Dace said:
patandchickens said:
Dace, have you tried just hot water alone? Possibly with a little soap on particular areas if necessary?
I know that I should fele perfectly fine with that but perhaps the nearly 42 years of commercials have convinced me that I need somethign stronger
To do what?
Look at it this way. There are 2 kinds of cleaning: "removing visible dirt or crud", which let's call mechanical cleaning, and "reducing populations of bacteria", which let's call biological cleaning.
The only reason to add something to hot water for mechanical cleaning would be
if plain water and scrubbing aren't enough, primarily for greasy substances. Soap or other surfactants work well for most situations, or acids for dissolving mineral deposits. (Since travertine IS a mineral deposit, and is highly acid soluble, there is probably a limit to how much you should use acid on it, tho I say this from a minerological standpoint not as any sort of flooring expert
)
For producing a biologically (somewhat) clean surface, scrubbing with hot water and a bit of soap is actually reasonably effective, esp. on nonporous surfaces, because it physically wipes away many/most germs and soap tends to damage bacterial cell membranes. You can go with other stronger cleaners (stronger surfactants, alcohols, bleach, etc) for more-intensive decontamination, but frankly, for a FLOOR? Why? You're not licking it, and you *are* walking all over it anyhow.
So, I'd say definitely try just hot water and see what you think
Pat
