Painstaking laboratory and in field testing over a period of five months has resulted in a dramatically improved gloss for SPARTACUS when burnished with standard speed buffers 350-500 RPM as well as electric and gas straight line burnishes from 1000 to 1500 RPM. The gloss results are amazing and so is the slip resistance being above .5, drying all areas we have tested *.
Careful attention to film flexibility has meant that marks and scuffs, once cleaned, can be burnished out, leaving an ultra smooth wet-look shine. This easy repairability is not at the expense of film hardness. Spartacus is extremely durable and resistant to scratching, marking and black scuffs.
Toughness and Wearability - it is amazing
Usually, wet look floor care systems have two major problems.
- They show a high level of yellowing
- They lack film toughness due to high levels of styrene being included into the acrylic emulsion to increase gloss. Wet look finishes usually allow dirt to penetrate and have poor adhesion; therefore they scratch and wear away faster.
New Spartacus on the other hand, stays cleaner and clearer longer. Film resilience and toughness stays the same from the day you laid it, if you stick to the maintenance plan.
Less stripping means you save money
By introducing a cut back and recoating programme on a rotational basis around your floors you dramatically increase the life of the floor. Spartacus blends in well after a light or a heavier cutback and recoat. Extension of stripping cycles to over 12 and up to 24 months is achievable with a well-planned and executed programme.
Summary of Advantages
- Can be applied to any hard floor including Terrazzo & Stone.
- Increase toughness and flexibility gives extended life.
- Brilliant wet look gloss, under U.H.S or regular speed machinery.
- Rich, deep, clear, look without yellowing for easy patch coating or rotational cut back.
- Increased life before stripping necessary.
- Easy “Goof-proof” application with poly cotton mops, sharks or fringes gives easy - glide applicator levelling.
- No basecoats required on sheet vinyl or floating timber floors.
- Low cost versus performance, even the high coverage saves money. Count on 30 to 35 square metres per litre after pre-sealing.
Directions for Best Results
Preparing the Floor
For best results totally strip the floor at the beginning. Use MELTDOWN, SLEDGEHAMMER or STEAMROLLER II if the floor has a high buildup or uses semi - permanent base sealers.
Both Meltdown and Sledgehammer are no scrub, no rinse strippers and therefore don’t require a water rinse unless you are sealing alkaline floors like terrazzo or concrete.
STEAMROLLER always requires a water rinse and a neutralisation. Refer to details on the individual product information sheets for these products.
Neutralising the Floor - Stone / Concrete
Add NEUTRO into your first rinse water at the rate of 1ltr per 100ltr (in scrubber) and apply this solution to the floors as you scrub and pick up stripper slurry.
To improve the performance you should use cold water on the first scrub and warm to hot water (if available) on you second scrub final rinse.
Dry Burnish the Floor
This is important as it reduces the porosity on vinyl tile, removes “bits” of floor finish that may not have been picked up by mop rinsing or auto scrubber. The most important reason to burnish is to assist in the building of gloss and to help seal the pores in the vinyl to reduce the amount of sealer required.
Sealing the Floor
If the floor is porous like commercial vinyl tiles, terrazzo, marble and stone, you will require a sealer to penetrate into the surface and create increased bond strength and to increase chemical spill resistance.
On porous vinyl tiles we recommend BEDROCK (usually no pre-sealer is required for urethane coated tiles, floating timber and sheet vinyl) as SPARTACUS can be used as a sealer polish on these surfaces.
On porous stone surfaces we recommend BLOCKADE or BEDROCK if ultimate whiteness is required. BLOCKADE deeply penetrates and “locks on” the surface to provide a rubbery, scratch resistance. Normally one or two coats are applied.
Finishing
SPARTACUS is easy to lay by any method; it is fast drying between coats except when laying with a fringe mop. We are against the application of heavy coats of polish, especially in winter. Use a polyester cotton mop in winter and apply thinly, leaving at least 25min between coats, longer in high humidity.
Normally 2 to 4 coats will give the type of surface finish and gloss you are looking for, the more coats the glossier the surface and the longer it will last.
Maintenance
We recommend the use of SUPASTAR maintenance cleaner to maintain the ultimate shine and clarity with a once per week spray, buff or auto scrub and dry buff with REBOUND to build gloss and maintain slip resistance.
Use SHINER in place of REBOUND when you use 300 to 500 RPM buffers.
Daily
Damp mopping:
Add approximately 100ml SUPASTAR neutral cleaner to 10ltr water (1/3 cup to bucket). If mopping prior to a recoat always use a double bucket technique or rinse the floor with cold water.
Heavier soil wet mopping:
Add up to 1/2 cup, 10ltr bucket of cold water and leave the solution on the floor for a few minutes prior to pick up.
Autoscrubbing
Mix 500ml per 50 litres (1 to 100) SUPASTAR in cold water for medium soilage in supermarkets. This can be reduced to 375ml per 50ltr, 21 to 125 on shopping centres. Use soft pads for delicate surfaces like terrazzo, marble and granite.
Weekly Rebound Restores
To improve appearance, increase slip resistance and extend life under UHS equipment we recommend the use of REBOUND for UHS or SHINER for low speed. Applied either by an automatic scrubber in large areas or mopped on as the cleaner restorer in smaller areas, then burnished when dry.
The object of REBOUND is to clean marks and scratches then partially fill these surface marks with large molecules of polymer. When you burnish the floor after it is dry, slip resistance and gloss dramatically improved due to a smoother surface.
Floor pads also remove less polish, when the restorer is used every week so the floor lasts longer.
Spraybuffing
Entrances of building facing the sun -Usually entrances have the heaviest wear and show up “hairlining” and “crows feet” in the traffic lanes.
SPRAYBUFFING with REBOUND for UHS equipment or SHINER for low speed is an easy way of building a wet look, continuous glossy film in entrances and in traffic lanes. This is usually accomplished on smaller sites where auto scrubbers are not used.
Autoscrubbing
Dilute Rebound after shaking the container, 1 to 80 parts water (800ml per 100ltr).
Spraybuffing
Dilute Rebound 1 to 20 parts water, spray lightly and burnish when still damp to clean and restore. Ensure that pads are perfectly clean.
*AS/NZS 4586:1999 Australian Standard currently states that all floors must exceed an average reading of 0.4 on a dry level surface over a length exceeding 0.8 metres. Rev:020603
