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Cleaning the Floor

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Categories: Experiences and daily life; Projects and equipment

Word count/read time: 717 words; 3 minutes

We've all cleaned a floor at some point in our lives. Well, most of us aside from the pampered few who have mom, a maid, or a cleaning crew. I would hope that most would at least know how to sweep or mop a floor.

That doesn't include my former boss's twenty-something daughter. The natural question is how is she supposed to do any work between her five-to-ten times daily drug breaks, showing up drunk and high at work, sleeping on the job (even brought in her pillow), constantly lying about the work she supposedly did, and leaving the job without telling anyone?

Her father specifically instructed me to teach her how to sweep a floor because the other five employees were unable to do it. Maybe it's a learning thing, not a teaching thing, right? (Don't bring in popsicles because she unapologetically binged on 17 in less than three hours.)

Where was I going? Oh yeah, cleaning. I needed clinical clean for my three concrete garage floors to ensure the epoxy would stick. After 15 years there were countless stains of all sorts, gouges from trailers, rust stains, corrosion from jacuzzi chemicals, scuff marks, and mystery stains.

I thoroughly researched cleaning products but not professional resurfacing methods. In hindsight, I may have opted for a different route but I am more than $2000 and hundreds of hours of labor into it so too late to change course.

Six different cleaners not including natural or DIY ones like lemon juice, soap, vinegar, acetone/thinner poultices, and the like bolstered my arsenal. Two of those were microbial cleaners. I was expecting several handfuls of washing and rinsing cycles but never considered the cleaning products wouldn't work.

After scraping two of the three floors with a metal blade, I used the first cleaner which did absolutely nothing. Since I couldn't resurface them (so I thought), I used a wire wheel. Many, many hours of slow work. Burnt out the first grinder in 15 minutes. The second lasted nearly three weeks.

A friend suggested a diamond cup attachment to scuff up the calcitrant stains. I would have to excise many millimeters of concrete to remove them completely but it will help the epoxy adhere better regardless. I ended up doing the entire floor which means the previous steps were wasted time and materials aside from the microbial cleaners. However, the fiberglass or plastic fibers in the concrete were re-exposed so I had to rescrape the floor to remove the hairs.

Zep Concrete and Driveway Cleaner - I used it three times in increasing concentrations. It didn't even touch the stains. Hot water, power washer, scrubbing on hands and knees didn't matter. For more than a week, "fuzzy" crystals continued to grow from the floor. There's no way any epoxy would stick if that's happening! Were people paid to leave positive reviews? Their customer service is utterly appalling, too.
Zep Purple Degreaser Concentrate - I didn't even try this given how miserably their other cleaner failed. Maybe it works for "little boy" stains but I question how it handles the big ones.
CLR - To help with the rust stains, it was no better than lemon juice.
Krud Kutter-Oil Grabber & Oil Stain Remover - At least I could see this lifted some of the oil. Better, but not good enough.
BT200 Microbe Oil Cleaner - Expensive! $250 for five gallons. I did two concentrated applications with lots of supplemental water and scrubbing, letting it sit for 24 hours each time. I have to believe it did something though it left some stains which may be something other than hydrocarbon-based liquids.
Covertec Microbe Oil Cleaner - Affordable at $100 for a five gallon pail. Like the other one, I had to babysit it for several hours ensuring the floor stayed wet. Every time I added water I scrubbed again to oxygenate the microbes. Swab the decks is an understatement! Still, the stains I wanted to remove remained.

Some helpful professionals were optimistic that it would all work out in the end. Just a lot more time, a lot more scrubbing, and more preparation. I could see the oil stains after all the work but it's gone beyond, well beyond, reasonable so I'm going for it anyway.

Posted by M: August 20, 2022

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