i am glad i decided to buy the Tile brush attachment with my Challenger. i did a test area in a men's rm of an office we clean 5 nights a week. i put some d-limonene (sp) cleaning solution down at a little stronger dilution than i normally do. let it sit for 5 minutes then threw the brush attachment on and went to town. took about 8 minutes (including dwell time) and the tile looked AS good as when i have had others use there TM and Turbo type tile and grout cleaning tool. the D-limonene product is just something i clean the restrooms with and mop with, nothing special. i am sure with the proper tile cleaning solution, the results wouldv'e been superior.

normally it has taken subcontractors 60, to as long as 90 minutes to do this room. i could easily do it in 25 minutes. i've had guys bring in rotaries, shopvac's, air-movers, mops, mop buckets, towels, hoses, Turbo-type-tools...i would only need my Challenger, a mop and bucket.

so my question is : the solution was sloshed up against the tile baseboards a couple - few inches. this wasn't a problem as i just ran the mop over that area as i was post-mopping. but if i was to do this in someones home, how would i keep this stuff from sloshing onto the baseboards, or bottom of a painted wall or if the tile butts up to carpet, keep it off the carpet?

i know these are noob questions, but thanx for your patience and tips

--- Derek.

ahh i did a search and see someone mentioned putting seomthing like a 3-4" ring of plastic (like landscaping stuff) around the Challenger to help keep the slurry from hitting the walls and other surfaces....great idea!

i also noticed someone say that Procyon is good for Tile cleaning, will have to give that a try. i hear Abstraction works good as well...gotta try that someday.

what are you all using?

thanx --- D

Depending upon the sensitivity of the surrounding wall or floor covering material, you might want to protect it as if you were using paint. Try using the EZ-off blue masking tape , or the 2 or 3-foot high
plastic sheeting with the sticky upper portion, that
temporarily adheres to the wall along the top edge and covers down to floor level. You shold be able to
buy this at stores that sell paint to commercial painters. I think I read where someone suggested using a 19" single-ply cotton pad so that it kind of flops down around the perimeter of the Challenger.
(Or was that what you just referred to above?)

I purchased a splash control ring from Hesco. Very durable hard plastic. It is made for the larger rotary machines. I had to drill a couple of holes in it so that it would fit my machine. Really cut the slinging down.

Actually the OP seems to do a better job on grout then the truck mounts and turbo. The bristles seem to pick the grout lines clean. I have helped a friend of mine on numerous tile jobs that just weren't getting clean enough. The op was able to get the jobs done.

Derek,I have tried quite a few different brands,but never in a side by side on the same floor.More often than not it is the same floor on the next visit.Abstraction,Havard's Alkiline/Acid products,Oxyblaster,Stonetech's and a new one;Final Results.All of them "can" do the job but some require a much longer dwell time than others.The one I'm dissapointed with the most is Harvard's line simply because of the fact that their dillution ratios are c**p,way too much product needed to do a sufficient job.If I'm not mistaken,John G. mentioned that he may boost Abstraction with a little Argo,I could be wrong.
As far as solution splashing;get a grout brush or a deck brush so you can "cut in the room" and the brushes typically reach under kick boards.When it comes to entry areas adjoining carpet and tile or wood and tile,I simply take a couple of old towles folded up lined up across the width of the entry then I place one of my painter canvasses over that to act as little staging area to prevent anything that has contacted the t/g products from creating an unwanted situations.

My understanding (from a post I read a while ago) is that Abstraction is the product sold by 1st Environmental Safety (www.1stenvirosafety.com??) with an equal amount of water added. Why not not just buy this product, add some Argosheen, and ratchet up the mixture until it seems to be doing the job?

With abstraction/1st enviro there seems to be a point of diminishing returns on stronger mixtures.

yes Mark that is what i've read. seems there was some "controversy" about this over the past couple years...dunno why.

at any rate, i am encouraged to see someone else above say how the tile cleaning with an OP machine is as good or better than a TM and Turbo tool.

i tell ya, every time i use the Challenger i am thrilled with the results, whatta machine!

thanx Lee Watson!

--- Derek

First off I have to say that I love my Challenger,use it everyday,whether it is an OP clean or in conjuction with my TM.
Now having said that,I will say that in a Tile & Grout clean I have only once by it self.The results were fine but most of the T/G situations that I come across it simply wouldn't suffice.For example,Friday night/Saturday morning we did a 3,000 square feet retail store.Never cleaned in five years,just plain filthy and nasty.We pulled out the TM,Cimex and the Challenger and did I mention that I ran out of propane almost halfway through...? Can you say DUH!I give the Challenger a shot on every T/G job to see what it will do in that particular situation.In this case the brush attachment couldn't cut it so the Challenger was delegated to a 'high speed" mop this time to pick up moisture left over,the store manager need to move items to and fro.Now I always wonder when the brush doesn't perform:are my expectations to high?Was it the soil load?Design of the brush?Alignment of the stars and the moon?Unfortunatley,no 2 jobs are alike

Don't know if the Challenger has additional weights for tile and grout. The machine I use does and the extra weight makes all the difference in the world.

Try attaching runners' or divers weights to the machine for extra weight.