Cleaning a concrete floor is a necessary activity in most industrial buildings. Concrete is a porous material, susceptible to staining and abrasion caused by chemicals. Untreated concrete is unhygienic due to the formation of dust, which is harmful to your health.
To clean an industrial concrete floor there are different methods, such as dry, wet, chemical, mechanical and thermal cleaning.
Preliminaries of concrete floor cleaning
Tools, equipment, materials and chemicals are required to clean a concrete floor, depending on the cleaning techniques to be employed.
In practice, not just one technique is used. Dry mechanical cleaning is often combined with wet chemical cleaning, in order to effectively remove surface imperfections.
When using detergents, sweepers, scrubbers, etc., the surface should be prepared for cleaning.
The preparation for cleaning the concrete surface consists of clearing the area of obstacles. This implies that ongoing activities or machinery traffic must be interrupted in order to carry out cleaning and industrial maintenance.
How to remove dirt and dust from concrete floors
Once the preliminaries are completed, the concrete floor is cleaned using dry mechanical techniques, removing dust and other dirt particles.
Mechanical dry floor cleaning techniques basically consist of the use of brushes, sweepers and vacuum cleaners.
In case of large dust accumulation, it is necessary to wet the floor. This prevents the suspension and dispersion of harmful dust particles.
Wet chemical cleaning is necessary to remove stains from concrete floors, tyre marks and other dirt adhering to the concrete floor. Low or high pressure water, pH-neutral chemicals and scrubbers are used.
Wet chemical cleaning agents used react with the stains and dirt adhered to the concrete and dissolve them by brushing the surfaces with scrubbing machines.
Completion of concrete floor cleaning
Cleaning is part of the maintenance of a concrete floor. Once it has been completed, time can be used for other activities such as supervision of the joints.
If the cleaning periods of the concrete floor must be extended so as not to compromise its integrity, it is necessary to apply a treatment to the concrete floor to improve its properties.
The BECOSAN® treatment is a unique premium treatment that compacts and hardens the concrete floor, sealing the pores and increasing its strength and durability in a sustainable way.