Filthy floor not cleaned in 10 years transforms back to sparkling with four-letter method

Cleaning the floor is one of the most commonly skipped tasks in the home, and before you know it weeks, months and even years can pass by without mopping it. The longer a floor is left without being cleaned, the more dirt and debris build up on the surface, making it harder to clean when you eventually get around to it.

But it is possible to restore a dirty floor back to its former glory, with a dramatic before-and-after video from a Victorian cleaning company showing the transformation of a kitchen floor that hadn’t been mopped in 10 years.

Murrays Cleaning owner Amy Murray told nine.com.au they approached the deep clean using the CHAT method of chemical, heat, agitation and time.

“We always look at that first, and then we decide what chemical we're going to go with. So we would do vacuuming, sweeping, moving all the debris first, and then we'd look at the CHAT method and what kind of surface we're cleaning,” she said. 

“With this surface, it was lino so that meant we had to use an alkaline solution and a scraper and lots of hot water and a lot of time.”

Floors should be deep cleaned at least every one to two years or more often if you have kids and pets.

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“Your floor will tell you when it needs deep cleaning. So if the mop head's gripping while you're mopping, it needs it. If the edges are looking dirty, then grab a cloth and wipe along, and if it's coming off that's when your floor needs to be deep cleaned. Or your grout; your grout tells you when it needs deep cleaning if you've got tiles,” she said.

If you don’t have local floor cleaning services or choose to do it yourself, Murray recommended following the CHAT method and using a pole with a scrubbing brush on it to save you bending and kneeling.

Then you need a chemical to clean the floor with and for that, you need to know what is suitable for your floor type.

“You can’t buy one magic bottle from the supermarket, unfortunately – no one product’s going to be for every floor. If you’ve got built-up grime, then an alkaline solution would be the cleaner I would recommend. For oil or grease in your kitchens or that area, you would need a degreaser. And you’ve got to remember the surface, so if you’ve got tiles, then you need alkaline, if you’ve got vinyl flooring, it’s more your degreaser.”

For deep cleans, Murrays Cleaning often uses hot water, but for those cleaning their own home as hot as your tap water gets is fine to use, it doesn’t need to be boiling.

The Shepparton-based company also prefers the mop and bucket system with a microfibre-looped mop head.

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“It picks all the dirt up into the mop head, so when you’re putting it into the bucket, we use the terminology called pluming, like mushrooming your mop head in the water,” she said.

As for mopping technique, Murray uses an S-pattern with the mop and frames the edges with the mop first to ensure every part of the floor is cleaned.

To keep the floor cleaner for longer, she recommended vacuuming and mopping more regularly and wiping up spills as they happen.

“Pay more attention to your high-traffic areas; your kitchens, your entrance. It's just keeping on top of it, to be honest,” she said.

“If you do a good mop once a week, then you can spot-mop it when you need to.”