Help me to be equipped for LOTS of upcoming tile please?!

[Russ T.]

Hi guys,
Carpet cleaning is the thing I'm most comfortable with but as we are growing, I'm getting more and more commercial tile to deal with. Most of it is VCT but some grouted commercial stuff (see I'm not a tile expert).

I own a 175 (no tank) and a Cimex. I also have my Truckmount and spinner for tile and grout in resi situations. I own a (supposedly) commercial grade shop vac to retrieve the slurry but it's a piece of junk.

Monday night I'm scheduled to deal with a large commercial facility with a couple big break rooms and bathrooms of tile floors (again, mostly VCT but a couple bathrooms are grouted concrete type tile). I'm feeling a little overwhelmed but I imagine it's due to a lack of education in this area. I hired the hard floors our last year but this hear I'm going to fit it a go.

The tile is regularly maintained and never terrible.

What equipment would you take to a job like this? I'm one guy so the less I have to wrestle with, the better.

Do you have a suggestion for a good wet/dry vac at a good price? Should I get the kind with the option to squeegee built in to its head in the front?

Do you normally go in to a VCT situation expecting to strip it first? I scrubbed one a couple weeks ago and recoated it with 2 coats of finish and was pretty surprised how nice it turned out.

Cimex or 175?
What pads?

Thanks!




The Clean Machine

 

[Shane Deubell]

Impossible for any of us to know if something needs to be scrub or stripped without being there. I would plan on stripping until you have more real life experience and then you can just look at it and know.

You can use any commercial shop vac for slurry until you have steady vct work, we used the cheap home depot ones for a couple years.
To keep it simple bring 175,black pads and stripper, use the stripper in the bathrooms as well and spinner them.

Dont over complicate this, janitors make $10 hour on average for a reason.
This ain't rocket surgery.

The biggest waste of time is sitting around waiting for wax to dry, keep the air on in the building and put a blower on at an angle upwards on low to speed it up.
You have a choice with wax time or money. If you buy premium wax you need less layers2-3, if you buy cheap or middle then you need 5-6 . Your choice...

 

[Russ T.]

Thanks Shane. If I'm only scrubbing, does that mean less finish Coates at the end?


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[GCCLee]

Buy a killer pressure washer and save your TM.

Set it up where you can run it off your FW tank if needed. And to use your pressure hoses.







Sent from da parking garage of dee detention center

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

http://youtu.be/66-A_xcyQaw

 

[Carpet Cleaning Fool]

i like dry stip pads for everything VCT. you can dry, wet or chemical strip with them.

how many square feet of VCT are you doing monday night? bring stripping pads and some stripper if you're going to chemical strip and cleaning pads and some neutral cleaner if you decide to top scrub and re-coat.

the cimex will be faster than the 175 so i would use it. also, the spinner and truckmount will be much faster at rinsing floors..

 

[JS41035]

Don't overlook renting a walk behind. If you have some good rental companies near you take advantage of that. CCs kinda reinvent the wheel on VCT sometimes. The SPPs are awesome. But even then a good walk behind will save you time picking up the mess. Rent the one with a cord. It's a hassle over batteries but a lot easier to load and unload If your not setup for it. I have said it before. If your doing enough VCT to justify buying instead of renting, your doing too much VCT.


....

 

[Desk Jockey]

I have said it before. If your doing enough VCT to justify buying instead of renting, your doing too much VCT.

LOL

The SPP's are great as is the Square Scrub. While it does a good job dry, dust can be an issue. We don't use it to strip, too messy with slopping slurry but on a scrub job it does fine since its only water not slurry being thrown.

I hate VCT but we are forced at times since its a part of the carpet bid too. We do as little as possible and charge as much as possible. ig:

 

[Shane Deubell]

Thanks Shane. If I'm only scrubbing, does that mean less finish Coates at the end?


The Clean Machine

Definitely, should only need 2 finish coats on a scrub.

 

[Russ T.]

I'm not very good with VCT yet so it makes me anxious. I want to provide commercial flooring maintenance to companies or, in this case, as a sub to the janitorial company. I subbed it out to a guy last year but was not impressed with his work. I think I'll do it this year and keep the $.

I am also using it as an opportunity to learn a valuable trade that I can train an employee to do someday.

If I lean toward a top scrub and recoat, would you guys still suggest a tankless 175 over the Cimex? What pads, green?


The Clean Machine

 

[Russ T.]

Don't overlook renting a walk behind. If you have some good rental companies near you take advantage of that. CCs kinda reinvent the wheel on VCT sometimes. The SPPs are awesome. But even then a good walk behind will save you time picking up the mess. Rent the one with a cord. It's a hassle over batteries but a lot easier to load and unload If your not setup for it. I have said it before. If your doing enough VCT to justify buying instead of renting, your doing too much VCT.


....

Justin,
Thanks for the suggestion. When you say "walk behind" are you talking about a machine to retrieve slurry/water or are you talking about more of an all in one auto scrubber?


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[Blue Monarch]

I haven't done too much of it....but one of my first jobs was 14,000 feet. That one stressed me out!

 

[Russ T.]

I haven't done too much of it....but one of my first jobs was 14,000 feet. That one stressed me out!

Did you do it alone? How long did it take?

I get worked up enough sometimes I might have a nervous fit over 14000 square feet of it. This one is @ 3500 square feet, scattered around a very argue building.


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[Russ T.]

This is just the beginning of quite a bit of VCT to deal with this summer, FWIW.


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[Shane Deubell]

I haven't done too much of it....but one of my first jobs was 14,000 feet. That one stressed me out!

Yikes, that is a rough way to learn.

My first job was a kmart, took me a month to strip it...

