# Floor cleaning?



## JLNorthGA (Jun 8, 2012)

I sweep. I mop.

After dance recitals, I'm always fighting glitter on (and off stage). Sweeping and mopping get most of it up, but it is a bit of a PITA to do this.

My shop vacuum (with its 6" or so attachment) doesn't quite cut it when vacuuming a 30' W stage. Not to mention the back and side stage areas.

Dust mops (while good for touch ups) don't really do the trick.

If I have to buy a bigger, better vacuum (with appropriate attachments), then so be it. I'll find the money somewhere.

What do y'all use for those big expanses of floors??


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## DiscoPony (Jun 8, 2012)

We use a power industrial floor cleaner with a light abrasive pad takes the glitter right off.


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## JohnD (Jun 8, 2012)

You about have it, you sweep, you mop, you change water and mop again, and still there is glitter.(or confetti)
If I had my druthers and a budget for lots of double stick tape, I would wrap all offending mobile glitter shedders in said tape, and roll them across the floor, first pass, ds to up, then sl to sr, repeat as necessary.
I have heard of venue's which have an added fee if the renter uses glitter, tinsel or confetti. It might be worth a try.
As far as equipment lots of options, I wonder what this thing would do with glitter:
Floor Care Machines & Vacuums | Sweepers | Global® Industrial Push Sweeper | 442972 - GlobalIndustrial.com
It's for shop floors and parking lots mostly, but it might work.
Then there are the wide area vacuums, like big hotels and resorts use:
Floor Care Machines & Vacuums | Vacuums-Wide Area | Hoover® CONQUEST Bag Upright 18" Wide Area Vacuum | 442418 - GlobalIndustrial.com
Then there is this bad boy:
Floor Care Machines & Vacuums | Scrubbers | Mastercraft® ROBO Robotic Battery Scrubber | B548944 - GlobalIndustrial.com
Or this one:
Floor Care Machines & Vacuums | Scrubbers | Mastercraft® Sauber Ride-On Scrubbers - GlobalIndustrial.com
It is interesting that the riding one is the SAME price as the robo one!
Something to consider, is get on the mailing lists for local auction houses who do surplus auctions. You might get a good deal on a wide area vacuum. Also state, university and public school auctions. A nearby University used to handle their surplus auctions in house, some guy from accounting would be the auctioneer, Um, does anyone want this bunch of stuff, um how much...ok sold. The uni finally wised up and turned it over to a real auction company. There went the great bargains.


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## gafftapegreenia (Jun 8, 2012)

You will never get rid of all of it.


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## Footer (Jun 8, 2012)

Wet a towel. Wrap the towel around a push broom. Run it over the stage. Throw the towel away. If you buy stage towels like we do this should not cost more then a buck.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## sk8rsdad (Jun 8, 2012)

gafftapegreenia said:


> You will never get rid of all of it.



... and after you rent the floor sander and repaint your floor you will still find bobby pins; no matter how many times you sweep, mop, vacuum, or run a magnet over the floor. 

I think it's the 4th law of thermodynamics.


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## chausman (Jun 8, 2012)

sk8rsdad said:


> ... and after you rent the floor sander and repaint your floor you will still find bobby pins; no matter how many times you sweep, mop, vacuum, or run a magnet over the floor.
> 
> I think it's the 4th law of thermodynamics.




gafftapegreenia said:


> You will never get rid of all of it.



Resistance is futile. While we cannot completely eradicate _them_ from our spaces, there are certain measures you can take. Things like what were mentioned above!  Some other things, are to tape off things such as floor pockets, and vacuum/clean regularly in backstage areas, before the mess gets too big to handle.


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## peacefulone61 (Jun 9, 2012)

We had a rental they put glitter into their paint and painted the floor with the glitter. 20 coats of floor paint later and it still shows through


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## DuckJordan (Jun 9, 2012)

Two things aren't allowed in our space without a ton of upfront money... Open flame... and glitter... we are about to add confetti to that list...


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## Sayen (Jun 10, 2012)

Confetti and glitter are on my banned list, along with fire.

I wonder if requiring a client to clean up their own glitter would help get the message across. Can I write that into the contract?


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## jglodeklights (Jun 10, 2012)

15 pounds of clay dust. We wanted to put this dance piece last in the set of three, but the piece that eventually ended up after them needed the final spot because they had 44 performers + a car driving in to the space and a post-piece dance party. We had half of the 44 from the next piece plus myself, the SM and producer on stage during intermission cleaning up the dust. I don't think it has left the space completely yet. 

Also designed lighting for another piece that used 110lbs of salt, in various forms, during each performance. Next semester, I was in an intro to dance course as part of my general education courses. Salt was still letting us know its presence. 

Glitter is the herpes of theater with confetti a close second. Assuming Marley, it will never be perfect, but a good mopping with a towel as per Footer's suggestion, especially a less finely knapped one, will pick up most of the glitter. Don't expect all of it to go, though. Not gonna happen.


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## zmb (Jun 10, 2012)

Fake snow loves to make it everywhere, and it stands out on drapes. Which are fun to get to when dead hung. I LD'd _The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe_ which had a snow-filled first act that got all sucked up and redistrubuted the desk day on the set. An army of techs with bucket vacs was set out during intermission, thankfully the audience in a small theater drowned the noise out.


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## 2mojo2 (Jun 11, 2012)

I wonder if one of those sweeping compounds they sell at the custodial supply places would help trap glitter.
I used substantial amounts of paper confetti, mylar confetti and talc for Seussical but cleanup did not seem to be a problem.
Glitter, on the other hand, seems to have a half life.
About the time we have the theater virtually clear of it, another act shows up with glitter.


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## tdeater (Jun 14, 2012)

We have not had a lot of luck with cleaning it.... We usually start with a backpack vacuum cleaner, then follow up with a floor scrubber. Of course later we find it on all of the chairs, door handles, etc.... We had a high school fashion show come in, and I was very clear with them to not use glitter. They did very good with it until about 2 minutes before the house opened, when one of the girls decided that glitter spread around on the floor would look pretty. Well, for the show it looked like the stage was covered with dirt.... Many passes with a vacuum, floor scrubber, brooms, dustmops, and we ended up painting over it.... We had one dance come in and they all had pink feather boa's on at one point. This was like 3 years ago, and I still randomly find pink feathers in some of the strangest places, like on the grid, lighting catwalks, mechanical rooms.....


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## Aman121 (Jun 14, 2012)

Last year a beauty pageant/dance group came through with excessive amounts of glitter and idiocy. One parent accidentally spilled a can of red glitter backstage in front of the sound rack. We had cleaned most of it up and forgotten about it, but recently we took apart the rack for cleaning and found every amp to be full of red glitter! Im scared to see how much is collected in the dimmer rack.


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## MPowers (Jun 14, 2012)

Arson, Flames, perhaps call in an air strike. Burn the building to the ground, bull doze the site and rebuild. This will guarantee getting rid of 97% of the glitter, all the paper confetti and plastic snow.


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## JLNorthGA (Jun 15, 2012)

Thanks for the wide variety of responses. A lot were quite entertaining.

I will try the floor sweep compound (or maybe some rough stuff from my turning projects). I'll see if I can find some money for some better vacuums.


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## JLNorthGA (May 29, 2013)

Alexander1990 said:


> What about the steam cleaning? because I see that is more safe way to clean the floor and other products. So I think guys you should try that.. because there are one extra benefit of steam is it also kill the germs.



Not a good idea with a painted masonite or wood floor. It would take the paint right off. Then you would have to repaint.


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