Maintenance, coating cleaning methods and suitable cleaning agents
Daily Cleaning
Most of the floor detergents in the market are acid or alkaline, and frequent use will shorten the service life of your microcement floor. Even if our protective transparent sealers have good chemical resistance, to extend in time the performance of the protection, we suggest using a pH-neutral floor soap for daily cleaning.
Recommended cleaning product
Steinfix 60 is an innovative floor soap designed to clean natural stone floors, concrete floors, microcement overlays such as Microbond® and Ercole® and other porous materials. It is a natural product with a pH value of 8.0, which saturates the porosity of the substrate, leaving a bright protective layer that facilitates subsequent cleaning.
For daily cleaning the ratio diluition is 1:50 (1 part of Steinfix 60 on 50 parts of clean water). On a new microcement floor, the ratio must be 1:10 (on the first application).
Recommended cleaning tools
Sometimes using the mop is not sufficient to properly clean microcement surfaces. The surface profile might have some low spots that retain the dirt.
Note: We suggest using a floor-cleaning machine with a rotating brush, a low-speed floor buffer or a steam-cleaner machine.
Corrective Maintenance
Correct the micropores’ dirt retention
A convenient way to fix the low spots’ dirt retention is using Cerbero Base Gel. Cerbero Base Gel will fill the pores transparently and invisibly, leaving the three-dimensional texture of the microcement floor unchanged. You may need to apply multiple coats of Cerbero Base Gel to fill the pores completely. If Cerbero Sealer was applied before, do a light sanding of the floor to remove the sealer before proceeding. After the application, we recommend a new coat of Cerbero Sealer for the whole floor.
During the lay-down of the cementitious overlay, you can fill the pores with Microbond Finitura. This technique will also allow some decorative effects, playing with different shades of Microbond and Microbond Finitura.
A third technique consists of applying a coloured version of Cerbero Sealer. This system will uniform the colour of the floor and mitigate the three-dimensional effect, masquerading the trowel lines. We produce coloured Cerbero Sealer on request.
Correct the pinholes
Sometimes could happen that some small wet spots appear when washing the floor. Those pinholes are often due to small particles that pop from the floor after the sealer application. The effect is temporary; once dried, the floor return to its original look. A fast and convenient way to fix this effect is using Micromed+.
Micromed+ is a sprayable wax emulsion that waterproofs and hardens the surface. It is sufficient to spray the area locally, then massage with a microfibre cloth. Micromed+ is invisible and can be reapplied whenever you need it, typically every 6-12 months.
A trick to avoid this effect from the beginning consists on gently scratching the floor with a blade or a flexible trowel after the curing of Cerbero Base and before the application of Cerbero Sealer. Take care to vacuum clean the floor after this operation thoroughly.
Difficult to remove stains
Sometimes some stains are particularly difficult to clean. It could be the case of some rubber marks or, even worst, some oil or grease spots. In this case, you can go for cleaning with Degreaser, a strong alkaline product that can solve many of those cases. The product should be handled with care and preferably by a professional; we strongly recommend performing a test in a small area before proceeding. It could be necessary to reapply the final sealer after this deep cleaning.
Extraordinary maintenance
Sealer maintenance
We expect our protective transparent sealing system to remain in service for at least ten years (on residential floors.). If needed, it's always possible to reapply a coat of Cerbero Sealer or Gigi Sealer after a light sanding the floor.
Correction of minor defects
It's possible to correct minor defects. However, matching the original shade could be challenging. We recommend saving a small amount of the original product used to overlay so that you can later grate the hardened product to obtain a powder of the same shade as the original microcement. If you don't have this possibility, you can guess the colour with the following technique. Let some dyes dry completely, then with the help of an alcoholic solution, rub a sponge first on the pigment and then on the microcement surface. You can mix the different shades, applying a veil of colour per time until you reach the desired result. Remember always to finish the operation with a clear sealer. As a final consideration, reapplying an entire coat of microcement is often easier and cheaper.
Good to know
Rubber feet are evil. No matter what quality, if left in the same position for a long time, rubber releases some solvent that sticks to the surface. The effect is the glueing of the chair or table to the floor; when you move it, you probably detach a layer of sealer or, even worst, a part of the microcement. Always use felt feet.
Our microcement and protective sealers are non-yellowing however, over a period of time UV rays will slowly fade down the microcement shade. If you let a wardrobe, a rug or any other object for a very long time on top of a microcement overlay, when you remove it, a good chance is that you will see a darker mark.
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