Stop the accumulation of salty, muddy footprints in its tracks. Learn what you can do to protect your floor from the wrath of winter.
How Salt Damages Concrete and Other Hard Floors
Heavy foot traffic can be great, as this is a clear indication that your business is thriving. By the same token, in the winter months, your building’s visitors come in with salt encrusted on their soles from the snowy, icy streets. Salt rocks wreak havoc on your floors, especially if you have polished concrete.
Calcium chloride is the crystalized salt used to cover the streets in slippery weather. These salt crystals are abrasive—they act as sandpaper scratching your floor’s surface and leave muddy footprints everywhere. Before you know it, your floor that once had a lustrous finish is now an eyesore. While it’s good that salt significantly decreases car accidents and injuries related to snow and ice, it does absolutely no good for your company’s floor.
The Impact of Salt on Wet Floors
It’s evident that salt damages concrete, however, wet salt on polished concrete floors is especially problematic. So what happens, exactly, when calcium chloride mixes with melted snow and is tracked onto your floor? The impact can be detrimental to your glossy finish. Salt tracked inside pulls the moisture out of your floor, which compromises its integrity. Eventually, the salt water evaporates into the flooring and leaves behind unattractive white residue, or salt stains.
Signs of Salt Damage on Commercial Floors
Your floor experiences some of the worst effects from winter weather, and unfortunately, sometimes it really shows. Some obvious damage includes:
Discoloration and Stains
Salt, dirt, and snow combine to create the perfect storm for messy floors. People’s footprints leave unsightly stains that eventually dry up, causing your place of business to look unkept and unprofessional.
Scratches
Rock salt scrapes the floor’s surface and destroys the shiny finish. Soon, you’ll notice marks everywhere as the glossy coating is penetrated by the coarse salt.
Surface Is Drying Out
When wet salt dries up, it causes your floors to look dull and worn out.
How to Protect Commercial Floors From Salt Stains
Your customers collecting salt from the sidewalk and carrying it into your business may be unavoidable. Nevertheless, your flooring doesn’t have to suffer the consequences. Here are best practices to keep your floors as clean as possible and prevent irreversible damage:
Perform Regular Cleaning
Cleaning your floors once a day can go a long way. Each time you clean, you remove built up residue, which prevents salt and dirt from settling in.
Place Mats Near Entrance
This helps encourage people to intentionally wipe their feet before walking any further and tracking a mess onto your clean floors. Still, you must remember to switch the mats out as often as necessary. Leaving dirty, wet mats on the floor not only looks unprofessional but they will eventually begin to mildew and cause an unpleasant smell.
Reseal Floors
After thoroughly cleaning the floors, have them resealed—this should be done annually by professionals. For best results, use a water and vinegar solution to mop the floors beforehand, as it helps salt stains lift more easily.
The Importance of Professional Cleaning
Salt damage to concrete taints the aesthetic of your facility, which in turn depreciates your company’s value. In order to sustain your concrete polished floor, professional maintenance is a necessity. Concrete cleaning methods, including stain remediation on a regular basis, keep your floor presentable and in pristine condition, even through the worst winter weather. Your commercial flooring system is a worthy, ongoing investment and you want to treat it as such. Enlisting the help of professional cleaners alleviates stress and eliminates the need for future restorative projects that will cost you more money.
No Clean Like Carlson Clean
Taking proper sanitization measures is now more important than ever in the era of COVID-19. We pride ourselves on doing our part to ensure we contribute to a cleaner, safer environment. Carlson Building Maintenance goes beyond storefront cleaning thanks to our Comprehensive Floor Maintenance Program. After a consultation with our experts, we’ll identify cleaning objectives tailored to your company’s needs. Schedule a consultation today and find out for yourself how we’ve excelled in the cleaning industry since 1959.
