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In the past we have used a walk-behind auto scrubber to clean the floors in our two gyms. Physical resources has determined that we are no longer permitted to do this and must do the cleaning by hand (bucket and wet mop). The floor space is large and this method takes a great deal of time and leaves the floor streaked and dull. How do the staff in other recreation facilities take care of the cleaning of their gym floors? Thanks for the responses.

Keeping floors in top-notch shape is a challenge faced by maintenance personnel everywhere. ... According to floor care consultant Stanley Hulin, it all starts with chemistry. "It is the chemicals that dictate the equipment and service procedure requirements."

Regardless of the cleaner used, it's critical to heed the manufacturer's dilution instructions. (Also be sure to refer to the product's Material Data Safety Sheet, or MSDS, before use.) Doing so will conserve cleaner and protect the finish of your floor. A solution that is too highly concentrated will make the floor finish appear hazy and dull after cleaning. When used properly, however, most cleaners are strong enough to remove soil without damaging the finish -- the last thing a facility operator would want to do, because finishes and sealers are considered a hard surface's last line of defense. "People often think they're working on the actual floor," says Hulin. "They're actually working on a film covering the floor."

[from "Clean Sweep" by Marvin Bynum, Athletic Business, November 2003]

We have a cleaning crew for the whole building that does the floors at night with a mop and bucket. But we use the swiffer wet jets on our mats under the equipment. Not sure if that would work for you or not, but it works well for us.

Hi Tim, To speed up your floor cleaning, you can use a micro-fiber system along with a good neutral cleaner. Most micro-fiber manufacturers have 48" mops and some even go to 70". This method cleans well and it does not saturate the wood with excessive cleaning solution. It should drastically cut your labor.

Wood is naturally porous and can absorb and release moisture. If the humidity in your facility rises, your wood floor will absorb that moisture, causing it to expand. If the humidity falls, your wood floor will release moisture, causing it to shrink. Many installations include expansion voids around the perimeter and around columns or floor inserts, plus expansion joints built into the floor surface. These features permit natural, normal expansion and contraction without damage to the floor. Too much moisture causes abnormal expansion, which can lead to cupping or buckling of your floor. In abnormally dry conditions the wood will contract, leaving separations between flooring strips.

Six Steps For Proper Daily Maintenance:

SWEEP THE FLOOR DAILY with a properly treated dust mop. If the floor is used heavily, sweep it up to three times per day.

WIPE UP SPILLS and any moisture on the floor surface.

MAKE SURE THE HEATING/VENTILATING/AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM IS FUNCTIONING PROPERLY and set to maintain indoor relative humidities between 35 percent and 50 percent year round. In areas of consistently high or low outside humidity, a 15 percent fluctuation will not adversely affect the maple.

REMOVE HEEL MARKS using an approved floor cleaner applied with a soft cloth or a dust mop. Contact your floor finish manufacturer for approved cleaning products.

INSPECT FLOOR FOR TIGHTENING OR SHRINKAGE. During wet weather, check for water leakage around doors and windows. Remove debris from expansion voids.

ALWAYS PROTECT THE FLOOR when moving heavy portable equipment or lifts. Ensure portable equipment does NOT have crowned wheels or wheels that include center ridges remaining from the molding process. These types of wheels can create very significant point loads.

Never Do the Following:

NEVER shut down the ventilation system in your facility for a prolonged period of time.

NEVER clean your MFMA floor using scrubbing machinery or power scrubbers that use water under pressure. Water is your floor's worst enemy!

NEVER attempt to modify or repair your MFMA sports floor without first consulting your MFMA contractor.

NEVER use household cleaning products or procedures. They can be harmful to the floor finish and to the wood and may also leave floors sticky or slippery, and potentially harmful to athletes. Your MFMA finish manufacturer will recommend the proper cleaning and maintenance materials for your MFMA sports floor.

