Movin back in

October 18, 2008 10:41 PM

Floor scrubber, or WHAT

I am about move back into a house I built and was left AS is by divorce. It has 6x12 ceramic tile exceppt thr bathrooms which are 4x4. All grout is unsealed. Best, post divorce cleaning? NO mops please! Lots of pet urine (1.5 years), feces, etc...

posted by raildr to home & garden (7 comments total)

Could you just shell out for one of those cleanup crews that handles crime scenes and the like?
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 11:03 PM on October 18, 2008

Go to your local veterinary clinic and or farm supply store and get the biggest container of anti-pet-urine cleaner you can find, and get to work.

Why are you opposed to mops? If a mop is the best applicator, what's the big deal?
posted by amyms at 11:56 PM on October 18, 2008

Redo the floor, everything else will only be a step in that direction.
posted by 517 at 12:19 AM on October 19, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

my .2Open all the windows. Get a bunch of old towels and the above mentioned strong anti-pet-urine cleaner. Pour it full strength on to the floor, then use your feet to "mop" the floor. Use a clean towel every time one gets completely dirty. Obviously you would throw the towels away afterwards.

If it's really that bad, you will have to replace the floor.
posted by Grlnxtdr at 7:13 AM on October 19, 2008

get a long handled rectangular scrub-brush from a boat supply shop.

And yeah, explain the no-mops rule, it would help answer question
posted by Rumple at 10:20 AM on October 19, 2008

Mops just go back with dirty water, IMO. I will mop but prefer a solution that will let me scrub the floors easily.

Replacing is not an option I can afford right now.
posted by raildr at 10:52 AM on October 19, 2008

Mops just go back with dirty water

This is what the double bucket was designed for.

Really, if you have a big job like this, you're going to want to do several runs for each room. Even if you actually spread a little dirty water around using a single bucket, eventually you reach a point of dilution where it doesn't matter. The thing you measure by is how dirty the water is when you throw it down the toilet. Usually it's pretty dirty even on a relatively clean floor, so you have tangible results of dirt actually removed.

I don't know of any easy-to-use manual floor cleaner that isn't in some way a "mop". There are some nice new fancy plastic mops (Mr. Clean, Swiffer, etc.) that have particular fixes for the mop-averse.

Otherwise, well, get kneepads and scrub, I guess. You'll still want to use a double bucket if you don't want "dirty water"....
posted by dhartung at 12:25 AM on October 20, 2008