What is a Floor Buffer?
When it comes to securing the right type of equipment to use in buffing a floor, nothing works as well as a floor buffer. Designed to both clean and protect wood, marble, and linoleum floors, the floor buffer gently dislodges dirt and also leaves behind a glossy finish in the floor surface. Here are some of the characteristics of a quality floor buffer, including some guidelines for choosing the right floor buffer for home or business use.
Floor buffers are usually employed along with some sort of a cleaning agent. It is not unusual for the liquid cleanser to be sprayed on a section of the floor just before the floor buffer is ran over the area. The cleaning agent will help to loosen dirt and grime from the surface of the floor, making the process of obtaining a clean and glossy floor much easier.
The typical floor buffer will resemble an upright vacuum cleaner, although the body is usually more square and larger than the usual vacuum. Rotary brushes operate at speeds that are determined by the type of floor. The use of a steering handle and a set of controls make the operation of the machine possible. The controls are used to manage the direction and speed of the rotary brushes during the operation.
Since buffing floors in different settings will require a variety of speeds and mobility, there are different sizes of the floor buffer on the market. Commercial or industrial buffers are usually larger and will cover a wider area of the floor with each pass. Some commercial models also double as a floor stripper. Increasing the speed and the pressure employed by the rotary brushes can move the floor buffer from simply cleaning the surface to stripping off wax building up or stain is accomplished by adjusting the settings on the floor buffer. These combination floor strippers and buffers tend to be very expensive, but are almost an essential when it comes to maintaining floors in public buildings.
For home use, smaller versions of the floor buffer often work very well. Designed to handle the usual home traffic, they will operate at lower speeds and often do not include a stripping feature. Instead, they simply work in conjunction with a cleaning agent to lift dirt and grime and leave behind a cleaning and shining floor surface. The home floor buffer is much less expensive than industrial types, and also tends to be smaller. This allows the home floor buffer to easily get into tight areas, such as in the bathroom or nooks and crevices in the kitchen.
Written by Malcolm Tatum
