Jamie,

First of all, the term steam cleaning is a misnomer.  The real name for what
most people call steam cleaning is "hot water extraction". I use truck
mounted hot water extraction to clean stone floors all the time. It is our
primary method of rinsing a stone floor.  It delivers heat as well as high
pressure for agitation.  Agitation and heat are two of the ingredients of
the cleaning "pie". The other components of the pie are time and chemical.
In regard to wood floors, we keep water away from them, generally speaking.

Stuart
Santa Fe Floor Care

----- Original Message -----
From: <flooramor@aim.com>
To: "Restoration and Maintenance" <sccpartners@stoneandtilepros.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 9:46 AM
Subject: [sccpartners] Steamers

> Hello all,
>
> A homeowner asked this recently: is it ok to use a floor steamer to clean
> my stone floor?
> What about steaming my wood floor?
>
> I know that you need detergents to "clean" and to cut through greasy
> soils. So I don't understand how just steam alone will address that.
>
> I don't think that the heat and pressure is such that there would be
> concerns about damaging any fills or causing spalling.
>
> On wood though... I don't know. You are really only steaming the surface
> and the surface should be the protective coating.
>
> Thanks for any feedback.
>
> J
> flooramor
> Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with Nextel Direct Connect
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