Floor care for a small commercial kitchen
Floor care for a small commercial kitchen
A restaurant kitchen floor is a different problem from a domestic one. The soil is greasy, the surface is usually textured quarry tile, and the floor has to be genuinely non-slip before service starts. Ninth Avenue is full of kitchens, and this is the kit they buy.
Why kitchen floors are different
Grease does not rinse away with water. It emulsifies with the right detergent and then needs mechanical agitation to lift out of the texture of the tile. A quick mop over the top removes what is loose and leaves a thin film that is exactly what makes a kitchen floor slippery.
Quarry tile is deliberately textured for grip, which means it holds soil in the surface. That texture is why a deck brush matters more than a mop for the main clean.
The working kit
- A 35-quart bucket with a side-press wringer, on castors.
- A loop-end string mop, mid to heavy weight.
- A stiff deck brush for agitation.
- A separate bucket for rinse water, or a divided-tank bucket.
- Wet-floor signs.
- A squeegee if the kitchen has a floor drain.
The mop alone is not the system. The mop applies and removes; the brush does the actual lifting.
The order that works
- Sweep thoroughly. Loose debris under a mop becomes a paste.
- Apply the solution and leave it to dwell. Degreasers need contact time — applying and immediately removing wastes most of the effect.
- Agitate with the deck brush, working the texture of the tile.
- Squeegee to the drain if there is one, or mop up with the wrung mop, rinsing in the dirty bucket.
- Rinse with clean water. Detergent residue left on the floor is itself a slip hazard.
- Leave signs out until it is genuinely dry.
The rinse step is the one most often skipped and the one that most affects how safe the floor is.
Dwell time and dilution
Follow the instructions on whatever product the kitchen uses. Over-concentrating a degreaser leaves residue and is not more effective; under-concentrating means the grease is not emulsified at all. Neither is a judgement call worth making by eye.
We sell the equipment rather than the chemicals, and the dilution figures belong to the chemical maker.
Drains and mats
Floor drains need lifting and cleaning on their own schedule; a clean floor draining into a blocked gully is a short-lived achievement.
Anti-fatigue and grease-resistant mats should come up and be cleaned separately, not mopped around. The floor underneath a mat is where soil accumulates unnoticed.
Daily, weekly, periodic
Daily: sweep, mop with degreaser, rinse, signs out.
Weekly: full deck-brush agitation across the whole floor, drains lifted and cleaned, mats up.
Periodically: replace mop heads before they are visibly finished, and check the wringer pivot for grit.
Equipment care
Mop heads used on grease need laundering more often than heads used on general soil, and they wear out faster. Rinsing the bucket and wringer at the end of each night stops grease and grit accumulating in the mechanism, which is what seizes a side-press wringer.
Practical checks
- Buy the deck brush as well as the mop.
- Use a divided-tank or two-bucket setup.
- Allow dwell time before agitating.
- Always rinse after a degreaser.
- Keep signs out until the floor is dry, not until you have finished.
- Lift mats and clean under them.
Where this sits in the shop
Everything discussed above comes back to one part of the shop: Spin and Flat Mops, which currently holds 1 listing. The whole of it is picked and packed at Manhattan Hardware & Housewares Inc., 688 9th Ave, New York, NY, during Mon–Sat 9am–8pm, Sun 10am–6pm — so anything written here can be checked by phoning the counter on ((212) 757-4571.
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Read next
- Choosing a mop bucket: 22, 26 or 35 quart
- Side-press or down-press wringers
- The two-bucket method, and why one bucket spreads dirt
Ordering from Manhattan Hardware and Housewares
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