Hi there all, looking for some input on health club cleaning. We've got issues with grout not looking that great despite nightly disenfecting w/ hand scrubbing plus a weekly anti-fungicidal appliction. We're doing our first machine scrubbing this week (HC opened 3 months ago) so I expect it to snap back and probably plan on increaseing the scrubbing to monthly versus every quarter. Not a big fan of sealing it because of the traffic and the tile so I guess my two big questions are:
1) what are your succeessful maintenace schedules when it comes to showers/lockerooms in health clubs?
2) and has anyone had experience with epoxy grout? are they commonly found in health clubs? Has anyone done or had a clinet regrout with an epoxy sealer/grout? Is so, please describe process and chemicals.
Thanks.
We clean a veterinary clinic that installed ceramic tile with epoxy grout (gray tile, black grout). This grout has been wonderful. It is impervious so won't absorb urine or soil. It never needs re-sealing. The only downside is during installation. If the installer doesn't remove all of the surface grout haze, the tile will be difficult to clean in the future. Once the epoxy has cured it is nearly impossible to remove the residual haze.
In showers and locker room our schedule was to scrub once per week on the floors and with the showers walls and floors daily.
With epoxy grout you will commonly find it in restroom area because it is stain and mildew-resistant and it does not need to be sealed.
What color is the grout line? If it is black it might be furan grout, sort of like epoxy and is used exclusively in commercial buildings. You will see it on the floor in McDonald's.
Thanks for all the replies! Turns out there was an error on the buildout specs and it should have been epoxy grout in both areas. The construction company tried to get away with simply sealing the grout but we presented the following picture from another facility we will be serviceing in the future and they decided to regrout. At the future client, the previous company sealed with standard sealer then added finish - their suggestion. Management said it looked good at first but quickly deteriorated, looked worse, and seemed to cause more odor 'trappings'. Once the old company removed it, the grout never looked the same and seemed dirtier. Next step was a topical paint on type epoxy sealer. Not sure if it was done wrong or if it was a substandard product but it quickly flaked off and made the floor look worse. I'de be interested to hear from anyone who is familiar with this method/product. I think it may be called saniglaze or something like that.
Saniglaze is a restorative process done by a franchise operation. If it was done by Saniglaze you should contact them about re-doing the job. Perhaps it wasn't done right.