The moment that you realize it’s time to strip your commercial floors, you need to have the right equipment and advice. If you don’t have a professional floor stripping machine, you may be tempted to rent one.
It’s best to have your own machine because then you’ll know the type of use it’s received and you won’t put off stripping your floors longer than you should because you don’t own one.
As for the procedure:
1. Choose the right floor finish stripper. You want a stripper that is going to work well with your floor first off. Second, you want to avoid any chemicals that say you don’t need to rinse the floor after use. These would actually leave a solvent behind and that’s not safe for you or your clients.
2. Clean the floor thoroughly. Before you begin stripping the floors, sweep or vacuum them to ensure that they are clean. Any residue that is left behind could pose a problem for your floors.
3. Test the stripper. Choose a small, inconspicuous area of the floor to test the solution on. This should be a portion of the floor that is away from the main traffic area. This is where you will determine is the solution is actually going to be harmful for your commercial floor.
If it is, then it’s best to find out here, at a small area, instead of the entire floor.
4. Once you mix the stripper properly, apply it to the floor. You can apply the stripper using a clean mop or, more preferably a floor stripping machine. If you choose to use a mop then you’re going to be at this for a long time and using a lot of energy.
Apply more stripper solution to portions of the floor that have more wax buildup.
5. Remove the floor stripper. Using a squeegee or the proper machine, remove the floor stripper. Be sure to collect all of the stripping solution from the floor. A machine will tend to do a better and more efficient job than a squeegee.
Once you completed this step, move onto sealing and waxing those floors.