How To Extend Floor Stripping Programs

Minimizing floor maintenance costs by maximizing time between stripping

Steps to launching an extended stripping program

1) Determine Goals:
    • Appearance (wet look or clear and clean)
    • Impact soil removal (autoscrubber or scrub and re-coat)
    • Stripping cycle (Are you shooting for every four years?)

2) Identify Necessary Products:
    • Walk-off mats (enough inside and outside for each foot to hit twice)
    • Dust mop (microfiber is preferred, with no treatment)
    • Daily wet cleaner (neutral cleaner for light soil loads with flat mops)
    • Top scrub cleaner (daily cleaner may do the job)
    • Floor finish (consider a 25 percent acrylic finish)
    • Stripper (do the stripper test)

3) Outline Procedures:
    • Sweep sidewalks
    • Vacuum walk-off mats daily
    • Wet clean walk-off mats periodically
    • Dust mop floors (“A” areas more than once per day)
    • Wet clean (damp mop or auto scrub daily)
    • Burnish (for appearance only)
    • Top scrub to remove impacted soil (good time to re-coat traffic areas)
    • Strip and re-finish (do a pre-test to determine dilution and contact time)

SKIP SEAL is a trainer and consultant with more than 30 years management experience in the cleaning industry. He is a LEED Accredited Professional and a Cleaning Industry Management Standard (CIMS) ISSA Certification Expert (I.C.E.).