Hello Rick, I know we talked on the phone when I was down there in your area. Wanted to let you know I'm now back in Michigan, and trying to get my biz back up and going.
Got a possible deal to clean quite a few retail stores, partnering with another company. Problem is that they want me to clean all types of flooring. Like possible strip/wax of their vct. Where can I get some quick advice of the steps for this? ANY ADVICE IS APPRECIATED!
Best equipment, fastest method, chems, etc. They're not going to be too picky, just need it done. I've done some searching on CM and the others also.
They did say most will not need stripping right now. Just need a good scrub w/possible coat of finish.

Have you condidered subbing it out?

What kind of square feet are we talking about here per store?

regards,
Ken Jacobs
Toronto
www.coswaysupply.com

The sqft will be under 1000. The 1st store has 800sqft, a lab, breakroom and 2 restrooms. All areas except the breakroom look to be in great shape. The breakroom has some scuff marks and other spots- probably coffee ect.

They are subbing these jobs to me, and I can double my $$ if I agree to handle all flooring. Trying to contact a guy I know locally that does vct to get some training in, so far haven't been able to reach him. I don't think he'd be interested to take on the extra work anyway.

Doing some research, anyone use the microfiber rectangle type mop to apply finish? Like rubbermaid or Kaivac? Seems like this would be the fastest way especially for small areas like restrooms, with no wasted product.

scrub and recoat.
scrub with Forward from SCJ and a blue or green pad then lay down 2-3 coats of your favorite 25% floor finish.

equipment for less than 1000 feet:
2 mop buckets
2 mops
1 wet vac
1 floor machine 175 RPM.
1 doodle bug
blue, green and maybe brown floor pads
1 finish mop or Rubbermaid system.
scraper

oh yah and this web site http://www.i-boards.com/bnp/cfc/

I agree with Ken for the most part. If you already own a Cimex, you can use that with Rick's Lightning Strip pads. Otherwise I would use black stripping pad for stripping.
Your description makes me think of a popular eyeglass chain whose store I take care of here in FL. If that's the case email me and I explain how I do it. markahart@juno.com

WesBenco you have e-mail from me. I'm in Michigan not sure how close.

Like Mark, I too was thinking of an eyeglass chain that we've serviced.

VCT is not that hard. I think you definitely SHOULD do it! Why leave money on the table, and possibly open the door to another contractor to come in behind you, or possibly take the account away from you?

What you'll need to strip and recoat a floor:

~ Dust mop
~ Cimex
~ FiberPlus stripping pads
~ Wet vacuum
~ Mop-bucket and wringer
~ Mop-handle with mop-head for stripping solution
~ Mop-handle with rinse mop-head
~ Mop-handle with finish mop-head
~ Doodlebug (optional, but a good idea)
~ Floor stripper
~ Floor finish

How to strip and recoat a floor:

1) Dust mop the floor
2) Mix stripper according to label (usually 4:1). Mix with warm water, not hot.
3) Use the stripper mop and a pail or a mop-bucket to liberally apply stripper solution to the floor. Apply plenty of solution to get the floor good and wet. Make sure you don't bite off too much of an area at a time, because you don't want the floor to dry up before you can scrub it.
4) Put Lightning Strip pads onto your Cimex (seriously aggressive pads). And put plain water into your Cimex.
5) Scrub the floor slowly. As you scrub, release a little more water from the Cimex as you go.
6) You may also want to take a doodlebug, or even use your stripper mop, and go along and detail the edges and corners at this point.
7) Immediately, before the floor starts to dry, wet vacuum the slurry from the floor.
8) Immediately (following wet vacuuming) rinse the floor by mopping the floor with the rinse mop and fresh water in a mop-bucket.
9) After the floor is dry you can begin putting down your floor finish, making smooth even coats. Using the finish mop, apply approximately 3-5 medium coats of a good quality floor finish. The amount of coats depends on the solid content of the finish, the porosity of the floor, and the results you are trying to attain. For a sub-contract job like this, you will probably want to apply 3 coats of finish.

The best way to make this profitable is to go in and strip the floor first thing when you get to the job. Make it QUICK - don't waste time! Now start cleaning the carpet. Once the floor is dry, go back and lay your first coat of finish. Now go clean some more carpet. Then apply your second coat. Now clean some more carpet. Apply your third coat and leave it to dry after you have left the building. In this way, you're not sitting around waiting for the floor to dry, instead you are making money doing carpet cleaning the entire time that the floor is drying.

This is an overly simplified, yet detailed, description of the process. I'm not trying to imply that floor stripping is a "piece of cake". There are many conditions that can present challenges when you're stripping floors. It can really make you crazy! Yet at the same time, once you get the mastery of doing VCT floors, you'll find that it's really not so bad (most of the time). And as I mentioned above it goes with the territory (if you're really planning to be a commercial floor and carpet care professional). Go for it!

Hope this info is helpful to you.








Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

In addition to Rick's instructions,

When rinsing, be sure to rinse stripper really good so that you insure the finish will bond.


Thanks
Your Servant Alex

Cultivate the "OCCD" you had at first for the industry!

