Powr-Flite Direct, a Fort Worth, TX manufacturer of floor care equipment and carpet extractors, addresses the five questions most frequently asked of their customer service representatives.
1. Why can’t we strip/refinish floors in the winter months?
The optimum temperature for stripping/refinishing floors is around 70°F. Too cold or too hot and the finish may not adhere properly.
2. Why do we get streaks in our floor finish after it has dried?
Streaks in the floor’s finish can be caused by several factors. Possibly the finish was not thoroughly dried before another coat was added; too many coats of finish have been applied; or the finish was applied too heavily.
3. Why are there swirls in the floor finish after burnishing?
Again, there may be multiple reasons: possibly the wrong burnishing pad is being used; similarly, the pad may be too aggressive for the finish applied; too slow or too fast a burnisher is being used with a given burnishing pad.
4. Why is it so hard to remove the old finish on a floor?
When refinishing floors, what many cleaning professionals forget is to allow the stripping solution to dwell on the floor for several minutes before stripping. This allows the chemical to break down the finish so it can be removed more easily.
5. Why does my floor finish “walk off” the floor?
Make sure the finish applied is recommended for that specific type of floor. If the finish is formulated for a VCT floor, for example, it may not adhere properly to a stone, terrazzo, or ceramic tile floor.
“Of course we always add one more answer no matter what the floor care question,” says Gary Pelphrey, general manager at Powr-Flite Direct. “We tell our callers, proper floor care is a systems approach requiring the right machine, chemicals, and training.”