Direct all questions adout your MFMA maple sports floor to your MFMA contractor:

Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association
111 Deer Lake Road, Suite 100
Deerfield, IL 60015 U.S.A.
847/480-9138, Fax: 847/480-9282
E-mail: mfma@maplefloor.org

You may save yourself alot of work by using walk off mats at all entrances, and by dry sweeping for every 2-3 hours of use in the facility. You only need to use a good WATER BASED cleaner, not a water less cleaner; water less cleaners tend to have oils in them, sassafrass oil, mineral oil, etc.. that will leave a film on the floor collecting dust and grime, which inturn gets ground into the floor. These cleaners ask you to spray your mop heads the night before you use them because of the oils. Mopping the floor once a week should be plenty unless the facility was utilized quite a bit, then it might be 2-3 times a week. Mix you WATER BASED floor cleaner with you water in the bucket at a 5,4,or 3 to one ratio depending on how bad the floor may be. Over mopping the floor with floor cleaners and not changing the mop water frequently may be causing the dull and streaked situation. I hope this helps you.

In regards to successful bleacher operation; be sure to clean the gym floor with the proper cleaners that do not affect the bleacher motorization system’s rollers. Some cleaners create a wax or substance build up on the rollers, which leads to the bleacher not fully opening or closing due to roller traction failure.

Using a scrubber on wood playing surface will, in every instance I'm aware of, void your warranty. Simply put wood and water do not mix, and it is impossible for a scrubber not to leave behind some water. Even if you're hand mopping, use as little water as possible. The following link is a good starting point for maintenance products and systems: http://www.maplefloor.org/alliedManufacturers.cfm

Bison sells a very popular floor cleaning system made by Court Clean that uses a cleaning bar, towels, and liquid court cleaner. You simply drag the bar behind you and there is no residue and no drying time.

We still use an auto scrubber but only 2 - 3 times a year (white pad, minimal nuetral cleaner). We have fans that can be operated manually that blow directly downward during this process for quicker drying time. The rest of the time it is dust mopping with mop treatment and spot wet mopping. We also have a Court Clean unit that does a nice job with the chemical that is purchased for it. The Court Clean method is also labor intensive.

Cleaning large wood floors
The first issue with cleaning a wood floor is to avoid slopping so much water on the surface that it runs into the spaces between the boards and causes moisture damage. So when we look to maintain a wood floor, the finish on the surface needs to be in good condition because we maintain the surface of the coating and not the wood itself. After we determine that the finish is in good enough condition to handle some maintenance, we remove the dust then clean spots where spills and messes are located.

Mopping with a regular mop and standard mop bucket is another big NO-NO. Here is why. The normal process involves filling the bucket with a water based cleaner that is almost always made from a concentrate that is diluted. Using the standard technique the clean mop is initially placed in the clean solution then put on the floor to distribute the cleaning solution. Then the mop is used to scrub the surface of the floor. Unless a separate rinse bucket is used the dirt that the mop picks up is continually being introduced into the mop bucket. And by the end of the job the clear blue solution has become a dark muddy color with the dirt from the floor suspended in the cleaning solution.. Every time this muddy solution is used on the floor is leaves a residue and causes the floor to darken as it accumulates. Even when a separate rinse bucket is used, unless the water is changed after every rinse or two it will also become the dark muddy color and will contaminate the mop then the floor in stead of cleaning it.

Autoscrubbers are designer to prevent contaminating the cleaning solution with the rinsing process by keep cleaning and rinsing as separate functions. The cleaning solution comes out of a separate tank then the brushes agitate the cleaner on the surface which puts the dirt on the surface into suspension in the cleaning solution then the squeegees suck up the dirty solution which is then held in a second tank for disposal. If the finish is in good shape and the autoscrubber is functioning properly and picks up 99% of the water as is progresses it should be OK to use it on a wood floor. But just as one rotten apple spoils the barrel so it goes with autoscrubbers. One malfunction or improperly used autoscrubber gives all of them a bad name. Rather than fight a losing battle over the efficacy of autoscrubbers, let’s explore another procedure for doing a thorough cleaning of the surface of the floor.

