Revealing the Actual Floor Color

We got the fallacy of this idea brought home to us on one of our very first jobs. We were about to strip and refinish the lobby floor of an office building. The finish looked in pretty good shape, a dark terrazzo floor with a decent shine remaining. We started Friday night, planning to finish up on Saturday. Unfortunately, the previous cleaners had merely put more finish down, probably after a good mopping with dirty water, wherever the shine dulled. So we spent Friday night, Saturday, most of Saturday night, and Sunday going through layer after layer of shiny dirt. When we finally got the dirty finish off, we discovered that the floor was not black after all, but a light gray terrazzo with brass separators between blocks. These had been completely invisible under the shiny dirt.

Shiny Dirt vs. Shiny Finish

This problem is not restricted to commercial floors. Using a one step cleaner and finish will often lead to this problem if the floor is not cleaned well. Another example is when grease or oils build up on a surface creating a shiny coat. When the surface is finally properly cleaned it may be less shiny. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t clean or was damaged, it just means it lost its coat of shiny dirt. Once a surface is clean a new coat of finish or polish can be applied as appropriate if a shinier finish is desired.