Mopping tips?

[gmoney]

Have a room about 500 square feet with a pretty filthy smooth(ish) cement floor. Tried several approaches using a sponge mop, but it seems all I'm doing is making streaks in the dirt. Tried a two-bucket tactic where I poured hot water with some detergent in it, and then used the mop to move it around and soak up all the water, but it's tedious and I'm not convinced it's doing a good job.

Googled "how to properly mop" and it's suggesting a string mop rather than a sponge, and what sounds like a two-bucket technique. (Wet the mop in hot soapy water, wring it a bit, swab it around in a figure 8, then squeeze out or rinse the mop in a sink.) There's no sink in this room, so do I really have to make a bunch of trips down the hall to the sink to rinse it out?

I note that janitors seem to do it all with a single mop and bucket. What's the trick?

There's got to be a better way!

Where's Billy Mays when you need him. :/

[Odin2005]

1. Sweep and much dirt up as you can before you mop?

:shrug:

[gmoney]

2. yeah, I spent an hour or so sweeping it out last week

Then turned my Roomba Dirt Dog loose on it, which got up a lot more loose dirt. The space is in a semi-industrial building, so it's probably not been mopped in decades, but now it's my studio space and I'll be shooting models in there, so was hoping to get rid of the worst of the dirt. Ah well, I guess dirty feet never hurt anyone, right?

I kind of wonder if the best plan wouldn't be to just plan on using 500 paper towels and a couple bottles of 409 or something, and just do it by hand.

[Odin2005]

3. If it's semi-industrial than try go all out with anti-grime stuff before mopping.

don't be afraid to really soak the floor.

[gmoney]

4. anti-grime stuff?

like concrete cleaner?

In a way, I don't want it TOO clean... dirty enough to have some character, but clean enough that if models go barefoot or lie down on it, they don't end up looking like a chimney sweep...

[Call Me Wesley]

5. If it's a cement floor,

it'll suck your water right in, and that's the problem. Then with mopping you make it even worse.

Don't mop. Vacuum it. No water unless you sealed the thing.

Sounds like a great studio! :hi:

[Frosty1]

6. I would use a push broom to scrub it

Use a little clorox in the water and suck it up with a wet vac. The only way to clean really dirty cement.

[Kali]

7. slosh a bucket of hot soapy water right onto the floor

a 1/4 cup of laundry soap in a gallon or two of water, spic and span or other type cleaning powder - swish it all around (string mop IS better), then scoop as much of the mess up with a squeegee and big dust pan or something similar - dump back into bucket. then do it again with plain water until you are happy with the results - finally run a damp clean mop over the whole thing like you would a normal floor.

[carlyhippy]

9. I agree, this is what I do to my floor

It's hard to get a cement floor completely clean, but it gets about as close as I can get doing it this way.

[gmoney]

8. thanks folks...

I'll see if I can find a string mop on the premises, and just do what I can with the other side of the room. :/

[Tuesday Afternoon]

10. use a Shop Vac...?

&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.unoclean.com%2FProductInfo.aspx%3Fproductid%3D379611&size=6k&name=379611+Shop+Vac+...&p=wet+vac&oid=ef73f3a2d9422eca&fr2=tab-web&no=19&tt=10328&sigr=11ppdsip6&sigi=135o1gmu2&sigb=12ofcbj8j

[gmoney]

11. yeah, I didn't think about that

I'll try that on the other side, and if it works, I might re-do the first side.

[elocs]

12. I've done a lot of janitor work, but never mopped a cement floor.

If it had a drain I would hose it and then use a squeegee. Or you could squeegee (pour water on the floor and squeegee it into a corner) and then use a wet-vac. Or sweep/vac well, mop, then mop again. Eventually it will be as clean as you can get it.