Did you know that you can wreck a floor by using the wrong colour floor pad?

Make sure you and your team know the correct colours to use.

Black

The standard stripping pad, for heavy duty wet stripping of emulsion polish.

You can't effectively use any other colour for stripping and you must use this wet. If you use this pad dry you will damage floors.

Use with slow speed Scrubbing Machine. 100-200 rpm you cannot effectively strip polish with a high speed machine.

Green

Ideal for wet scrubbing/cleaning and can be used to "knock-back" polish before re-coating.

Perfect for deep cleaning, ensure the pad is wet before use.

Not to be used on polished floors, unless you want to remove polish. That said, green is not good for stripping polish, it's not aggressive enough for that. Ideal for cleaning heavily soiled or hard to clean floors.

Use with slow speed Scrubbing Machine or Scrubber Dryer 100-200 rpm.

Blue

Often overlooked when floor cleaning pads are talked about. Halfway between Green and Red it is a very useful Polishing and cleaning pad.

Perfect for spray cleaning a polished floor with heavy scuff marks which makes it ideal for school corridors. Also can be used for scrubbing/cleaning delicate floors where you might be nervous of using Green.

Use with slow or high speed Cleaning Machine or Scrubber Dryer 100-400 rpm.

Red

Red is best known as a spray cleaning pad. It polishes and cleans at the same time.

It's a mild floor cleaning pad. Often recommended for use by flooring manufacturers for Scrubber Dryers as there is no risk of it damaging the floor or coating.

Not aggressive enough for scrubbing.

Use with slow or high speed cleaning machine or Scrubber Dryer 100-500 rpm.

White

The mildest floor pad. For dry burnishing or buffing of soft floor dressing.

Will burnish a polished floor to a high shine. Only use on a clean floor, this is polishing only. Can be used on a Ultra-High-Speed burnisher as long as you keep moving as it will overheat the floor if you stay in one spot too long.

Use with high speed Scrubbing Machine. 350-500 rpm.

Tan

A mild polishing pad. Generally would be used dry for dry burnishing.

Very mild, won't damage even the softest of dressings. Used for waxed wood floor with a high speed machine.

Use with high speed Buffing Machine. 350-500 rpm.

Melamine

This guide would not be complete without including these fantastic floor cleaning pads.

If you have ever used a magic sponge or eraser sponge, these are the same material in the form of a floor pad. Excellent for deep cleaning of safety flooring. Not cheap, but worth their weight in gold and will save you valuable cleaning time.

Use with water and whatever you do, don't use them dry as they will wear out very quickly if you do.

Use only with slow speed cleaning machines or Scrubber Dryer 100- 200 rpm.

Light Blue Thermal Pad

This is specialist pad for use with an Ultra-High-Speed (UHS) buffing machine. With this combination you can get amazing high gloss results, making the dressing harder wearing.

It's very similar to the white pad, except it has less material in contact with the floor. This is to allow more air to pass through and reduce heat building up on the coating.

Only use with a UHS buffing machine. 1000-3000 rpm.