The purpose of stripping a floor is to remove all the old floor finish off the floor. Over time floor finish can turn yellow and can build a haze. If burnishing or polishing your floor does not correct this, it’s probably time to strip your floors and do a new recoat. Stripping a floor can be a quick and clean procedure if you have the correct tools for the job. The use of a good floor stripper will make your life much easier, it’s better to have the floor stripper remove the wax rather than using hard labor. Removing old floor finish is basically a three-step process:
– Apply the floor stripper and agitate it.
– Remove the floor stripper from the floor.
– Rinse the floor and neutralize the floor stripper.
First, remove all obstacles and furniture from the area. Set up an area of about 200 to 400 square feet. This will be the area you start with. Cordon off the entire area that needs to be stripped by setting up the necessary caution/wet floor signs. Place mats down to remove protective footwear and avoid tracking stripping materials to other parts of the buildings. Finally dust mop to remove all debris, dirt, and large objects from the area.
Line a mop bucket with a plastic liner. This will keep the stripper contained and not allow it to enter the bucket area. The mop bucket can then to be used for future mopping purposes, and not just relegated to stripping jobs. Put on the necessary safety clothing, like our disposable plastic shoe covers or floor stripping protective boots, face masks/respirators, gloves and safety glasses then pour in the stripping solution.
You’ll want to sufficiently cover the 200 to 400 square foot area you already set up. Apply generous amounts of solution with a mop and let it sit for a few minutes to loosen the floor finish before continuing to the next step. Do not allow the stripper to dry.
Take your floor-stripping pad and attach it the pad driver on your floor buffer or auto scrubber. Some areas will require several passes to strip the floor completely of the old floor wax. A stripping pad may be needed to properly get into corners and up against baseboards. A baseboard stripper or cleaner may also be needed to properly clean the baseboards.
If you are using an auto scrubber, after a few passes of just scrubbing, lower the squeegee, and recover all the stripping solution while continuing to scrub. If you’re using a floor buffer you’ll need to use a certified wet recovery vacuum that is specialized for stripper recovery. Pick up this solution immediately after scrubbing, you don’t want this solution to dry on the floor.
Use a fresh mop bucket, or remove the liner from the mop bucket you were using and fill it with clean water. Add 1-2 ounces of floor stripping neutralizer per gallon of water. You can also use your auto scrubber or floor buffer mounted with a solution tank to accomplish this. Just make sure to use a different scrub brush or pad than the one you used to strip the floor. Mop and scrub the entire area with the neutralizer water combination to try and neutralize as much of the alkaline in the stripper as possible.