BUILDINGS, MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT Time for a spring clean Education Today hears from RICHARD AYLEN, Technical Manager at Junckers
The cleaning process – what are your options?
For most types of wooden floors regular sweeping and vacuuming will keep it free of grit particles. If it becomes very dirty, the floor can be cleaned with a cleaning solution added to water, taking care not to wet the floor, only using a damp cleaning pad. I suggest always following the floor manufacturer’s recommendations when choosing a floor cleaning product or coating.
A
fter a long winter we’re all feeling in need of a little TLC, and in all probability our floor finishes could also do with some attention. Wooden floors are among the most beautiful natural floor finishes, but if the long months of wet feet, grit and dirt have taken their toll on the floor’s appearance, this is a good time to bring your school’s floor back to prime condition.
Solid hardwood floors are very tough and resilient and common signs of wear-and-tear such as scuffs and minor scratches are mostly superficial, so it’s usually a relatively easy task to bring the floor back to good condition.
Many multipurpose school and community halls are used for social functions, dining and the like and this can result in non-water- soluble deposits, something that also happens with sports floors. This makes the floor more slippery, and water alone will not clean the floor effectively. To remove oily and greasy deposits an acetic acid-based cleaner is effective. Most floors used for sport and fitness activities will need to be routinely cleaned with this kind of product every few months.
Short-term floor treatments A floor may become scratched and scuffed and after some time the appearance can become dull. One way to restore this is to re- lacquer or re-oil the floor, and this will usually be part of the medium-term maintenance plan. There are also some intermediate level refresher-style treatments that can be used more frequently. These are easy to apply and dry very quickly, so there is very little down time.
Medium-term
At some stage in its life the floor will become worn to the point where it needs to be re-
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www.junckers.co.uk
lacquered or re-oiled. Ideally this will be done before the existing finish wears through to bare wood. Manufacturers of floor coatings offer a range of lacquers, usually water-based, to suit different levels of foot traffic.
Long-term
After many years a wooden floor might reach the stage where it is difficult to improve its appearance simply by relacquering or re-oiling. This can happen when the finish has worn through to bare wood, or there are larger scratches or other surface damage. When this happens, it is time to fully sand the floor back to bare wood and retreat it. You could call this a full-floor refurbishment, and it can restore the appearance to a nearly new condition. The fact that you can refurbish the floor numerous times during its life means that a wooden floor can have a very long lifespan, often being refurbished when other types of floor finish may be worn out and ready for replacement. For this reason, hardwood floors are more sustainable than other surfaces. A 22 mm thick solid hardwood floorboard can be sanded eight to ten times during its life and so will be in use many times longer than a similar- looking engineered board, for example. A good maintenance plan and access to the right cleaning and recoating products will ensure that any wooden floor stays looking its best and the school will benefit from the maximum lifespan the floor can offer. This also has financial benefits as there’s no need to pay for replacing old worn-out finishes.
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www.education-today.co.uk
April 2025
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