This is the most common question I get asked.  Everyday I am asked by customers, potential customers, my friends, and even family.   After spending all my childhood and my adult life on restoring marble and travertine, I guess it makes sense that I would have an answer good logical answer to this question.  However, I have more trouble answering this question than any other question.  Maybe it is my fear that my answer will not sound ‘good’ enough.  Mostly, I have difficulty answering this question in a simple way. 

A simple answer would be quick and to the point.  My customers, friends and even family (especially my wife :) do not want a long, drawn out answer.  So I decided that I would blog my full answer over the next several blogs.  I will try to base my responses on real stories and experiences in people’s homes.    

The first step in my opinion would be to prevent your floors from getting dirty.  Or shall we say, slow down the rate at which your floors get dirty. 

Step 1, prevent your floors from getting dirty:  There are simple steps one can take to ensure their floors stay clean longer.   Do not have kids is the first tip, just kidding.  Here are some simple ways to help keep your floors cleaner, longer.

• Before having people come over to your home, sweep the porch and walkway to minimize the dirt, rocks and debris tracked into your home. 
• How about them door mats that are full of dirt and grease sitting at your front and garage doors?  I have yet to see a homeowner that cleaned their mats regularly.  Have you ever noticed every mall, hotel and so forth have their door mats professionally laundered?  It makes big of a difference.
• Did you know that some people do not wear shoes inside their home?  Ok,  they wear house shoes.  Their floors almost never get dirty.  I know that it is impossible for most of us to be religious about not wearing shoes in the house.  So, just a thought, try getting your family to take off their shoes at the door when they are going to stay in the house for a long period of time. 
• Feel your floors with your hand after moping.  If you do this, over time you will start to get a feel for when your floors are really clean or they just look clean.  For example, I feel for the presence of grit stuck to the floor, stickiness, or an oily feel left by a cleaner.  An oily feel will cause your floors to attract dirt.
• “Shinny floors are clean floors!”  I hear this all the time and so many people use cleaners that makes their floors look shiny.   This can actually make your floor dirtier faster and make it harder to clean your floors later.   Why?  These cleaners have wax or an alternative chemical that works like wax (also known as; “no wax” cleaner).  If you use these products, be sure you get your floors very clean before using.  Why again?  The wax or ‘no wax’ chemical will bond with the dirt or grease on your floors.  Now you have dirt and grease waxed into your floors.  The only way to remove it is to have the floors stripped.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 24th, 2006 at 4:18 pm and is filed under Clean My Floors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.