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What floor soap is everyone using for their shop?

Pyrex

Aluminum
Joined
Oct 10, 2019
I use to use a product years ago (circa 2000) called "Hotter 'N Hell" made by Zep. It was one of the heaviest bases I had ever seen in a soap, and could clean anything off a shop floor. Unfortunately, it's not made anymore (makes sense, it would burn your hands if you got anywhere near it). I was curious what was available know for epoxy shop floors that actually works and doesn't leave a nasty film that collects additional dirt.
 
Old style powdered Tide laundry soap. But that was then.... I haven't 'scrubbed' the shop floor for a decade! Now, I just wipe up oil spills that are big enough to be slippery, and use acetone for that. Of course, acetone may damage floor coatings. My floor is bare concrete.
 
I use to use a product years ago (circa 2000) called "Hotter 'N Hell" made by Zep. It was one of the heaviest bases I had ever seen in a soap, and could clean anything off a shop floor. Unfortunately, it's not made anymore (makes sense, it would burn your hands if you got anywhere near it). I was curious what was available know for epoxy shop floors that actually works and doesn't leave a nasty film that collects additional dirt.

They made some good ones back in the Day, of course they had to stop due to this or that.
best thing I found was vt-77 soap we use for tumbling alum parts. ran out of some industrial floor cleaner had 5 gals of this for the tumbler and tried it. Works perfectly and almost as good as the old zep products. we put it in our floor scrubber and it worked even better than expected.

We mix it for the floors about 5oz to 1 gallon it they are really bad I just spray it on the floor with a squirt bottle.
 
We use a parts washer fluid, Master Stages Clean 2030, in a powered floor scrubber/vacuum.

Happened by accident. We ran out of the purple stuff and all we had was Clean 2030.

Not only does it work better, but it works better at 1/4 the concentration, around 5-7%, so despite costing more per container, ends up costing the same when diluted.
 
Cat litter and a broom for me. I just have bare concrete. I wonder how many suggestions that will be made here are in violation of local ordinances? You can't even use acetone for anything in the city in Cali I used to be in, cat litter used to clean up spills was considered hazardous waste.
 
A couple cleaners called “Blue Wolf” and “Greased Lightning” do the job here at the Cathouse. Poor a cup or two in a mop bucket of hot water (sometimes with a little Dawn liquid detergent), and go to town...
 
"What floor soap is everyone using for their shop? "

Floor soap? What floor soap?

-Marty-
Exactly!
But when I do need to clean up a grease/oil stain that won't blend in or go away by itself I use Oil Eater. Works great for that as well as other machine cleaning, and bio-degradeable or so i'm told.
 
Tide, the purple if it won't cut but this stuff is just plain nasty and is a last resort cleaner for me.
Purple will cut just about anything, next step up is phosphoric acid, think good toilet bowl cleaner but you have you remove the oil first.
As in ultra cleaning parts its one side and then the other in the baths.
I wonder if a commercial building if dumping purple down the drain is legal. While you can buy this at Home Depot home use and commercial use fall under different rules.
Being a carbide shop I'm not allowed to dump any shop mop water even with no soap into the drain or city system. (heavy metals like carbide bad, cobalt bad :nono: )
Few ever get caught but a friend of mine did. Big fines.
We dump to a 500 gallon tank, filter and evap. Put the remains in the carbide sludge which is sold like most do with metal chips.
Yes it is a pain and cost but you get used to it. You learn very quickly to not overfill a coolant tank.

Once in a ever great while I have to prove that this is being done to some inspector.
It's like "Really........ I have to document and prove my mop water procedures"??

Tide laundry soap is gentle, not nasty to inhale and does a fair job. Other laundry soaps probably do just as well and may smell more to your taste.
If you do filter reclaim these all present a problem as they "wash" your filters so a whole new problem.

To me how the mop or clean the floors floors is a big problem.
Bob
 
Saw dust or "kitty litter" type absorbent from Uline for spills.
Simple green when mopping.
Every now and then if there's room we break out the polisher and use a basic wax/polish made by Zep I think.
We have sealed concrete floors, but are not TOO concerned about stains on them. brush painting dribbles bug me and I'll use lacquer thinner for those which strips the seal until the next polishing.
 
Schaeffers oil products turbo red. Just like the old red hot. Must dilute or your floor will be clean to the pores. If too strong will dull epoxy finish but diluted enough you can wash vehicles with it ( my rep says).


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FYI
the neighbor (mechanic shop) next door borrowed our floor machine and used purple power or something from autozone. he has an acocunt there. works fantastic and its cheap 2 5gal pails for $40 I got 2 of them yesterday.
tried it at our place last night when he was done and it worked just as good as the other stuff we use but 5 times cheaper per 5 gals.
 








 
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