The beauty of stone flooring. An essential guide to stone floor care and maintenance.

Shiny stone floors invoke images of grand cathedrals and royal palaces, buildings that have endured through the ages. The beauty of natural stone with its timeless qualities, a blend of colour, tone, texture and patterns provided by mother nature has been used as a floor covering since it was first developed in Egypt over 5,000 years ago. As the use of stone flooring continued to evolve, its popularity and quarrying efficiencies in modern times have made it a popular choice in many homes and widely used in commercial premises around the world. It is regarded as a worthwhile investment that imparts a natural beauty and elegance to any building, and if maintained, can last a lifetime.

Beyond the entrance…commercial floors that shine with elegance and glamour.

First impressions are important, your floors are one of the first things people see when they enter your facility. In a commercial setting, the natural brilliance of stone floors creates a stylish business space. Whether its the entrance, lobby, reception area, or amenities of a hotel, airport, restaurant, bar, workshop or office building, a stylish floor helps set the scene for the atmosphere and aesthetics of the premises. Day in day out, your floors are the stage for everything that happens in your facility. Over time, however, floors take a beating. The floor is prone to the constant brunt of scores of feet from the presence and movement of people going about their daily activities in the establishment. Not to mention the effects of dirt and grime that are tracked in from the soles of their shoes that can damage the surface.

Whether quarried from natural rock or created from composites, stone is the ultimate in flooring materials. Although stone floors are durable and long lasting, periodical stone floor maintenance is required to keep your investment in top form. Foot traffic, scuff marks, scraping chairs, dropped objects, spilt food and beverages, UV rays, dust, dirt and more, it all ends up with dull worn looking floors. Although a shiny floor does not automatically mean it is clean, by its own nature, a highly polished shiny floor where one can see their own reflection staring back at them is perceived as a mark of cleanliness and can form opinions on the state of the entire building. Who hasn’t heard someone mention ‘floors so clean you can eat off them’, after seeing their reflection staring back up at them from a polished floor. Properly maintained and cared for, no other flooring material can give your facility a more impressive image. Consequently, as an owner or manager of such facilities, it is essential that such an investment is cared for appropriately.

Stone floor care...the facility managers dilemma.

Facility managers are responsible for the security, maintenance and services of the facilities they are taking care of to ensure that they meet the needs of the organisation, its employees, customers and visitors. Part of their role typically includes the protection, care and maintenance of the floor. In doing so, the floor care services are typically contracted out or undertaken by in-house staff on the assumption that they know the best equipment, floor cleaning solutions and maintenance schedule for their floor. However, every floor has different characteristics and requires the following considerations:

1. The proper identification of the flooring material.
2. The amount of foot traffic in the building.
3. The type of contaminants that are being tracked across the floor from the surrounding environment.
4. Safety of the floor and slip resistance considerations of the area.
5. Suitable time for floor care operations to be conducted.
6. The size of the area to be maintained.
7. The development of a floor care program based on the above variables that take into consideration both labour and material costs.

It’s important to note that not all commercial cleaners are floor care specialists with the technical know-how and skill to maintain the variety of floor surfaces that exist in commercial and/or industrial applications. In these instances, floors such as stone, if treated incorrectly can inevitably suffer unnecessary damage that can depreciate your investment. It’s good practice to ensure you are mindful of the floor manufacturers floor care recommendations, as well as those of your commercial cleaning solutions, and that your contractors are aware of them and efficiently trained in their use and any other special requirements.