I've been stripping and waxing floors for over 8 years now. Here are some extra pieces of advise.

1) Find a floor scraper. It looks like a long 4-5 ft pole with a changeable single bladed razor at the end. The razor is ~ 8-9 inches long. I hardly use my duddle bug after I found the floor scrapers.

You can use them to: clean out corners, run them along the edge of your baseboards scraping up the old wax, and spot checking.

2) Use a very strong striper the first time you do the floors and afterwards use a "rinse free" striper.

Chances are high that the people doing the floors before you top scrubbed and waxed. This means that the floors will have way too much wax on them, so tackle this problem with a very strong striper. After using the strong striper you can get away with a rinse free striper to take care of your wax jobs. Rinse free stripers will save you A LOT of time as you will not have to rinse/mop the floors several times (you will have to at least once) to remove the striper.

3) Don't top scrub and wax.

It's a quick fix that will have your floors looking horrible after a while. Just bite the bullet by stripping them every single time. Trust me on this!

4) Be very careful when striping! I have broken bones from slipping on floors with striper on them. The floors will be akin to walking on ice where the striper is dissolving the wax. Be sure to always work your way into a room so that you are always standing on a portion of the room that you have already scrubbed.

5) Have a bucket of water on standby and wear goggles when pooring your striper and wax.

The bucket of water will help you clean any portion of you body that you get striper on. The striper will start to bother your skin if you do not attended to it.

Always wear goggles when pouring striper and wax into buckets. The splash back can reach your eyes as you are pouring it, and either is VERY painful to get in your eyes.

6) Do not use a cotton mop to lay down your wax!

This will leave pieces of the cotton fiber in your wax. Use a rayon blend mop head or find a finishing system (these usually look like dust mops with a mop bucket made for the head).

I could go on and on...

If you have any questions I can always try to help! My e-mail is Karthunk@gmail.com.

I hate stripping floors. I'm always scared that I'm going to ruin the VCT. I haven't yet but I'm sure it'll happen one day.
I say go for it. once you know what your doing it is a money maker. Having said that, every time I do it I swear that next time I'm going to sub it out.
We did a 8000 sq. feet for a school new years day. fretted the whole time. went back the next day to check the work and watched as they moved furniture into the building and dragged filing cabinets across the floor. I had to laugh. Sometimes you care more than the customer.

Thanks guys for your help! Good news! A buddy of mine will be helping/training me for this one. He's a vct expert. Already took a look at it and says it ALL needs to be stripped. Numerous rust spots and most corners/edges are in rough shape.

Jeff, I replied to your email. I'll write you other guys when I get a chance. Yes this is a "popular eyeglass store". 3 more lined up after this one.

What's the average time for 800sqft?

Wes,

An 800 sq ft eyeglass lab should take around 2 hours to strip (not counting the recoating).

Rust spots? Forget about it. They won't likely come off. Rust stains normally penetrate right into the VCT. Rust, or any spot, that penetrates into the floor's surface of the floor is likely now permanent.

On a job like this, you must (I repeat MUST) adopt a less conscientious mindset than normal. These types of accounts don't care! And you will have to blast over the floor and just hope to improve it. The MMM is not going to pay you for perfection, and the store manager isn't expecting perfection either. I know it goes against the grain, but on these low end jobs there's no other way to survive.



Dion,

You are not likely to damage VCT. That's the beauty of the stuff. The vinyl composition runs all the way through the tile, from top to bottom. You can always just scrub a little deeper. In fact, each time you strip VCT, you're actually tearing into the top surface of the tile a little bit. Yet you won't ever reach the bottom in your lifetime. So there's not much chance of doing permanent damage that can't be repaired.



Addendum to my notes above:

Keep a pail/bucket of fresh water handy at the end of the strip job. Immediately when you're done scrubbing the floor - pull the 3 pad drivers off the Cimex, and drop them into the bucket of water. Then take a towel and dunk it in the water and wipe off every part of the Cimex machine that was exposed to stripper. Wipe off the white plastic plate under the machine, wipe off the blue drive deck "bowl", wipe off the wheels and axle, and wipe off the cord. Keep in mind that once the stripper solution dries onto the machine, it will be next to impossible to remove. If you will wipe everything right away, it will help to keep the machine decent enough looking for future carpet cleaning work. (On a side point, if you splash stripper solution onto furniture or walls - be sure to wipe it right away too.)



I hope it goes well for you!








Rick Gelinas
rick@excellent-supply.com

Good info. Never done vct but was always curious as to the procedure.

Question,
Would you say that the coatings that are put in the last step are used for stone tiles. I know this is not the recommended procedure for stone but I've had a couple of jobs that the coating was a pain to strip and I wondered if they were vct coatings.

There are strippers for tile and stone but I'm wondering if using one from the vct side would be worth a try. Any recommendations for a strong stripper?.

Sorry to get off topic.

thanks,
Albert

Yeah, judging from the condition of some of these areas, I can tell they are not too concerned with a top notch job. Just make an improvement.
Talked to Joe last night(my vct guy), says this job would take him 5-6 hours by himself.
I'll let you all know how it goes.