# Cleaning of 'Zebra mats'



## KempoSpirit (Dec 12, 2012)

Hi all, it's been a while since i was here.
I'm wondering for any of you who have zebra mats installed as flooring, have you ever tried cleaning them with the 'chem dry' process/company.
I usually clean them with a simple 12/14" floor washer with the brushes.  This works great, but is VERY time consuming for a large floor.
I'm looking for another more time efficient way to clean them, then i won't mind doing it more often.
I'm looking at 'chem dry', but if that doesn't work, I'll go the route of getting a larger commercial floor scrubber. (more expensive)
Thanks, 
Jeff


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## Steve (Dec 12, 2012)

Couple questions:

Do you allow people to wear shoes on your mats?
Do you clean your mats every day? 
If so, what's your daily cleaning routine?
How are your mats getting so soiled that they need to be scrubbed?

We're a little bit on the germaphobic side at my BJJ school.  We have Zebra mats and keeping them clean is a priority as we don't want anyone to get anything like ringworm, staph infections/MRSA or impetigo, which are all very possible if care isn't taken to keep the mats clean.

We never allow shoes on the mats and require that anyone who goes into the bathrooms put their shoes on.
We clean the mats every single day.
The way we clean the mats is to sweep and then mop using about an oz of Simple Green and an oz of a broad spectrum fungicide/virucide/bactericide made for the job.

We also keep disinfectant handy for blood or anything like that which might get on the mats and clean them up right away.

I can't imagine how a chem/dry process would be helpful.  I may not understand what you're referring to fully, but the chem dry process I'm familiar with was designed for carpets and the value is that it eliminates the long drying time that steam cleaning carpets has.  On a mat, you can get better coverage with a traditional mop, and if drying is a concern, you can run over it with a clean towel and it will be dry in a matter of minutes.  Also, the chem dry process involves powder and I, for one, wouldn't want to put that down on a mat where I might breathe it.  

Hope this helps.

Edit:  Here's a quick description of three commercial mat cleaners.  We use Maxima 128 along with a little Simple Green.

http://www.mademan.com/mm/best-wrestling-mat-cleaners.html


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## KempoSpirit (Dec 12, 2012)

Hi Steve, thanks for the reply.
Our routine,
no shoes allowed,
bathroom floor vaccumed daily, spot checked and washed weekly.
main workout floor, checked for drops after every class, vaccumed every day, unless bigger events, washed once a month.
We used to mop it originally, but took to long at night, large workout area.
We went to a floor washer because it did a better job than just mopping, no residual dirt from dust, etc., and that it kept the floor cleaner.
The problem is that it takes me 2 - 3 hours just to wash the floor.
I'll probably go to a larger commercial scrubber to make up the time.
The reason i mentioned 'chem dry':
- don't want to go the route of forced hot water or steam, so as not to force any water into the mats accidentally that i can't pull back out,
- and they claim their process activated w/water, not forced or steam, has some sort of micro-bubbling effect that might help pull out the dirt/dust/etc from the texture of the mats better than just mopping and quicker than i'm doing it now.
The info on the cleaners is helpful.
Thanks for the info.
Jeff


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## Steve (Dec 12, 2012)

How large is your area?  I can't imagine it would take that long... that's pretty astounding.  As I said, we're pretty hardcore about hygiene and clean mats, and it takes about 10 minutes to clean and disinfect about 1500 sq ft of mat space.

You're talking about a matted area and not a carpet.  Right?  I just must be missing something.

Anyway, good luck to you.


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## jasonbrinn (Dec 12, 2012)

Steve's method seems very sound.

I had a custom Swain matting system around 1200 sqft once for BJJ and I used "Nature's Miracle" urine cleaner diluted with water to clean it.  It worked very well and we never had any issues - plus it helped with smell as well.  I cleaned the mat every night and it only took about 30 minutes.  I know the texture of Zebra mats are different having trained on them since the beginning of the company, but I can't imagine this wouldn't work for them as well.

Good luck.


Jason Brinn


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## Carol (Dec 12, 2012)

At my buddy's place (he is building a training hall in the basement) he has zebra mats.  We mopped them after each training session with a bit of Murphy's diluted in water...took very little effort, esp. with 3 or 4 people.  Usually took longer to fill the mop bucket than it did to mop the floors.


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## Kwanjang (Jan 7, 2013)

I have 2,000 square foot floor with Zebra mats.  I am also fanatical about clean! Over the holidays we needed to deep scrub the mats and I didn't want to buy the machine on the Zebra web site so we hand scrubbed them. That was a piece of work! dirty! So I am going to invest in the machine.

http://www.zebramats.com/catalog/mat-scrubber


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## Steve (Jan 7, 2013)

Do you guys wear outside shoes on the mats or something?  I just can't figure out how they get dirty enough to warrant a professional grade scrubber.  


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## Danny T (Jan 7, 2013)

I have 2500 sq ft of mats. Absolutely no shoes on the mats. You go in the restroom you must wear shoes. We hold 6-8 classes a day. Sweep every other day. Mop with Odoban everyday. Use a pump sprayer to apply and mop with micropads. We have 4 micropads, one person sprays the mats and with 4 people moping it takes less than 5 minutes. Have use this method for the past 4 years. Mats look good, are clean and we have no problems.


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