Custodial Hard Floor Maintenance Procedures

Hard Floor Maintenance Procedures

Description:
This document establishes procedures for maintenance of various hard surface flooring at Weber
State University.

References:
PPM 3-57 Safety/Accident and Injury Prevention
PPM 3-7 Health Requirements

Definitions:
Hard Floors: Building floors made of tile, cement or Terrazzo material
Custodial Floor Specialist: Custodial staff member who oversees training for floor maintenance

Responsible Party:
Facilities Management Custodial Department Manager

Procedure:
Hard floor maintenance will be performed by Facilities Management Custodial staff members
who are properly trained to handle the various floor surfaces at Weber State University (WSU).
The custodial supervisors will assess the frequency of required floor maintenance according to
the function and needs of each building. The most efficient procedures and wise use of resources
will when be exercised when maintaining floors at WSU. 
Cleaning of floors will be performed on a regular schedule. Floor refinishing, or any other
maintenance which requires specialized equipment and trained personnel, will be determined by
each Custodial Area Supervisor on an as needed basis.
Floor refinishing will be performed by custodial employees specially trained on the floor
refinishing process. If employees wish to be trained on floor maintenance, they will contact their
custodial manager for training by the Custodial Floor Specialist.

A. Floor Refinishing
Gather all equipment needed for completing room preparation and refinishing processes.
Safety gear needed:
Safety Glasses
Gloves
Proper Shoes
Safety signs (i.e. “Do Not Enter,” or barricades)
Equipment needed:
Two mop buckets and two ringers
Two rayon mop heads with handles
4 inch floor scraper
12 inch long handled floor scraper
175 or 300 RPM Swing back buffer (slow)
20 inch black stripping pad (black in color)
Chemical Stripper (Pro Strip, Time Buster, etc.)
Wet and dry shop vacuum with wand attachments
Neutralizer
Masking Tape
Extension Cords
Rags
Floor Finish (Vectra, five gallons)
Finish Applicator with pad, backpack and bladder

B. Room Preparation and Stripping Procedure (VTC Tile, Concrete and Terrazzo
Floors)
1. Remove all furniture from room and all items on the floor.
2. Dust mop floor to remove any dust, dirt and debris that is on top of old finish.
3. Mix stripper to manufacturer’s specifications and directions.
4. Starting in the farthest inside corner of room, apply stripper to a 6 feet by 6 feet area.
5. Do not allow the floor to dry out, keep wet with stripper.
6. Agitate wet stripper on floor with rayon mop. This helps penetrate through numerous
layers of finish.
7. Allow stripper to sit on finish for 12 to 15 minutes.
8. Begin scraping with 12 inch long handled scraper removing the old finish. Use 4 inch
scraper where needed, usually small or hard to reach areas. 
9. Vacuum up stripped wet slurry using wet/dry shop vacuum.
10. Flood floor with neutral cleaner.
11. Using the slow buffer with black stripping pad, begin buffering about 1-2 feet away
from wall and room corner. Do not begin buffering against the wall or corners. Finish
stripper and stripped finish will be slippery and create unsure footing if buffering is
began against room walls or corners.
12. Make overlapping passes to remove remaining finish. Using wet vacuum, suck up
remaining slurry.
13. Repeat the above steps on each 6 feet by 6 feet section of floor until completely
stripped of old finish. The floor may need to be re-stripped (i.e. floor sealer was used,
low and high spots in tile floor, previous improper stripping of floor etc.).
14. Complete stripping of corners and wall areas last.
15. Follow stripping process with Floor Preparation and Finishing Processes.

C. Floor Finishing Preparation Procedure
1. After stripping process is complete, mop floor 3-5 times with neutral floor cleaner to
ensure removal of all residual stripping slurry.
2. Clear floor of all stripping materials (buckets, mops, applicators, scrapers and buffer).
3. Gather all floor finishing equipment.

D. Application of Finish Procedure
A sealer will most likely be included in the finish. Check with the Floor Specialist if
unsure of sealer inclusion.
1. After stripping and floor preparation processes are complete, fill applicator bladder
with Vectra floor finish.
2. Proceed to farthest corner of room from room doorway to begin finish application.
3. Squeeze trigger on applicator wand to release a pool of finish to saturate the
applicator pad.
4. Using a ‘figure 8’ motion, apply finish to floor, being sure to always keep the wet
edge facing the exit when working toward the room exit.
5. Allow first coat to dry and harden for 24 hours if possible.
6. After 24 hours of drying time, burnish floor with a high speed buffer using a white
hog hair pad.
7. After high speed buffing, dust and wet mop floor in preparation of laying the next
layer of finish.
8. Apply 3-5 coats of finish, repeating instructions 1 through 7.

E. Square Scrub (Spot Maintenance) Procedure
A “square scrub” process may be done if a full floor refinish is not required for
maintenance. The square scrub process requires that only a few layers of finish be redone.
This process does not require as much time as a full floor refinish. For square scrubbing,
the following equipment is needed:
Square scrub
Special purpose pad (SPP) 
Mop bucket and wringer
Rayon mop (does not disintegrate)
Dust mop and rags
Back pack vacuum
1. Clear furniture from the area.
2. Dust mop entire floor surface to remove debris and dust.
3. Attach scrubber to square scrub.
4. Slowly move across high traffic area stripping off one layer of finish at a time.
5. Repeat slow sweep until 1-2 layers of finish is removed from floor surface.
6. Dust mop or vacuum to remove dust from the finish.
7. Wet mop the area to break down the acids and alkaline (use a neutral cleaner, not an
acidic or basic cleaning substance mixed with the mop water).
8. Allow mopped area to dry and refinish according to Section D, steps 1 through 7,
applying a total of 2 finish layers.