Preparation of area: Prepare area by clearing furniture and sweeping. Inspect all tiles using a scrapper or putty knife to remove all gum, tape, or other foreign matter. Bring in your equipment: (i.e.: 175 rpm polisher, various mops for stripping solution, scrubbing, and waxing, scrapper, squeegee, wet/dry vacuum with squeegee attachment, black pads for stripping, and a Doodlebug for getting into corners and hard to reach areas).
Stripping Procedure: Mix stripper as instructed on the container. It is best to read all precautions. Usual mixture is one part stripper to four parts hot water. Do approximately at 10’ x 10’ area at a time. Apply stripper by soaking your mop in the stripper solution and dragging it out of the bucket to the floor, flooding the section with the solution. Allow about five minutes for the stripper to begin emulsifying the floor finish before running the polisher with the black strip pad attached on the area. While you are waiting, use your Doodlebug and scrapper on all edges and corners. When you feel that area is totally stripped, pick up the solution on the floor with a wet/dry vacuum and rinse with a neutral cleaner (separate solution), then move on to the next section, repeating the above procedure. When you have finished all areas and inspected for total removal of finish, rinse the entire area at least twice with a clean solution of neutral cleaner and cold water. When the floor is entirely dry, you should be ready to apply your finish.
About Wax: Finish can be easily contaminated if put in a dirty bucket. Clean your bucket first, and use a trash liner inside the bucket to eliminate any chance of contamination. There are many styles of wax mop heads. They are to be used for waxing ONLY. Never use a contaminated scrub mop to wax with. I suggest a rayon mop head for waxing. When finished, clean and dry it and put it away for your next wax job. With your clean bucket, lined with a trash liner, place your mop in the bucket and pour the wax on top of the mop head. A gallon of good wax will normally do approximately 2,400 square feet of floor. Since wax is expensive and cannot be poured back into the bucket, don’t pour more wax than you need. To get the appearance you want on a newly stripped floor normally required three coats, allowing adequate time between coats (approximately a half hour to forty-five minutes if the humidity is high).
Wax Application Procedure: Being careful not to splash wax on baseboards, furniture, doors, etc. Keep your bucket of wax with you. As you come out of the wringer with the wax mop, go directly to the floor (this eliminates dripping). Line the area with wax that you intend to finish. Then with a figure 8 motion, work through the lined area. The normal 24oz. Rayon mop head holds about a quart of finish. Go back to the bucket as often as required to keep the coats of wax at the same thickness. Allow adequate time for the wax to dry and cure before adding the next coat. This is usually 30 to 45 minutes.
