I posted a while back about how we were cleaning the booths in an Old Country Buffet restaurant with encapsulation.
I had my "Helper/Assistant/Girlfriend", use a trigger sprayer to apply the Chem, then scrub with a stiff nylon bristle brush. That worked real good for us.
However, as usual we are always looking to make things easier.
The first thing was to switch from the trigger sprayer, to a small pump-up sprayer. That is easier on the hands.
Then while at Lowe's, I saw the "Black & Decker Scum-Buster". It's a cordless, single head scrubber. It uses the Versa Pack Batteries. It comes with lots of attachments, one of which is a pad driver. I suppose the pad driver is intended to use the various sponges, and scrub pads that came with the scrubber for cleaning showers/bath tubs.
Well,
We took the center plug from one of our Cimex Hog Hair pads(looks like about a 3" disk), and stuck it on the pad driver, and used it to scrub the booths in the restaurant Wednesday night.
That worked great! No more Elbow Grease Needed.
There are 28 booths in the restaurant, one Gold Versa pack battery did 25 of the booths, then we had to go to a 2nd battery to clean the last 3 booths.
One 3" Hog Hair pad was all we needed, and it was barely worn at all.
The Scrub Buster was $34 at Lowe's, I saw it for $39 at Home Depot. It comes with a Silver battery, if you want to upgrade to the Gold battery, that will be extra. Of course you may already have the Gold batteries for some other Black & Decker tool you may have.
Have a Good one!
Tom

Tom,

That's funny, few months ago I was standing there in Home Depot looking at the same Black & Decker tool - and the wheels were turning in my head too. But I passed on it.

It's interesting to hear that you tried the tool and liked it. I thought it looked a little bit flimsy. How do you like the quality of the tool? Of course for the cheap price it doesn't matter a whole lot if it doesn't last a long time. I was also concerned that it wouldn't hold a long enough charge - but it sounds like it worked alright for you. Please let us know how it continues to work for you.



Rick Gelinas

It's not a real impressive looking tool for sure.
But heck, it's not real impressive to spray, then scrub woth the hand brush either. Fortunatley, there's usually nobody around when we do that restaurant.

The gold battery lasted almost an hour.
We will continue to use it in that restaurant, I'll keep ya posted.

Tom,
That sounds like an awfully small tool to be attempting "production type work". May be handy for small areas, but didn't the time factor beat you up?

steve

It was'nt too bad. We've been using a scrub brush & crystal Dry for a while. That's been a lot easier than steaming them. Now with the Black & Decker tool it's just easier. Hand scrubbing 28 booths will wear your arms out.
I've steamed them in the past and that's way more difficult, and time consuming than the Scrub & Run method.
She cleans the booths, while I RX-20 the carpet. So time is'nt too crucial, as long as she gets done before I finish the carpet. It really does'nt matter to me how long she takes on the booths.

Sounds good, Tom. Maybe you'll eventually find something even better. Seems like there's lots of gadgets on the horizon.

steve

On mass production upholstery cleaning jobs like this
one, instead of using a 3" tool, why not use a 10"
orbital car buffer with a velcro circle glued on.
The put on a hair-type pad, spray, and go to work.

Mark Dullea