Hard wood floors maintenance procedure

Wood Floor Maintenance

Description:
This document establishes a procedure for hard wood floor maintenance.

References:
United States Department of Labor OSHA requirements

Definitions:
Floor Specialist: A custodial department member specially trained on various floor maintenance
including but not limited to refinishing hard floors.
Hardwood Floors: Any floor surface with hard wood, tongue and groove fittings.

Responsible Party:
Facilities Management Custodial Department Manager

Procedure:
Hardwood floors at Weber State University are usually maintained by a contractor. In the event
that maintenance is required to be performed by WSU Facilities Management personnel, the
procedure contained herein provides a procedure for refinishing hard wood floors.
The Floor Specialist will review the schedule of previous floor maintenance for University
hardwood flooring. Any hardwood floor maintenance will require the approval of the Associate 
Vice President for Facilities and Campus Planning. Full finish removal is suggested to be done
every ten years, or as needed.
The Custodial Department Manager or designee and the Floor Specialist will evaluate the
hardwood floor areas on campus to determine if a stripping and refinish of the floors are
required. The following process will aid in completing hardwood floor refinishing.
Required Tools:
Floor Buffer (One for each half court area)
Special Purpose Pads (SPP- two boxes for each half court-sized area)
Face Masks
Buckets (For mixing finish)
Drop-cloth (Floor protection)
Masking tape or painters tape
Watering Cans (One for each half-court sized area)
Large Hard, Weighted Squeegee (Two for each half-court sized area)
Gloves (As needed for personnel number)

A. Scheduling and Preparation
1. The Floor Specialist and the Custodial Department Manager will evaluate the
condition of the hardwood floor to determine the need to refinish the floor.
2. A proposal will be made to the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Campus
Planning to refinish the area.
3. Once approval refinish the floor is made, the Floor specialist will contact the building
manager to schedule 1-2 weeks for the closure (closed time depends on area to be
refinished). Closures should be scheduled to have the least impact on students and
staff (e.g. Winter break, summer semester).
4. Place a work request for time, materials and manpower.
5. HVAC will have a phase on the work request to control airflow to ensure building
energy efficiency.
6. Carpentry and Electrical Shops will have phases to remove metal striping and
electrical plate covers. 
7. Tape around electrical outlets and court edges to avoid spillage onto outlets or
gymnasium track.
8. Cover flooring material touching the wood floor (e.g. gymnasium track surface,
carpets etc.) with a drop cloth or towels.

B. Removing Floor Finish
1. Attach SPP to buffer and begin stripping finish following the grain of the wood. Do
even and consistent side to side sweeps for 10 feet long from one end of a half-court
to the other.
2. Continue to make overlapping passes until the entire half-court is stripped 1-2 layers.
Continue to strip off layers of finish until desired layer is reached, usually 5 or more
full passes on the floor.
3. Vacuum up finish dust with a shop vacuum and pick up residual dust with a clean
dust mop. DO NOT use water to remove finish dust. Use pads on dust mop to fullest
capacity.
4. Vacuum surfaces around hard wood floor (e.g. carpets, rubber track etc.)
5. Continue process until full area is completed.
6. Scrape away any gum, tape etc. to ensure a clean, smooth surface.

C. Laying Floor Finish
Floor finish must be constantly mixed and used immediately. Finish is only good for 24
hours once mixed. Do not save mixed finish. Two “pullers” or persons with hard
squeegees will pull the finish layer smooth as the pourer constantly pours. The Floor
Specialist will plan on laying down 4 coats and allotting 4 days to complete the
assignment.
1. Mix floor finish according to directions and include an acrylic hardener in the finish
mix (5 gallons mixed for 5 minutes with the catalyst hardener).
2. With the watering can, pour mixed finish in a straight, 4-inch line with the grain of
the wood (for racquetball courts pour and pull finish mixture across the grain).
3. Puller 1 will immediately pull the squeegee at an angle facing the inside of the wood
area, to smooth the finish.
4. Puller 2 will immediately follow Puller 1 and smooth the wake of the liquid finish
from Puller 1’s smoothing efforts. The angle of Puller 2’s squeegee should be the
same as Puller 1’s.
5. DO NOT STOP. This will leave marks and upset the level of the finish.
6. The pourers will watch for bare spots with the Pullers. Every 6-7 passes they will
pour a new line of the finish.
7. It will take 3-4 hours to complete on full-sized basketball-sized court area. Do not
attempt to complete an area larger than that at one time. 
8. The Pullers will feather out the finish when they reach the edge of the wood area.
Anything left over will go to the lip on the edge of the wood area and a shop vacuum
will be used to pick up the residue.
9. A 24-hour period is required to dry out each coat. In between each coat a tack with a
wet towel and dust mop will be performed in order to pick up dirt and dust between
every coat.

D. Use of Newly Finished Floors
1. When finished coating, allow last coat to harden for at least 48 hours before allowing
activity on the floor.
2. Replace all metal stripping, electrical outlet covers/plates, etc.
3. Remove signage and notify the building manager and any other shops involved that
the work is complete.
4. Further maintenance will simply require spot mopping and using dust mops to pick
up dirt.