cleaning hard floors

[ed]

We have hard ceramic floors in our kitchen is there a good device easier than mop and water to clean them with Thanks E

[PeterK]

Vax V-029 is a basic hard floor cleaner. I think I paid around £80 and it's easier than an mop & bucket. Cleans over 15m2 on one fill and surprisingly good at sucking up water on a very uneven tiled floor. Used for a utlity room "dog & wellies" mud. 2 design flaws/annoyances - the removable water tank can sometimes be a pain to put back and the water suction head say

300mm x 8mm has cross pieces to make the slot rigid and these collect dog hairs that then collect dirty water that drips back out after use.

[Andy Hall]

I have an upright cleaner manufactured by Vax which works pretty well and is easy to fill and use. Basically, it is like a Wet/Dry cleaner on a stick. I don't think that this model is made any more and it doesn't appear on their web site either. However, Bissell seem to make similar product.

At one point (when we had carpets) I had one of the Vax carpet cleaners

- like a wet/dry cleaner with shampoo/water in the top. It was effective on carpets and hard floors as well. The trouble was that it was quite a lot of work to get the thing out, set it up, clean it and put it away again. For a kitchen floor only application, it would be too much of a shag IMO. On the upright one, the combined tank delivers the cleaing solution and collects the dirty water in a different section. It can be lifted away and run under the tap to clean it.

[The Medway Handyman]

Depends entirely on the level of soiling e.g. how dirty does it get?

[Andy Hall]

Ah they do still make them. I couldn't find this in an earlier search

- only the carpet cleaners.

I have the earlier yellow one and get good results on a fairly uneven slate floor.

[ARWadsworth]

Does that mean you have no carpets anywhere in the house?

Adam

[Andy Hall]

There is one left. All others have been replaced with slate or other forms of stone or hardwood. The remaining one will go shortly.

[ed]

[The Medway Handyman]

OK, simple solution. Geat a decent mop & bucket like this

and whats called a 'kentucky' mop head & handle. Also a 'wet/dry' vacuum like Numatics 'Charles' water & small amount of detergent in bucket. Mop floor with soaking wet mop, wring mop & use to pick up most of the water, follow with wet vac.

Very quick & very thorough. I used to help run a youth club - 200 kids running around a playground in all weathers, small cafateria area looked like a WW1 battlefield afterwards - cleaned up a treat in a very short time using this method.

[ARWadsworth]

Interesting. I have only seen this done by a couple of people using cheap laminate with poor underlay and the noise was unbearable when people walked about. Not to mention the bounce caused by a lack of gaps in the laminate between rooms. I could happily live with proper hardwood, slate or stone flooring everywhere apart from in the lounge.

Adam

[Andy Hall]

Surely you've read my opinions on plastic^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hlaminate flooring? :-)

There's a big difference in sound with a wooden floor. The other thing is that we don't wear shoes indoors. They are taken off at the entrance doors, dried if wet and stored. Indoors, I generally wear soft footwear (which never goes outside) or just go barefooted.

For the lounges there are rugs in particular places. These have the advantage that they can be easily changed seasonally or when one is bored with them and cleaned outside or taken to a professional cleaner.

[ARWadsworth]

I ignore most posts on laminate flooring. I hate it.

The houses I mentioned are the sort where you wipe your boots on the way out.

I'll have to get a bigger lounge or a second one.

Cheers

Adam