Page 9 - Parquet International January 2014

These two photos
show the defect caused
by an erroneous cleaning of planks with tangential cut grain: the floor is clearly marred by white specks.
plaints regarding varnish finishing and de- fects of any kind in pre-varnished floors have never been heard because the result is almost always flawless. This also applies to oil finishing: we might say that the com- mon problem of “specks”, “craters,” and in- clusions, or the equally notorious “empty spots” (restricted areas in which the oil or varnish was not applied) just simply never occur in pre-finished floors.
On the other hand, a new anomaly or defect (however you wish to call it) has appeared: the cloudy patches that remain on the sur- face of painted pre-finished floors created when the parquet installer finishes the floor’s surface and removes the residue of synthetic glues by hand. The task is usual- ly performed using a cloth dipped in chem- icals capable of removing adhesive residue, usually blends of low volatility chem-
icals that dissolve the adhesives used to lay pre-finished floors. Even if these blends do not contain too many harmful substances, they are, in any
case, chemical products that must be used and dosed carefully under con- ditions of safety.
These adhesives can be bi-
component or even single-
component polyurethanes, and
during the laying of the floor the
parquet installer sometimes acciden- tally touches the pre-finished floor’s surface with the glue and soils it. It also happens that parts of adhesive accidentally drip on- to the floor after laying, in this way requir- ing their removal by cleaning the floor, and the sooner the better - within two or three hours at most - before the glue has the time to reticulate completely, but unfortunately
such prompt remedy is not often made. The general tendency is to clean up everything at the end of the job, or even worse, a few days or even weeks later.
It must be borne in mind however that the later removal is attempted, the harder clean- ing will be, if not impossible.
How to clean
Pre-finished floors must be cleaned by pour- ing the cleaning solution onto a cotton cloth, not just on any old rag that happens to be lying around. Cleaning solutions are some- times poured directly over floors with the intention of wiping away bonding adhesive residue with cloth while giving a general cleaning at the same time. This is a serious mistake: the idea is to remove the glue, but it only gets dissolved and spreads over the
floor’s entire surface. This also happens because often the cloth is not even changed or only one cloth is used for the entire room.
I’ve even seen floor in- R
This microscopic photo of the exposed areas shows
the presence
of chemical substances in the highlighted area.
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