Floor polishing - why keep the shine?

Source:www.stonediamondtool.com Date:2016/10/21 Read:776

Traditionally floor polish manufacturers developed solutions that gave a corporate floor the brightest, shiniest finish – a floor with a mirror-like look. Thinking has now changed and suppliers must ask: does the customer really want shiny floors? Writing exclusively for ECJ, Matt Baines of Premiere Products explores how trends in floor polishing are developing and how manufacturers are adapting their solutions.

As a business with close to 90 years experience in the manufacture of products for the cleaning industry, floor polisheshave always been very close to Premiere Products' heart. We must, however, accept the current decline in popularity of the polished floor but would argue and hope to explain here, that there is greater complexity to the whys and wherefores behind this current trend than a simple matter of aesthetics alone.

Through detailed analysis we know that sales of floor polish have shown a shallow but undeniable decline in recent years. What’s interesting though is that analysis also reveals sales of lower gloss, satin finish products remain relatively low compared to their high gloss counterparts. Illustratively our satin product only accounts for approximately one per cent of our total floor polish sales year on year with the other 99 per cent made up of high gloss finish products.

We can surmise therefore that those of our customers who continue to apply floor polish are, by a landslide majority, in favour of high gloss finishes over lower gloss alternatives. This being the case perhaps the question is not a matter of whether low gloss is preferred in favour of the high gloss or 'wet look' finish but rather is there any merit in applying a floor polish at all? “To polish or not to polish” if you will!

What then are the factors that may lead to a cleaning service provider choosing not to apply a floor polish and are there any potential pitfalls in making this decision?

This question we feel is best answered by a simple list of pros and cons:

Why do cleaning service providers choose not to polish?

•There is a widely held misconception regarding floor treatments that glossy/shiny floors are slippery and therefore a health & safety risk. However this is quite simply not true. Please see our point below relating to the slip resistant merits of modern polishes.