Floor Care Glossary.
Every term you'll meet when buying, running or maintaining commercial floor cleaning machines — explained plainly by the people who've built them since 1949.
22 terms
- AAuto scrubberAn auto scrubber is a floor machine that lays down cleaning solution, scrubs it with a rotating brush or pad, then vacuums the dirty water back up through a trailing squeegee — all in one pass. The floor is left dry enough to walk on immediately, which is why auto scrubbers replaced mop-and-bucket work in commercial buildings.
- BBrush pressure (floor scrubbers)Brush pressure is the downforce a floor scrubber puts through its brush or pad, quoted in kilograms. It is what turns rotation into soil removal — with no weight on the disc the brush skates over the film instead of cutting it. Across the range it runs from 6 kg on a battery machine to 40 kg on a ride-on.
- BBurnishing vs polishing vs buffingBurnishing, polishing and buffing all describe running a pad over a finished floor, and the industry uses the three words loosely. The one difference that holds up is pad speed: polishing and buffing happen on a rotary in the low hundreds of RPM, while burnishing runs at 1500 RPM and above to bring up a high gloss.
- CCFM (commercial vacuums)CFM stands for cubic feet per minute — the volume of air a vacuum moves. It is the spec that tells you how quickly a machine will carry debris up the hose and into the bag, and it is a better guide to real cleaning speed than motor wattage, which only describes the power the motor draws from the wall.
- CCO emissions (gas burnishers)CO emissions are the carbon monoxide in a gas burnisher's engine exhaust, and they are the reason LPG machines have to be managed indoors. POLIVAC fits Closed Loop Engine Emission technology, which adjusts the fuel mixture automatically and, on POLIVAC's own figures, holds CO under 30 ppm. Ventilation and monitoring still apply.
- CCarpet extractor vs carpet cleanerA carpet extractor is a specific machine: it sprays solution into the pile under pump pressure and vacuums it straight back out, carrying the soil with it. "Carpet cleaner" is a loose umbrella term that can mean the same machine, the chemical in the tank, or the contractor doing the work — so it is always worth asking which is meant.
- CConcrete grindingConcrete grinding uses diamond-segment tooling on a rotating head to cut a controlled layer off a concrete slab. It is done to flatten high spots, strip old coatings and adhesives, open the surface up so a new coating will bond, or expose the aggregate as the first stage of a polished concrete floor.
- DDirect drive (vs belt drive)Direct drive means the motor turns the pad through a gearbox mounted straight above it, with no belt in between; belt drive carries power across pulleys to a separate pad spindle. POLIVAC's single-disc polishers and scrubbers are gear-driven through the sealed Polidrive gearbox. Its burnishers and the Shark are belt-driven.
- DDwell timeDwell time is the period a cleaning chemical is left in contact with the floor after application and before it is agitated or extracted, letting the chemistry break the soil bond instead of the machine. There is no universal figure — the chemical manufacturer's label states the dwell, and that is the number to follow.
- EEncapsulation cleaningEncapsulation cleaning is a low-moisture carpet method: a polymer solution is agitated into the pile, then dries into brittle crystals that surround each soil particle. The next vacuum pass lifts the crystals and the trapped dirt out together. Carpet treated this way is walkable again far sooner than after hot water extraction.
- FFloor polisher vs burnisherThe dividing line between a floor polisher and a burnisher is pad speed. POLIVAC's polishers run 362–375 RPM, slow enough to scrub, strip and spray buff. Its burnishers run 1,500–2,500 RPM, fast enough to heat the finish and lay down a wet-look gloss. A polisher does several jobs; a burnisher does one.
- FFloor strippingFloor stripping is the removal of every layer of old polish or sealer from a resilient floor, back to the bare substrate, before a fresh finish goes down. Stripper is applied and left to dwell, the softened finish is broken up with an abrasive pad on a low-speed machine, then the slurry is recovered and the floor rinsed neutral.
- HHEPA filtration (commercial cleaning)HEPA filtration means the machine exhausts through a High Efficiency Particulate Air filter, which captures 99.97% of particles at 0.3 microns — the hardest size to trap. On a commercial vacuum or a suction polisher it stops fine dust being blown straight back into the room, which is why healthcare, aged care and education specify it.
- HHot water extractionHot water extraction is carpet cleaning that injects heated solution into the pile under pump pressure and vacuums it straight back out, carrying the suspended soil with it. POLIVAC's heated extractors hold solution at up to 70°C and run from 220 psi on the Terminator to a factory-set 500 psi on the Predator MK3.
- PPSI (carpet extraction)PSI in carpet extraction is the pressure at which the pump delivers solution to the wand jets, and it decides how deep into the pile the spray penetrates. What matters is working pressure at the tool, not the pump's maximum rating: POLIVAC's Terminator runs at 220 PSI, while the Predator MK2's 2000 PSI-rated pump is factory set to 350 PSI.
- PPre-sprayA pre-spray is cleaning chemical applied to carpet and left to dwell before the extractor goes over it. Giving the chemistry time to break down soil and oils means the extraction pass is mostly rinsing and recovery, so you get a cleaner result at lower pressure and with less water left in the carpet.
- SSealed gearboxA sealed gearbox is a closed, oil-filled housing carrying the gears between the motor and the pad, so dust, water and stripping chemical never reach the gear teeth. POLIVAC calls its version 'Polidrive' — single-reduction helical gears on deep-grooved ballraces, sealed and oil-filled — and warrants the gearbox for two years on the PV25.
- SSpray buffingSpray buffing restores gloss to a polished floor between full recoats: a fine mist of spray-buff solution is applied to a small section and worked immediately with a pad on a rotary polisher. The solution fills light scuffs and the pad lays the finish back down, so the floor comes up glossy without a full strip and recoat.
- SSqueegeeThe squeegee is the rubber-bladed assembly trailing behind a scrubber’s brush head. It channels dirty solution into a narrow band where vacuum recovers it into the recovery tank, leaving the floor dry behind the machine. If the squeegee is worn, split or badly adjusted, the machine still scrubs but leaves the floor wet.
- SSuction polisherA suction polisher is a rotary floor polisher with a built-in vacuum that captures dust and debris as the pad works — polishing and dust control in a single pass. Polivac invented the category with the PV25 in 1969.
- WWalk-behind vs ride-on scrubberThe choice between a walk-behind and a ride-on scrubber is decided by floor area per shift, not by budget. A walk-behind such as the Mitchell COLT clears about 1,750 m² an hour on a 508 mm path; the ride-on Mitchell Brumby clears 3,300 m² on 560 mm, because the operator rides instead of walking. Work out the area first.
- WWet/dry vacuumA wet/dry vacuum is a canister vacuum built to pick up liquid as well as dry soil, using a sealed tank, a float shut-off that stops airflow when the tank fills, and a bypass motor whose cooling air never passes through the recovered water. Running a dry-only vacuum over standing water ruins the filtration and risks the motor.
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Your distributor speaks fluent floor care — they'll translate the jargon into the right machine.