Fellow carpet cleaner seeks to find a comrade to help his client with commercial VCT floor stripping. (Not his gig)

Kind’a a funny backstory. I get a call from a fellow carpet cleaner who wants to find someone who does floor stripping and waxing to help his client. He is a carpet cleaner and floor installer from Point Pleasant, but he does not do floor stripping. So in his journey to find a company to recommend he wanted a smaller company, and called us.

Just like himself as a one stop shop, he found us and liked what he saw about us. Small, “mom and pop”, hands on, with pictures to prove our work. So while talking to him we agreed to meet at his client’s location, in Brick.

His client, The Greenbriar Association, is a large retirement development in Brick. With a bustling and highly active community center, this place is appointed with all kinds of activity rooms. Without looking too hard on a Saturday, residents were all over the place. Besides the pool complex outside there was a gym, a sewing center, I think a pottery room, a wood shop for starters. And as we walked along the way with Jack, our prospective client, we arrived at the all purpose rooms, separated off with folding doors. Behind door No 1 there was a baby shower, and others in door No 2, and a third area not being occupied in door No 3.

With minimal interruption Chris measures all three areas, totaling about 7500 sq feet!

Opened up that is one big “all purpose” room! And with a closer look the VCT is in really good shape. Between Jack and some of the residents, we learned they actually considered replacing the flooring. But when a floor guy consulted with them he commented there was nothing wrong with the floor. It merely needed to be stripped and waxed.

So while we toured the community center Jack revealed he is retiring and moving to Florida next summer.

Without stepping on toes we learned clearly that Jack was all but outta’ here come August. And while he cleaned the carpets for them at the Greenbriar of Brick, he did not do floor stripping, nor did he want to start. With some chit chat we learned he not only cleaned carpet and flooring, he makes sculptured rugs. Preferring to share about a current project and perhaps some cooler stuff, he piped up about working on one for Viking Yachts, earlier in that very morning.

A side bar chat, clearly with common ground we had stuff to talk about!

Although he’s done 4 custom sculptured rugs for Viking, he is a sub contractor, and the Healey’s (owners of Viking)  wouldn’t know him. For us, we do 13 of their family homes, and have done so for over 20 years. If you work for the Healey’s you better be on your “A game” because they will chew you up and spit you out like bait chum if not. For them, it is about execution in every way to its fullest potential. They demand precision and excellence just like their boat owner clients do of them!

None the less it was fun to chat about their boats and the rugs he has made for them. With impeccable attention to detail, I am certain the sculptured rugs were something to see!

With our inspection complete Jack told us to forward our proposal to the admin there at The Greenbriar. Frankly it was a “toodles’ salutation as Frank backed away completely.

Chris has his proposal numbers quickly, and we forwarded them along to our admin contact.

The proposal was received, and they indicated they would have an answer quickly. Carlene indicated she expected if approved the work would be scheduled for March.

Then in like no time she called to tell use she got the approval and we could start earlier than anticipated. So the rooms were blocked off from scheduling resident activities, and we were good to go for a Friday and Saturday, later in February.

With the green light, all loaded up, we arrived like ‘bees on honey’ that Friday AM!

Team Sparkle went at it! With Chris’ steady hand he assigned the work. One guy applying stripper. One using a floor machine to scrub the stripper across the floor. Another to shop vac the excess slurry. And importantly, and the magic secret, one steam rinsing the floor with our truck mount steam cleaner.

What’s the secret sauce here? It’s steam rinsing!

Let me share the logic. It’s typical that the floor stripper is applied, and then it gets rinsed off the floor. Some merely use a mop and a bucket, absorbing the dirty wax-mop slurry with one mop, then rinse with fresh water with another mop. (That’s old school!) Others collect it with a shop vac or portable type carpet cleaner. (That’s a step up the food chain!)

Our steam rinsing out’ rinses beyond typical efforts!

And unless competitive efforts have a $100k set up to do this they will never get the same results!

We do this all the time! Consider the analogy. One guy is washing the car with a garden hose, using soap and cold water. Another guy is pressure washing the same car with soap and hot boiling water. Which one would get it cleaner? We rest our case!

High PSI pressure utilized in spraying the floor makes a huge difference. It lets the technology assist in the work. Add to that temperatures as close to boiling as possible. We know the hotter the water the better the cleaning, and the less effort needed. Along with that, again letting technology do the work, strong vacuum recovery that completely sucks up the dirty mop slurry to a waste tank all but eliminates the physical effort in getting the floor clean.

But let’s dial it down a little deeper while we are at it!

It can be reasoned that high pressure and nearly hot boiling water, together with strong (and I mean strong vacuum recovery) will out clean every time compared to traditional cleaning efforts. The concept that hot water will break old, stale wax down more completely can be reasoned here. Then the pressure exiting the hose also will out compete using a two bucket method. And finally, the strong vacuum recovery that collects the water will generate far cleaner results indeed. It’s a kick tail, take names, whose your daddy kind of process!

Frankly we equate this to going fishing in a 55 gallon drum with a shot gun kind of moment!

It really is a technology thing here that helps us get floors cleaner and faster than most anyone else around. So when you combine the $100K technology set up, with over 200 years combined experience using the latest floor waxes available, that’s what you get when you call us!

Be it floor stripping and waxing or just steam cleaning, why settle for less?

A dirty little secret is getting fixed, and companies saddled with commercial floor nightmares are finding relief!

Stripping and waxing VCT floors is a dying art. With less of it in commercial buildings, there are less resources for its care. More commonly commercial buildings have tile and grout, stone or LVP flooring. And not in need of stripping per se, they do get hammered with dirt and soil, grease and such.

In fact, building owners or those managing the cleaning rarely have the knowledge of how to maintain their floors. It’s not their fault. They don’t understand the ‘science’ of cleaning. In their business model they have far more important things to oversee and worry about, and usually the condition of the floors and their appearance is sacrificed.

This customer, The Greenbriar Association, is “floored” with the results we got for them!

And they saved unnecessary money that might have been spent in replacing their floors- Bingo, that’s a win for them!

Floors clean like never before, and a shine that will knock your socks off! For them, they can’t believe it!

The following day when Jeff, our wax guy returned to apply the second and third coat, he was cornered by the secretary- treasurer of the complex. She was thrilled. And with small talk she was asking him what they should do to maintain it. He explained now that the big lift was done, there are some tips and things to do moving forward that will keep the floor looking like a million bucks, and began sharing”

• Use a pH neutral daily floor cleaner to mop the floor
• Do not store the mop once used in the bucket, allow it to dry out between use
• Switch the mop out every couple weeks, either by washing it or even replacing it (it’s only a couple bucks to buy a new one)
• And plan on an interim maintenance visit 6 mos in to restore, elongate and maximize the shine we achieved

To elaborate about the interim procedure, here’s what we mean:

Six months (or so, depending on the foot traffic the floor experiences), plan on having us come out and “tweak” the floor. What we mean by this is as the traffic taxes certain areas of the floor we will knock off the very top layer by scrubbing (or abratting it), and re-apply another coat on top of the other two coats. This way as that top wax coat gets beaten down we remove it and replace it with a fresh shiny one.

This will extend the shine of the floor longer, and keep the appearance at its best. So the shine is maintained and the floor looks like a million bucks for another 6 months or so. Then on a yearly basis, rinse and repeat!

Traditional VCT floor care is becoming a lost art! But there is still plenty of it out there. If you have VCT and want it cleaned and shined give us a call! Call 609.953.0472. Or Contact Us online and we’ll reach out!