1. Prep Area –

Remove all furniture & obstacles from the area. Set up to work on an open area of about 200 to 400 square feet. This is where you begin. Block off the cordoned off area that needs to be stripped by placing caution/wet floor signs. Leave yourself an area for exiting the stripping work area. Lay down protective mats to remove  soiled footwear in order to avoid tracking the stripping residue to other parts of the building. Follow the proper dust mopping procedures to remove all debris, & dirt from the area.

2. Prep Stripping Materials –

Line your mop bucket with a plastic liner which will keep the stripper contained without allowing it to enter into the bucket area. The mop bucket can then to be used for other mopping purposes, and not just relegated to the stripping process. Refer to the necessary SDS sheets for proper stripping solutions, so you are  acquainted with any hazards from the chemical stripper you’ll be using. Pour the stripper solution into the lined bucket. 

3. Apply Stripping Solution –

Sufficiently soak the 200 to 400 square foot area you already cordoned off. Apply a generous amount of stripper solution with a mop and let it dwell for approximately 15 minutes to loosen the floor finish before continuing to the next step. If necessary re-soak the area as needed, do not allow the stripper solution to dry.

Use the proper black floor stripping pad, attach it to the pad driver on your floor machine. Auto scrubbers are also a popular choice for stripping, because they also can be used to recover and automatically vacuum up the stripping solution. If you do use an auto scrubber, leave the squeegee position up and scrub over the area once completely, before lowering the squeegee position down, and scrub over the area again while at the same time vacuuming, squeegeeing and mopping up the solution. If you are using a rotary floor scrubber, begin in the opposite corner of your protective walk off mat, and then slowly move towards the opposite area. Some areas will need several passes to machine strip the floor to completely remove the old floor wax. A black utility corner stripping pad will likely be needed for the baseboards. A foam spray or gel baseboard stripper/cleaner may be needed to properly clean the baseboards of all old wax build up.

4. Pick Up Dirty Solution –

When using an auto scrubber, after a few scrubbing passes over the stripping area, lower the squeegee, and begin vacuuming all the stripping solution while continuing to scrub. If a rotary floor machine is your stripping machine choice, you’ll want to use a commercial recovery vacuum that is made special for stripper recovery with a front mount recovery squeegee. Pick up this solution immediately after stripping, not letting the stripper solution dry on the floor.

5. Rinse And Dry Floor –

Use a clean mop bucket, or just remove the plastic liner from the stripper mop bucket you used, and fill it with clean water. Add 1-2 ounces of strip rinse neutralizer per gallon of water in to your rinse bucket. Mop/scrub entire area with the neutralized rinse water to neutralize as much of the alkaline in the stripper solution as possible. If the floor is not neutralized when laying down your floor finish, it will not adhere properly properly and the final finish will be dull and streaked. Wipe down and rinse all the baseboards and corners to assure all stripping solution is removed. The floor should be rinsed one or two more times with just clean rinse water to make sure that all the stripping solution is recovered. To be 100% sure that your floor is on the neutral side, you can use litmus strips to test the floors pH levels.

6. Clean Up –

All mop buckets, squeegees, solution tanks, mops and hoses must all be thoroughly cleaned and rinsed out. If the dirty residual stripped solution material, known as slurry that was vacuumed up, is allowed to sit without being cleaned in the tanks, it can start to solidify and ruin the equipment.

All flooring areas must be completely dry before applying floor finish. It is  recommended to use a floor drying fan to make sure all areas are completely dry before waxing.