Floor maintenance is a vital task of building maintenance crews; as many public office buildings, hospitals, shopping centers and other facilities feature tile or hardwood floors largely because such floors are relatively easy to keep clean, it's important to do so without damage. A janitor who knows his floor maintenance brushes inside and out is a janitor you can trust to keep floors spotless and nick-free.

Here are five of the most popular floor maintenance brushes:

Floor Maintenance Brush #1: Eraser Pad. An eraser pad is a relatively new and specialized floor maintenance brush designed to clean polished, varnished or finished floors. The pad eliminates the need to re-wax floors after cleaning. The eraser pad removes scuffmarks without harming finish.

Floor Maintenance Brush #2: Burnishing Pad. When combined with the proper floor finish, a burnishing pad dresses floors to create the popular "wet look." These are great for daily use on high-traffic floors. Some burnishing pads have dust filtration features.

Floor Maintenance Brush #3: Grit Brush. These aggressive scrubbers work for heavy-duty jobs, or for stripping finish from floors. Great for scrubbing brick, stone, ceramic tile, marble, or concrete, as they're embedded with a firm, coarse grit that scrubs surfaces clean of just about anything.

Floor Maintenance Brush #4: Steel Wire Brush. These floor maintenance brushes offer the strongest and hardest brush wires available. Be careful not to use these on soft surfaces, as they have the potential to inflict heavy damage.

Floor Maintenance Brush #5: Grout Cleaning Brush. These combo brushes are real workhorses, creating multi-level cleaning action great for general scrubbing. As their name implies, these brushes can also pick up excess grout after a construction job.