What are Floor Cleaning Machines?
There comes a large variety of floor cleaning machines. It includes: buffers, cleaners, industrial vacuums, scrubbers and extractors which can deep clean just about any carpet or floor of your home or office in a much shorter time as compared to any conventional cleaning method or equipment. These machines deliver professional results while protecting and preserving the floors, thus adding to their life.
Who uses them?
Floor cleaning machines are instrumental in protecting and preserving large floor areas, carpeted or otherwise, and are vastly used in commercial buildings like gymnasiums, schools, shopping centers, hospitals, warehouses and such like. Professional cleaning companies and big business houses that have their own arrangements for cleaning employ these machines for regular cleaning and wide ranging jobs.
What are the different types of floor cleaning machines?
There is a large variety of floor machines with a host of manufacturers offering different brands with varying specifications. It helps to consult a specialist to know what kind of machine is best suited to your requirements.
You’ll find a number of machines that can be used for different applications for sizes varying from that of a small room to a large area. Depending on the requirements, you get specific machines with special features, more suited for the job at hand.
Floor finishing machines
* Buffers - Remove scratches and abrasions resulting to floors that have a smooth finish. Large propane buffers using propane as fuel are used for large industrial applications
* Sanders – used for getting rid of imperfections and splintering before finishing jobs
* Polishers – Employed for getting a glossy finish to wood flooring
* Stone and marble polishers –for refurbishing and maintenance of floors using marble, limestone, and granite
* Floor strippers – for taking out old layers of floor finish prior to application of a new coat
* Floor stripper applicators – for spreading and application of new finishes
Floor Cleaners
* Compact floor machines - Low-speed floor polishers that can easily access narrow paths and area around furniture.
* Scrubbers – These have high speed motors and provided with brushes to clean different floor surfaces.
Scrubbers can basically be classified into three categories:
1. Small scrubbers designed for baseboards or tile and grout
2. Walk-behind floor scrubbers for cleaning from 18,500 to 42,000 square feet per hour; you also get battery operated models
3. Ride-on floor scrubbers are self-driven systems working on battery, diesel, LP, or Gas, and can clean areas as large as 33,000 to 83,000 square feet per hour
* Scarifiers – They come with multiple brushes and remove stubborn oil and grease spots
* Sweepers - Gas, LP, or Diesel operate vacuums meant for large areas like manufacturing plants, parking lots, or outdoor arenas
* Tile & grout cleaners – Working on batteries these are employed for cleaning shower/locker rooms, clean restrooms, pools, windows and stairwells
Carpet Cleaning Machines
* Cleaner/extractors – They break down deep dirt and grime in carpets through a power wash and then remove the polluted fluids
* Carpet dryers – Employed for quick drying of carpets
Industrial vacuums
* Backpack vacuums – These are lightweight models to vacuum narrow spaces, leaving your arms free.
* Large area vacuums – They come with a wider base and very powerful motor for handling larger areas.
* Wet-dry vacuums – You need them for cleaning of large spills and debris.
* Touchless cleaning systems –These machines employ a blast cleaning process that enables you not to touch any dirty or contaminated area.
How to determine the size of the required machine?
You have to assess the area that is to be cleaned. Floor cleaning devices are rated on the basis of area that they can clean in a given unit of time. For example, a small domestic scrubber can very well clean the floors of your house but it won’t suffice for cleaning of say a warehouse. Moreover, you should know the size of the entrances and aisles to ascertain that the machine can approach the tighter areas. Another important determining factor is the foot traffic, meaning how frequently and how many people are using the same floor area and if they are carrying in lots of grime and dirt to your floors.
What are the other features one should look for while choosing a machine for cleaning of floor?
* Necessary features – Floor cleaning machines come with certain features that help quicker and efficient cleaning of floors. These features often add to the price of the machine but certainly deliver more productivity.
* Understand terminology –"Lightweight" doesn’t always stand for low power. Likewise, “industrial” need not necessarily point to very large machine. Rather than getting carried away by the buzzwords, understand the performance of the machine.
* Noise considerations – Some of the machines are very loud, but that doesn’t matter if they are used after office hours. However, if you intend using the machine for cleaning purposes during the working hours, you surely need to have a machine with low decibels, so that the workers are not distracted while at work.
* Combination equipment – Certain equipment is designed to do more than just cleaning operation, thus saving you from investing in multiple machines. However, it may not be worth investing in such a machine if it can’t perform more than one job effectively.
Normally, what’s the warranty period offered by the suppliers?
It depends upon the machine. Some carry a warranty period of just thirty to ninety days while others are warranted for ten years! It’ll be worthwhile to point out here that some of the mechanical parts and power supply units comprising of batteries would have significantly shorter warranty periods.
What should be the expected price?
The price varies as per your choice of equipment, meaning its size, power and the kind of fuel it needs,
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