Remove Salt Residue From Floors Fast And Easy

This article was originally published in Bald Guy Clean.

Winter weather brings with it additional areas of concern for cleaning professionals. The cold and snow add steps to many cleaning routines and present different challenges to maintaining the cleanliness of facilities. One of the most common is trying to remove salt residue from floors.

Removing salt residue from floors is difficult because the soil on the floor has changed and the cleaning chemicals have not. Most floor cleaning chemicals or neutral cleaners are designed to remove typical dirt and grime. When a substance as different as salt or calcium chloride becomes the main soil overnight, it requires a different approach.

Why Salt Residue Is So Hard To Remove

The makeup of most ice melting products is based around calcium chloride or salt, because of its effective melting properties and because it is relatively cheap. The problem when it comes to floor care is that it has a high pH, just like floor stripper.

To remove salt residue, it has to be neutralized, changing the pH to neutral or 7. Otherwise, it just smears around the floor and becomes a sticky mess. The stickiness can come from two causes.

1. It has such a concentrated amount of residue which is sticky.
2. It has begun to dissolve the floor finish. Either way, your floors are now attracting dirt and making them very hard to clean. 

If let go too long, the finish will have to be stripped and re-coated.

Read the full article here to learn how to remove salt residue.