Here goes, purchase one or two dozen large bath towels and run them through several cycles in a washing machine to remove the loose fibers (lint). Purchase a well made push broom with a six foot handle. Using a regular mop bucket (please clean the dirt out of it) with a wringer mix the cleaning solution in the bucket. Fold the towels into four or five section along the long axis then soak it in the mop bucket then wring it outso that is doesn’t slop solution about. But leave it wet enough to put a uniform layer of cleaning solution on the surface of the floor. Wrap the wet towel around the head of the broom then push it around the surface of the floor. When the surface of the towel gets dirty refold the towel to expose a clean portion and put in back on the broom and keep cleaning the surface. After five or six adjustment of the towel it will be too dirty to continue using set it aside. DO NOT TRY TO RINSE or REUSE THIS TOWEL. Get a fresh towel and start the procedure over using uncontaminated cleaning solution. Go over the floor until the towels stop picking to any dirt. Put the used towel into a washing machine and run them through several cycles w/o and detergent since there is probably enough cleaner left in them. When they are rinsed clean, dry and fold them to be ready for the next cleaning. It is more work but the end result is not comparable because the floor is actually clean.

Who is making that decision - telling you that you cannot use the scrubber? You can use the scrubber though it is not "universally" recommended due to a slim margin of error if someone makes a mistake. You should NOT be using a mop and bucket, however. The problem with either is the introduction of water to the wood floor. I'd be happy to help clarify. Please feel free to contact me at 715-587-0241. Chris Wedge

As a gym floor contractor that specilizes in yearly maintenance and sanding of existing gym floors, I recommend to all my customers that the single best way to clean a gym floor is to PROPERLY use an automatic floor machine on your existing floors. If that is not an option, for any number of reasons, the 2nd best method is the CourtClean Maintenace System. This system cam be purchased from any number of flooring and janitorial contractors as well as the manufacturer themselves. The key to this system is the tool itself. The cleaner, in my opinion, is secondary. When using an automatic floor machine, the single most important question to ask yourselve is if there is enough finish on the floor to protect the wood from moisture. If you have a new floor, please, please, please, follow the manufacurer's and the intallating contractors advice, at least until the 1 or two year warranty has expired. If there are any other quesitons, you can email them to me. Byron Haflich

Some wood floor manufacturers have long opposed the use of autoscrubbers to clean wood floors. This is because the older machines would leave to much water on the floor. Yet the alternative, scrubbing with a swing machine and using a bucket and water even with a wet vacuum for pick up puts even more water on the floor. The new autoscrubbers can be adjusted to use a minimum of water and pad pressure can be adjusted. They are still more effective than the manual method. The autoscrubber should have a red pad and water on minimum, this works best. The flooring industry needs to get over its bias over autoscrubbers.

Our company is very involved in maple gym floor maintenance. We have always used low speed auto scrubbers to clean floors before we screen and coat them. Using an auto scrubber is the most efficient and fastest way to completely clean gym floors. Typically, cleaning twice a month is enough, but it depends on the traffic and use of the facility. Sometimes it could be less, or more. Basically, the main caution is not to over-do it. Only use a white cleaning pad, and always make sure to completely extract all of the water. We recommend using a minimal amount of neutral Ph cleaner such as Super Shine All from Hillyard at 2 oz. per gallon of water. The tack towel, or CourtClean method with a neutral Ph cleaner at 3 to 4 oz. per gallon is good also, you just need to make sure not to over wet by wringing the towel out and to always use a clean towel. The mop and bucket is no doubt the worst method. Not only is it sloppy, but you never get all of the filth up! It just streaks all over....and what a pain in the kazoo! Brian Cockfield The Sports Flooring Group 800-797-7334

You should also consider the Tac-Tite Speed Mop which has proven itself to be one of the most economical and safest methods of cleaning a wood sport floor prior to competitive play. It comes with 4-48" cotton heads can be immersed in the neutral cleaner of your choice, then wrung out and spaced evenly across the court. It's then pushed up and back overlapping a bit until you've cleaned the entire court. It's easy to push and store. The mop heads can be laundered. It effectively cleans and helps remove, body oils, perspiration, saliva, and other sticky residue. The speed mop should be used in conjunction with 72" microfiber gym dust mop so as not to leave any dust mop treatment residue on the floor.

Hi Tim! M.A.S.A. carries Court Clean products for cleaning gym floors that a few people have referred to. If interested, you can contact me at swylucki@sportsadvantage.com. Thanks! Sherry Wylucki

For gym floors there are chemicals available and even different machines also available but manual cleaning is the best method even though it requires human efforts.

I agree with you and every machine can not do any thing without human .

We have the manual staff for cleaning of the entire floor in the building.