden floor, which can soak in and damage the surface. An autoscrubber machine might seem like a good idea. But these can scrape off a tiny bit of the upper surface each time they are used on the delicate flooring. After multiple passes with this machine, your hardwood gym flooring can lose its protective finish.

In addition, the heavy weight of an autoscrubber can further damage the flooring. In order to keep your gym floor in top condition, you’ll need a system that picks up solid dirt, removes dried fluids, and doesn’t leave puddles of water on the surface.

Cleaning Gym Floors: The New Alternative

Kaivac offers an affordable gym floor cleaning machine called the AutoVac Stretch. This highly effective and sustainable system is an excellent way to clean delicate gym floors. Small in size, but big in power, the AutoVac is simple to store and small enough to get into tight corners or around barriers. The system applies cleaning solution through a microfiber application pad, spreading it on the floor. A perfectly angled squeegee removes the fluid and dissolved soil, aiming it toward a vacuum hose that removes it and stores it in a tank for disposal. The now clean floor is also perfectly dry.

A Cleaner Gym Floor That Lasts Longer

A study at the University of Massachusetts showed that during floor cleaning trials, the AutoVac removed 98.3 percent of the available soil, while a brand new microfiber mop on the same floor only removed 50.9 percent of the same soil. In addition, the microfiber mop left significant moisture on the floor, meaning you’d need to use “Wet Floor” signs in order to avoid troublesome a slip-and-fall hazards. The AutoVac, on the other hand, removed virtually every drop of moisture during its cleaning process, leaving the floor dry to the touch and safe to walk on immediately after cleaning.

The Kaivac AutoVac has been a workhorse in the custodial industry for years, cleaning hallways and cafeterias. And now with the addition of a cordless model to the AutoVac family, with a powerful battery. you can clean virtually any gym without needing recharging. No more cords means your people can clean a gym floor as fast as they can walk behind the machine, cutting down on maintenance time and leaving floors cleaner and safer.

Amy Milshtein covers design, facility management and business topics for a variety of trade publications and consumer magazines. Her work has won several awards, most recently a regional silver Azbee Award of Excellence.She lives in Portland, OR with her family and Clyde, a 15-lb tabby cat. Once an avid hiker, these days she finds herself on the less-challenging -but-still-exciting 'creaky knees' trails.
Amy Milshtein
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