Floor Soap Buyer's Guide

Soaps and detergents are everywhere and of course they’re necessary, but how can you be sure you’re choosing the best one for your application? There are a few things to consider and things you’ll need to know before you make your selection.

Soil Make-up

The soil make-up on the floor will help you determine how aggressive you’ll need to be with your cleansing agent. It’s always best to start with the most gentle solution and work your way towards most aggressive - only as needed and as applies to your flooring surface.

Solution pH Levels

PH matters when it comes to cleaning solutions. Neutral (7 on the pH scale) is the most gentle solution and there are many neutral cleaners that can be used on a variety of floors that just have foot traffic that needs to be cleaned up.

Cleaners that are higher than 7 on the pH scale are more alkaline or “base” such as CleanFreak Magnifico. These work better on acidic food and beverage-based soils. They are generally safe on a variety of floors with the exception of wood, granite or marble floors.

Degreasers also fall in the higher pH range and work on grease deposits and black marks left by shoes. The problem is that they also deteriorate floor finishes more quickly too. Vinyl Composite floors and coated concrete floors are generally the most resilient flooring surfaces and degreasers generally are safe on these within proper dilution ratios.

More acidic Cleaners, such as Film Off serve mostly to remove alkaline residue like you’ll find after ice melt is used or too much alkaline detergent residue is left on the floor. It is safe for a variety of surfaces.

Other Cleaners

Floor finish stripping solutions, floor finishes and sealants and oil or wax based products fall into entirely different categories used for entirely different purposes.

As always, read your product label, follow dilution ratios carefully and when in doubt, test it out (in an inconspicuous area). Feel free to get more details about our huge selection of floor cleaning solutions by contacting our customer care team at 1-888-722-5508.