Develop a Stone Floor Care Program for Your Cleaning Business

The Janitorial Store

Office buildings have many types of flooring and growing in popularity are stone floors. Stone floors give buildings a classic and upscale image. Popular choices in flooring these days are natural surfaces including marble, slate, granite, and terrazzo. As more and more buildings are installing stone floors there is a growing need for cleaning contractors who have the experience and knowledge to take care of these valued surfaces properly. Learning the tricks of stone floor care can lead to extra income and profit for your cleaning company.

Before expanding into the area of stone floor care make sure that you understand the differences in the types of flooring and how to design a maintenance program to keep stone floors looking their best. It helps to develop a relationship with a distributor that has quality products and can help you with technical support.

The first step in any floor maintenance program is finding out what type of stone you're dealing with. Stone floors are broken down into one of two categories: stone that contains calcium and those that do not contain calcium. It is important to note that acids will attack and etch stone that contains calcium.

If the floor is not coated on the surface, a simple test can determine what type of stone you are dealing with. Place a drop of hydrochloric acid in an inconspicuous area and watch the reaction. If the acid fizzes the stone contains calcium. If there is no reaction, the stone is most likely granite, slate, sandstone or some type of ceramic that has been designed to look like natural stone.

Your second step is to decide what type of results you want with your floor program. Do you want a polished surface, a slip resistant floor or a floor program that is easy to manage? Any stone floor program should also take into account the type of surface - polished, honed or textured. Also, remember that stone is a product of nature and should be admired for its inconsistencies. The imperfections of stone create random patterns, which is what makes natural stone so desirable.

When looking at how you should maintain stone floors, both calcium containing and non-calcium containing stone floors should be maintained in identical ways except when it comes to re-polishing. A marble floor develops wear patterns faster as marble is a softer stone. You can polish marble, limestone and terrazzo effectively with superfine abrasives you mix with potassium oxalate or oxalic acid. These are typical compounds available in various ready to use formulas.

Granite floors, on the other hand, are acid resistant requiring granite to be polished mechanically using superfine abrasives. The re-polishing of granite is a slow process as compared to re-polishing a marble floor.

At times the floor will have been so neglected it may need restoration. A properly restored stone floor will have no lippage (where one edge of a stone is higher than adjacent edges, giving the stone a ragged appearance), will look better and be easier to clean. The restoration process is best handled by professionals. Improved technology has made the restoration process faster and with a restored floor maintenance costs will go down while the overall appearance of the floor will go up.

Stone itself has a porosity factor (materials can pass through it) and some stones absorb stains faster than other types of stone. A high quality impregnator can help prevent stains from passing through and being absorbed into the stone. Impregnators can be water resistant, or water, grease and oil resistant. The specific impregnator to use will depend on your specific situation.

The most important part of your stone floor care program will be the use of a quality stone soap. A high quality soap will clean and enrich the stone, which will make it more soil and stain resistant. This is not an area to be cutting costs!

Quarterly cleaning is recommended for commercial stone floors. This will not only remove any built in soil, but will also remove stone soap build-up. This is an important step as most stone soaps are non-rinse. Because of this dirt can build up in the grout lines, even when you are following a floor maintenance program. An intensive cleaning should also be used if you have an extremely dirty floor.

Other stone surfaces that may need extra care are countertops, vanities and vertical surfaces, such as pillars. A good relationship with a distributor of quality products will help you in deciding which chemicals you'll need to use to clean these surfaces.

If you have buildings with stone floors, your first step is to develop a quality stone floor care program. Spending a little time and effort before beginning your stone floor program will save you headaches and keep the floor looking its best. Your customer will be happy and your bank account will grow!

Agel Home Business Opportunity: What it’s like to be on the TRUE Ground Floor of a Revolutionary Company…

Have you ever wondered what it’s like for those people who were there when companies like Amazon started and they were able to be a part of that sensation? How about those people smart enough to see that the Ipod was going to be a huge success and bought stock in Apple early enough to ride the initial wave?

If you have ever wondered about those people and wished you could have been one of them then it’s your turn now. It’s your turn to, not too long from now, be one of those people who other people wonder about. Unique and revolutionary opportunities come around very seldom, and only those who put themselves in the position to capitalize and be rewarded by the success…those early worms that catch the bird, truly benefit.

Right now, there lies an opportunity for you to be privy to a very unique and truly ground floor opportunity to rise as the cream of the crop within two industries. Those industries are the network marketing and health and wellness industries.

Agel Enterprises is the company, and their unique health supplement that’s revolutionizing the way that people absorb extremely beneficial nutrients is what makes them a company that’s frankly one of the hottest most exclusive opportunities of all time. Right up there with the Ipod and Amazon in fact!

Here’s why…

Agel Enterprises is a network marketing company that’s growing at record speeds, but is just barely getting started to build its brand. Network marketing is one of the greatest industries in the world to obtain great wealth by the average person who wants to better themselves but doesn’t have a ton of experience, money, or a business background.

Network marketing in essence levels the playing field for everyone, and to make it an even greater opportunity, Agel has gone to great lengths to make it even easier for the beginning network marketer to see success quickly…whereas it’s not just the experienced guys with the best chance at greatness.

In fact the leaders, both Corporate as well as top representatives have come together to come up with the very best compensation plan known to the industry…well… ever! This is because in the vain of not fixing what’s not broken, they’ve taken the four best compensation plan types of the past, and selected what’s great about them, kept that aspect, and discarded everything else that just never made sense. Doing this has led to the revolutionary Quadra Plan that’s brought some of the greatest, most productive network marketers alive on board.

What this means is that not only do they have a unique and revolutionary system to pay their hard working distributors handsomely, but also they have the greatest people in the world showing people exactly how to get the most from that plan. That’s a 1-2 punch that you rarely see in this industry…if ever.

The driving force behind all of this however is the revolutionary product line that Agel has developed. The health and wellness industry is about an $80 Billion dollar a year industry as it is, and growing rapidly.

What the industry hasn’t seen much of however over years and years is change. Pills and shakes have basically been the extent of it and even so has done well. However, just like the Ipod has changed the way that people listen to music – or UFC has changed the way that people watch fighting competition – Agel is set to do to the health supplement industry by revolutionizing the way that people consume their health supplements.

Agel has developed an innovative line of natural nutrition products that come in gel serving packs, in which the nutrients is suspended and therefore becomes much more quickly and efficiently absorbed into the body. On top of that, the single serving packs allow consumers to take very easily whether at home or on the run without a mess, and without bulky rattling bottles. It’s turning the industry on its head, yet it’s in such an infantile stage that the opportunity to get in is comparable to getting in with Starbucks when they were still spreading across the Seattle area.

Now is the time for you to see what it’s like to be on the cusp of a revolution and to reap the rewards that being in that position has to offer. Don’t miss your chance!