The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 7 letter word FLOOR CLEANER
I've seen this crossword clue in Independent
F
L
O
O
R
C
L
E
A
N
E
R
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.