Floor Polishers: Add Sparkle to Your Floors

Before you go for one of the stylish floor polishers seen in jazzy ads, get yourself acquainted with the essential properties and functions of this needful appliance.

Floor polishers are tools indispensable to professional flooring masons. They are used to finish all kinds of floor construction/installation. But households, too, often find it useful to keep a supply of floor polishers for the proper maintenance of their high quality floors.

A note to clear up a bit of confusion here – floor polishers are a class of hardware equipment for polishing floors, but people who handle those machines are also called floor polishers. In this article we shall use the term to mean the equipment, not those who drive them.

Floor manufacturers’ instructions will often recommend regular use of floor polishers. Moisture and heavy wear create scratches on the surface finish, and this can only be put to right through sweeping, vacuuming and polishing with floor polishers. Always follow manufacturers' recommendations on how to use floor polishers. Here is a list of tips:

• Use floor polishers right after the installation of unfinished or semi finished floors, and sometimes even pre-finished floors.
• Use floor polishers to refinish worn areas, whether through stains or scratches.
• In case of persistent re-coat failures, use floor polishers in addition to screening (light sanding with proper grit screen/paper). This will ensure proper adhesion and finish.
• Consistent use of floor polishers in buffing areas of heavy traffic will help to retain luster.
• Pre-finished or factory-finished floors can be screened and re-coated following manufacturers direction, but using floor polishers on a compatible finish is usually considered the better option.

You learn the better use of floor polishers through practice at home. Generally the gear comes with detailed instructions of use, but these aren't always enough. Don't be disappointed if you can't achieve desired results at first, specially when working at difficult niches.

There are a number of moderately priced books describing floor polishers thoroughly. If you're a do-it-yourself type, you'll enjoy reading up on these to polish your skills to a sparkle.

For more information, choose from one of the following links:

Hardwood Flooring | Wood Flooring | Bamboo Flooring