Spring Cleaning: Maintaining Dance Flooring

After much anticipation, Spring is finally here. As we put away some of our winter coats, it’s time to take stock and get in the spirit with a good Spring cleaning. This week we will focus on cleaning dance flooring.

Why are there special guidelines to clean dance floor, it is just a floor after all, right? Well yes and no. While dance flooring is a floor, and you are able to dance on any floor, marley (aka dance) flooring is an investment primarily designed to increase consistency as well as proper speed control for your dancing. More information can be found here about the benefits of dance floor.

With good maintenance, you should be able to get five or more years from your dance floor. Dirty marley floors can also become slippery and a danger to dancers, no matter their experience level. 

Not the best way to clean a dance floor, but certainly creative (CC by 2.0 Photo by Wendell H. Oskay or Wendell H. Oskay)

Some of the easiest ways to properly maintain dance floor is to keep street shoes and heels off the dance floor as much as possible. This simple step goes a long way to keeping dirt, rocks, and scratches off the dance floor. Make sure to dry mop the dance floor at least once per day.  This will help to clear out any debris that may have accumulated since the last dry mop. 

Once a week make sure to give the dance floor a good cleaning using an all purpose cleaner followed by a quick mop with just plain water. Be sure to use a cleaner designed specifically for marley dance floors.  Cleaners containing acetone, ammonia, and alcohol can melt, dissolve, crack or dry out the dance floor while vinegar or bleach could damage the surface. Still others can leave a residue behind making the floor either too sticky or too slippery.

Mops can come inside, tree limbs need to stay off the dance floor (CC by 2.0 Photo by Photobobil )

Finally a few times a year use a heavy duty cleaner to strip and deep clean your dance floor. At the same time, if your dance floor is taped, this is a good time to rip up the old tape and lay some fresh new dance floor tape or cloth gaff tape, whichever you prefer.

We at StageSpot are here to guide you through the process and make sure it is a painless and enjoyable as dancing should be.