Bissell Steam Mop left marks on concrete floors--any ideas?

5 years ago

Hi everyone. We have lovely gray concrete floors in our home (purchased in August)--and a toddler and dog so they get DIRTY. After doing research on the best way to clean we landed on a steam mop. However, after using it the first time, these odd light marks were left all over the floor. We just used water in the mop. I have tried to go over them using distilled vinegar and water (read that online) but no help. I am worried we've ruined our floors! Hoping someone has experience here or knows more about concrete floor care than we do. I do not know how the floors were originally finished. Thank you!

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Comments (3)

SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
You've steamed off the finish. That tells me they have a polish....temporary polish. These types of finishes require LOTS of maintenance.

The polymer polishes need a redo every 4-8 months. Yep. That's 1-3 times per year. Every year. For the length of time you leave the concrete exposed. But that's not all! You by to strip the polymer polish every 5th application. That's more work every 2 years or so.

I would find a concrete flooring pro to come in and give you tutorial/add polish so that you can buy ALL the products you will need to DIG the finish for the next 25+ years.

Until then I would use a shop vac. Wet mop with a pH neutral cleaner for floors and then vacuum up the water so you don't get too much water standing on it.

BTW water etched and/or stains concrete. Concrete is porous....more then MARBLE!!!!

Just so you know.
st5330
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
yikes! Its ironic because you think concrete will be easy (I dont know why but thats just what comes to mind) but sounds like its hard. With a toddler id be so scared of them bashing their skull open ( I have 4 kids, aged 6 and under and they fall all the time, or purposefully jump off of furniture etc) to where I'd be putting carpet over it until they are grown or else having them wear their bike helmet at all times in the house. Id be so nervous that concussions and brain damage or worse are just an accident away. And anyway, that sounds like way too much maintenance even if it looks cool
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croge
4 years ago
We’ve got a slab concrete floor with in floor heating in a room addition. The floor has sawn control joints in it so it resembles large tiles. I had the concrete polished, then color etched it myself and applied a wax coating. That was 15 years ago. The room is used as a TV room, art/craft room, teen hangout and has seen multiple spills of food, beverages and even paint products. It still looks great and is super easy to maintain, I just wet mop it. I’ve never redone the surface. My real world experience is decidedly different then all the posts I’ve read from SJ McCarthy, who really seems to hate concrete floors. Only problem with the sawn control joints is that my sewing pins fall down in them and they are hard to fish out. I might put some sort of filler in them.