Description

Textured flooring can be a blend of rubber and ground cork or rubber and inert mineral filler in either sheet or tile form. These surfaces are softer than vinyl giving a flexible surface with good recovery, chemical and slip resistance. They are usually chosen because of their ability to reduce foot fatigue and to give slip resistance. The visual effect of the cork gives an eggshell textured look. The profiled tiles appear like a “chocolate block” with raised round studs.

Resurgence of Natural Floors

There has been a big swing towards natural flooring surfaces like composite rubber due to its freedom from chemicals and the leaching of VOC’s and plasticiser chemicals into the environment. These chemicals have, in the past, contributed poor indoor air quality problems from vinyl and vinyl asbestos floors. Composite rubber floors are made from renewable resources that are environmentally sustainable and free of dangerous chemicals.

Characteristics

The high rubber content gives better untreated gloss; the low porosity gives greater chemical and alkalinity than vinyl but less solvent resistance. However due to softness more scuffing problems can occur and it can be difficult to buff with UHS equipment due to heat build up and is not recommended over 1500 RPM. Without effective sealing, binding and stalling of U.H.S machinery can occur. Choose a hard finish with good adhesion, so as to resist scuffing/marking.

New floor Conditioning

Remove any factory finishes, powder or adhesive residues by scrubbing with a blue pad for textured or a medium poly brush in case of profiled using CROSSFIRE - diluted 1 to 25 parts water, followed by a fresh water rinse. Failure to prepare the floor can result in poor adhesion, less slip resistance and wear resistance of the finish coats.

Applying Sealer Finish

Refer to applying sealer finish here.

Existing coated floor surfaces

Light Soil/ Dull Finish
If appearance is yellow or the surface looks dirty a light cut back is all that may be required then buff.

Heavy Soil
If surface is dull or deeply scuffed or badly soiled and black heel marked, the sealer may have worn away. Test the floor finish by scraping with a coin to see if finish is present. A heavy cut back clean and recoat will be necessary if low finish level is indicated. (described below)

How to bring a floor to life

Textured Composite Rubber

Light Cut back
Use NEUTRACLEAN or SUPASTAR diluted 1 part to 25 parts water. Flood mop floor with solution and scrub using a red pad. Rinse floor with fresh water to remove any scum or residue. Allow floor to dry. Burnish floor either a white pad or Bassine brush or dust mop. Reapply sealer finish as required.

Heavy Cut Back / Recoat
Use CROSSFIRE cleaner dilution one part to 25 parts water. Scrub using a blue pad or medium polypropylene brush, then rinse floor with clean water. Allow floor to dry and burnish with a red pad or bassine brush (400 RPM machinery). Dust mop surface before recoating as described below.

Stripping
Stripping of composite rubber flooring with heavy duty no scrub, no rinse strippers is to be avoided due to solvents combined with alkalis attacking the surface. Black and brown pads are to be avoided; cutting back and recoating is the recommended method.

Applying sealer finish
Because composite rubber floors lack porosity there is no need to pre-coat with sealer. The surface being soft and flexible, a harder sealer finish with good adhesion is required to reduce scuffing and help the surface resist damage. Two or more coats of GLAZER is recommended.

For best results apply sealer finish with a polyester cotton mop in a figure eight pattern. Ensure a wet edge is kept so that you don’t mop areas that are drying out. Allow at least 20 minutes to 30 minutes between coats, test for dryness prior to laying next coat. (no stickiness) Depending on gloss required and wear resistance 2 to 4 coats may be required.

Slip resistance Research Products have developed a new high traction wet look gloss sealer finish FILMSTAR. These, when placed in our recommended maintenance programme gives dry slip results well above the Australian Dry Slip Standard of .4 CoF and above 35 bpn wet. Check our product data sheet and brochure for exact details.

When maintaining a floor for the best wet or dry slip resistance or both Shiner should be used as the maintenance cleaner. Use either Neutraclean or Supastar.

Maintenance
Using SUPASTAR in either mop and bucket or auto scrubber a simple clean will keep the floor looking like new. The best method for heavy traffic areas is to use a maintainer such as SHINER or SUPASTAR neutral cleaner.

Profiled Composite Rubber

The “best” method for profiled composite tiles.
Profiled composite floors need more attention than flat surfaces. They are usually of raised round coin sized studs that reduces the chance of slippage, compared to the regular textured composite tile. The biggest mistake usually made in maintenance is to keep recoating the floor finish so that it builds up between the raised studs.

If the finish is applied over dust it ends up looking extremely dirty. Because of the foot traffic walking on only 60% of the total surface area, floor finish wear is very high. This compounds the constant recoating problem.

Finishing the profiled composite rubber floor.
Follow previous directions in the “How to Bring a Floor to Life”. Instead of applying multiple coats apply one or maximum of two coats of Glazer or FILMSTAR Sealer Finish.

Simple System gives low cost results
By simply maintaining the profiled floor with a combined cleaner and non film forming polymer wax you can avoid many of the problems associated with polish build up and having to strip a “difficult” surface. The recommended wash and shine product is SHINER.

Daily Maintenance
Use SHINER Total Maintainer diluted 1 to 60 parts water and either mop or scrub the floor with this solution. Gloss will build the longer you use the systems, particularly if daily buffing is planned.

Mopping
On this surface you really want to avoid hand mopping because of the fact that eventually dirt residues are left behind around each raised stud, because of the greater mop drag, it is physically harder. If mopping manually a double bucket system is recommended to reduce the chance of soilage build up.

Auto-Scrubbing
The optimum method of having long term clean floors is to use a cylindrical contra rotation brush machine. On small areas DUPLEX or ROTOWASH machines are ideal.

On larger areas of profiled tiles TENNANT have the same machine only larger.

On the larger equipment dilution of SHINER should be reduced up to 1 part SHINER to 100 parts water. (500ml per 50ltr) in cold water for daily maintenance. One day per week use SUPASTAR maintenance cleaner to prevent potential build up of wax residues.

Buffing
Buffing with floor pads is to be avoided on this floor. Use a special Bassine / Java mix for best results or a Contour Microfibre pad for more aggressive action on scuff removal.

Cut back / Recoating
Follow instructions as on page 2. Ensure that all residue is removed from between the studs prior to applying 1 or 2 coats of GLAZER.

Dos and Don’ts for Rubber Composite Floors

Avoid

• The use of high solvent content cleaners or strippers on rubber composite floors. They can permanently damage or cause colour bleeding of the surface.
• The use of floor pads on profiled rubber floors except for contour Microfibre pads.
• Laying too many coats of sealer finish on profiled rubber composite floors.
• Using high speed LP Gas equipment.