I have posted my issue on ICS and the floor board here, but long story short, we cleaned some rubber backed walk of mats and days later the customer claims the cleaning caused the floor underneath to discolor, and one edge of the carpet has left a blackish wide mark under it.

I told her we used a cleaner that contains Hydrogen Peroxide. Can it dissolve rubber? Is it possible at all to cause this damage?

Without seeing the mats it's hard to evaluate what you're dealing with, but it's highly unlikely that Encap-HydrOx could affect a rubber mat or hard flooring. Do you think the marking he customer is seeing might have been caused from the mat being wet. There's nothing in Encap-Hydrox that would affect rubber - it has a pH on the acid side, contains nothing harsh, and peroxide won't affect rubber. Not sure what may have caused what you're seeing. Can you e-mail some pics?


PS (edit)
I just saw from your post on the ICS board that this is a wood floor and that the mat was cleaned on top of the floor. It sounds like some moisture may have seeped under the mat. And it's possible that a little hydrogen peroxide may have penetrated between the mat and the wood floor. Any degree of moisture between the mat and a wood floor could cause discoloration. Again, it's hard to know exactly what you're seeing, but from the what I read on the ICS board it sounds like you may need to sand the floor and refinish it. To play it safe, I think I would find someone in your area that is a wood floor care "expert". Let them fix it. For a small investment the problem will go away.




Rick Gelinas

You may or may not have caused this problem, the real issue is we do not know if it was cause by the cleaning of the rugs or not.

The client may know or not also, so even if you did not cause it and the client just happened to see this problem now you did it.

As I stated on ICs you could get a rubber backed rug and clean it on the same floor and see what happens. Now I doubt this will help with the client being up set but it will help you in gaining knowledge.

For future referance always move a rug if you are doing in on a wood floor to see if there is already discoloration, clean it on carpeted area if possible, show the client anything you find before you clean a stitch. Anything you tell a client before you start is information anything you tell them after you clean is an excuse

Thanks for the responses,, here are some pics of the issues

I am seeing yellowing. Rubber backed mats cause yellowing to floor finish. This is a very common occurrence. And the condition has nothing to do with the cleaning. The rubber causes the polymer in the floor finish to turn yellow. This occurs all the time where entrance mats are laid on VCT floors that are coated with floor finish. Lift the entry mat in any store you go into and see how yellow the floor has become. Floor finishes simply do not interact well with rubber. Another place where this occurs is when tire stores place tires directly onto VCT floors with floor finish. Unfortunately, the yellowing condition can penetrate through the finish and right into the floor. In the case of VCT tile, the yellow staining can become permanent. It looks very much like that may have happened here.







Rick Gelinas

Why did you clean a rug/mat over a hardwood floor?

We never clean rugs or mats on wood floors, due to the many reasons.
Always do them on a non porous service. No hardwood or stone.

There's only 2 solutions to your problem above. As rick mentioned it's not the chemical.

The best way to "remove" that affected area is to screen the floor, screening is done w/ sand paper on a drum sander. This is done by a hardwood floor pro btw. You can sub the guy out or work something out w/ them. Even though what happened above is not your fault. Letting you know for future situations. What you see above happens to rugs that are placed in residential over a hardwood floor as well. You will get the discoloration.

You'd have to inspect the floor to see if it will qualify for screening which removing the poly and stain out of the floor, than repolying and staining again. This is will remove the discoloration. However if the floor has lots of scratches and deep gauges, the best thing to do will be a full sanding.

A good oscillating floor sander with 220 grit screen would remove it more then likely. We do this all the time, even with a rotary and screens or brushes.

You do know what you are doing though or you can end up in a mess quickly. Hopefully you client will listen to reason on this and you will be ok fine

David

This isn't your fault. I see this all the time on wood floors prior to cleaning.

There is very little chance that the moisture went through the rubber backed mat. We do these all the time over wood and stone. All others get slip sheeted with painters plastic.

The mistake you made was not looking under the mat first to see if there was any discoloration before you started. This is a good lesson for all of this. A quick notation on your signed estimate and your off the hook.

Perhaps you can get an inspector of some sort to look at it and back your claim that it was pre-existing.

Thanks for the info guys, I have an appointment to visit the house again today. I will tell her about the discoloration issues due to the rubber and so forth...

Thanks again

Before you do any attempt at a refinsh. Take some wood floor cleaner like Bona and either a buffer with the big loop bonnets or occillaitng pad machine with a thick cotton pad and try to clean the area if they end up expecting you to fix it. If this is simple residue transfer, this may solve it. You could also try a little citrus gel on a towel and use that to move it prior to your wood floor care product.

Rubber back mats are designed for this exact reason,to not let moisture penetrate as well as to not slip/move.Why in the heck are you going to try to fix a problem that is a normal reaction between wood floors and this type of matting system<anyways it is their problem.

Thanks for all the advice guys. Well after arranging a meeting with the custy and a local floor pro, she apparently went and did some of her own homework.'

Long story short, she realizes its not my fault!

Really thought I was gonna bite this one, thanks for all the good advice and encouragement!