Top Five "Whys" of Floor Finish

The five most frequently asked floor care questions received by the Powr-Flite customer service department

Fort Worth, TX - You might think the customer service department of a major professional cleaning equipment manufacturer would only receive questions about the company's machines.

According to Gary Pelphrey, general manager of Powr-Flite Direct, however, most of the floor care questions they receive regard floor finish and not equipment.

Below are the five most frequently asked floor care questions received by the Powr-Flite customer service department:

  1. Why can't we strip/refinish floors in the winter months? The optimum temperature for stripping/refinishing floors is around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Too cold - or too hot - and the finish might 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 were applied; or the finish was applied too heavily.
  3. Why are there swirls in the floor finish after burnishing? Again, there might be multiple reasons: possibly the wrong burnishing pad was used; the pad might have been too aggressive for the finish applied; too slow or too fast a burnisher was 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 your specific type of floor. If the finish is formulated for a VCT floor, for example, it might 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 Pelphrey. "We tell our callers, proper floor care is a systems approach requiring the right machine, chemicals, and training."

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