Strip, steam rinse & re-wax VCT floor

Westmont Hardware,  did some major shelf relocation, and the VCT under where the shelving was was dirty and all crusty.

After shelving units were moved the accumulated dirt where they were located looked bad. It did not clean up. Even their own automatic scrubber didn’t make a difference. Clearly the floors needed professional attention.

So when Paul White, a customer stopped in, he said “Bill, call Sparkle to help you, they will fix this for you!”

While I am not sure who brought up the subject, Paul had no hesitation in referring us. A client for over a year now he is very pleased with the floor care we provide for him at the Navy Yard. He loves how spit shined the floors are now that we implemented a program for him.

At a loss, Bill was thankful for the referral, and wasted no time in calling us. We agreed to come see the store and get him an estimate. While on site, Chris decided to do a “demo.” This way Bill could see the potential in restoring the floor. It also gave us a chance to experiment with the right ‘prescription’ of tasks, cleaning agents and tools for results we all wanted.

The demo.

Doing the demo for Bill would be telling, and it was. In fact, Bill was excited, and said “when can you start, I can’t stand these floors one more minute!”

So while we knew it would look fantastic compared to the current state, we did have time management concerns. It would be challenging to get it done working around their long hours of operation. So the agreement was to divide the job into three visits, right at closing, after 6 pm, during the week. And the team gathered accordingly.

The work.

The guys convened and got down and dirty real quick. And quickly we got good results.

Turns out instead of nasty chemicals it was mostly dirt and dried up, puddled mop water. The surface soil released both with the stripper application, and rotary scrubbing (with a buffer). Day one produced good results!

Bill was on hand all three days when we executed our work, and clearly pleased. It was acceptably clean, and decently shiny.

In fact, as he chatted with Jeff, Jeff asked was the level of shine acceptable, which went as follows: ‘Hey Bill, is this good enough for you? I can stop here, but if you want your floors to look like Macy’s I can do that too. It’s just going to take more time for that.” And without missing a beat, totally satisfied with the way it looked currently, Bill responded, “Well, this is no Macy’s!”

So the mutual conclusion for both Jeff and Bill was that the level of shine was surprisingly good. The floors look great, and certainly welcoming for a hardware store.

Instructions for daily care, and periodic treatment.

Jeff prescribed a daily pH neutral floor cleaner, and promised we’d get him a sample.  He further reviewed the daily practices of mop care. This includes the use, storage, and replacing swapping out of the daily mop so that they wouldn’t over use it.

A common mistake is to overuse a souring mop that contaminates the floor, not cleans it. It clouds up the shiny clean floor with dirt residues. It detracts from the work we created to shine the floor. Instead of overusing a mop Jeff suggested replacing it maybe every 2 weeks with a new one. And since Bill sells them, it is probably a $2-3 dollar investment that is well worth it.

Then Jeff brought up suggestions to keep the floors looking good. “Bill if you want these floors to continue to look like this we need to assess the condition say 2-3 months out, and then Chris can establish a periodic floor treatment for you. This will preserve the results we have obtained.

Team Sparkle ‘Aced’ the floor stripping and refinishing all the way! And the patrons all loved it, with several complimenting Bill about them and the better flow of traffic.

Your VCT or commercial floor needs help? Our secret combo of methods no one around is offering will out deliver for results beyond belief. (See for yourself!)  Free Estimates. Call 609.953.0472. Or Contact Us on line and we’ll reach out!