Gentlemen: I have a pharmacy that has a floor that dips and dives like a roller coaster. VCT tile and we are supposed to strip and refinish this floor semi-annually. Other than spending a lot of money on 3M Troubleshooter to take care of the high areas , does anyone have any suggestions on how to handle a floor in this condition?

Bill

What's 3M troubleshooter?

3M Troubleshooter is baseboard stripper and very effective. Clings to surface.

Bill

We do floors like this from time to time. Although I've never really found this to be much of a problem. Maybe its because when I strip, I REALLY flood the floor with strip solution. I also have my guys to push the solution around a bit during dwell time, to recover the high spots.

If you're using a very aggresive pad & high quality speed stripper, you shouldn't be having a big problem. Those high spots have a low spot right next to them, so as a result, this automatically creates more pad pressure as you go over the high spots and should strip easily. That is unless you are using an auto where the heads are floating.

Just curious. If the high spots are that high, are you getting heavy duty buffer burns there?

Darryl:
Yes, the floors are that wavy that we have to be very careful when burnishing. We have come to know the high spots in the floor for the most part and basically have to burnish around them. This leads to an uneven shine but the difference in height makes it impossible to do . I have a 20" electric burnisher, perhaps with a smaller unit we could work around the sides but this one job does not warrant spending that money. Suggestions.

Bill

As far as burnishing goes, I'm not aware of anything that you are not already doing. We all have a few of these accounts.

The only real solution is for the customer to have a tile setter come in & remove the tile & fix the high spot & put down a new tile. Unfortunately many just won't go to that expense.

If you're buffing frequently enough, using a softer pad helps some. But if the customer doesn't allow you to service the floor frequently, it's hard to get the shine up with a softer pad.

I remember reading about a cylinder type buffer. Buffing brush (pads) work like a beater brush of an upright vaccuum clnr. I think it is Karcher that makes it, supposed to eliminate burns on high spots. Also, wasn't Rick looking into a finish that greatly reduces/eliminates burns?


Tile Doctor

Its not the High areas you need to worry about..

they get hit with foot traffic and buffer burns and get the most aggitation from the floor machine..

its the LOW areas where sometimes the pad/brush wont get down in there, also its where the finish puddles a little when put down, and it doesnt get walked on as much..

make sense??

trust me when you strip this floor, the high areas will be clean, it will be the low areas youll see the finish still there..

you using a propane strip machine or a swing machine??

Doug:
We'll be using a swing machine, but to be honest, the floor is so wavy that i am considering just doing a deep scrub with the autoscrubber and a black pad and top coat it with 5 coats. The floor slants all over the place and the stripper will run and puddle like crazy. Absolutely no way it will sit and get proper dwell time anyplace. Unless , I used baseboard stripper to strip the whole floor which at 13.00 a can doesn't make sense.

Bill

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!

If you have a slanting floor, that is a problem.
You can strip it, but it takes a lot of time & effort.

I'd make sure you charge accordingly.

Wow! that is really a huge price for a can of shooter.
check out this site. Their product is even better than Troubleshooter and a lot better priced. They private labeled for the company I used to rep for.

Clairemfg

click on Carpet/Floors and look at item # C856

Tile Doctor

Thanks Mike:
e-mailed them and we'll see if they distribute in Canada.

Bill