 

[Russ T.]

If I lean toward a top scrub and recoat, would you guys still suggest a tankless 175 over the Cimex? What pads, green?

Thanks!


The Clean Machine

 

[Desk Jockey]

I remember as a kid helping my father and a couple of employees do a small grocery store.

Started when they closed at 10:00 PM and at 6:00 AM we were rushing to get out before it opened. All we had were big giant floor machines, no walk behinds. It was pathetic how hard we worked and it did look good but man was it a killer job. At the time we were a fledgling company willing to do anything anyone would pay us for. We were there so long I felt like crying I was so tired.

Hated floors ever since..............almost...ALMOST....as much as portables!

 

[Shane Deubell]

I remember as a kid helping my father and a couple of employees do a small grocery store.

Started when they closed at 10:00 PM and at 6:00 AM we were rushing to get out before it opened. All we had were big giant floor machines, no walk behinds. It was pathetic how hard we worked and it did look good but man was it a killer job. At the time we were a fledgling company willing to do anything anyone would pay us for. We were there so long I felt like crying I was so tired.

Hated floors ever since..............almost...ALMOST....as much as portables!

Yeah, i was still living in my parents attic....
Finally got the message when my father turned the heat off

 

[Russ T.]

If I lean toward a top scrub and recoat, would you guys still suggest a tankless 175 over the Cimex? What pads, green?

Thanks!


The Clean Machine

Guys, I'm trying to make some $ here!! Whatcha think!?!?


The Clean Machine

 

[Shane Deubell]

Guys, I'm trying to make some $ here!! Whatcha think!?!?


The Clean Machine

Would strip it personally but if you are committed to scrubbing then use a black pad and just leave the base coat.
After more experience you can judge better what amount of agitation is needed.

I always train people to go side to side and then north/south 1x real quick to make sure they didnt miss anything.

We use a local product called action plus that is a light stripper so i dont know a similar product to use. Maybe one of the other guys know of something stronger then neutral but not stripper.
Should be fine, move at a moderate pace.

 

[Russ T.]

A strip and wax has been SUCH a challenge to me, because I'm pretty inexperienced and work alone. I'm afraid if I go in with the mentality that I'll S & W, I'll still be there in the morning when they open.

Since I hired that part out last year I don't know how long it will take me. I know it was 2 guys who must have scrubbed and recoated because they went through it QUICK.

Sounds like a good plan is to scrub well with a floor cleaner and recoat. This might start to give me the experience I need to go all the way in a timely way. Am I nuts?

Do they make black strip pads for the Cimex? I could speed up even more by putting floor cleaner in the tank.

I really do appreciate you guys helping me.


The Clean Machine

 

[Blue Monarch]

I had two helpers for that job. I think I had 70+ manhours involved. The good thing was that it was one huge floor and they moved absolutely everything off of it. Started Friday and had to be done Monday.

Don't stress about it....It really isn't hard to make those floors look awesome. My client was thrilled. And I used Sam's club products

 

[Shane Deubell]

A strip and wax has been SUCH a challenge to me, because I'm pretty inexperienced and work alone. I'm afraid if I go in with the mentality that I'll S & W, I'll still be there in the morning when they open.

Since I hired that part out last year I don't know how long it will take me. I know it was 2 guys who must have scrubbed and recoated because they went through it QUICK.

Sounds like a good plan is to scrub well with a floor cleaner and recoat. This might start to give me the experience I need to go all the way in a timely way. Am I nuts?

Do they make black strip pads for the Cimex? I could speed up even more by putting floor cleaner in the tank.

I really do appreciate you guys helping me.


The Clean Machine

Don't worry russ, I'll talk you through the whole job.
PM me how big it is sqr ft and contact info.

I will be here taking calls on monday anyway like any other night.
We'll bang this out...

 

[Russ T.]

Don't worry russ, I'll talk you through the whole job.
PM me how big it is sqr ft and contact info.

I will be here taking calls on monday anyway like any other night.
We'll bang this out...

That's AWESOME Shane, thanks SO much!


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[Russ T.]

A couple tiny bathrooms that look pretty good as it is. What would you do? Thanks!


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[Russ T.]

It's VCT.


The Clean Machine

 

[Shane Deubell]

How did everything go russ?

That rr floor pic above looks pretty easy.

 

[Russ T.]

It went well guys. My phone died or I would have taken more pictures. There were 10 different areas that needed attention. The VCT went well. I did as Shane suggested in scrubbing it with a black pad under my 175. I just used a neutral cleaner and that seemed to take off enough wax to prep it for 4 coats in the kitchen area, less elsewhere.

The tile and grout turned out awesome too. I used some Viper Venom in my mop bucket with hot water, slopped it on there, agitated with the black pad (175), sucked up the mess with my shop vac. There were small pits in the tile that were black from it collecting dirt. I was able to restore it completely and make it look new again.

I arrived at 5:30 PM and finished by 3:30 AM. I never turned my Truckmount on and feel I gained valuable experience. A little better than $100 / hr is pretty good for this type of work, I think.

1 issue I had just before leaving the building. I have to put everything back where I found it. Of course there was 1 extremely heavy table. I had to put it back and left a couple small gouges in the nice shiny new finish. I'll use moving blankets or something next time. Will that kind of thing buff out without a huge fuss?

Thanks Shane and guys for your help! It's valuable for me to understand this trade better. I hope to be able to train an employee and it's important that I understand what I am expecting of them. A $15/hr employee would have been a welcome addition last night. That, and a better Shop Vac. The one I have sucks good but is so hard to roll around a huge building like that!


The Clean Machine

 

[Shane Deubell]

Cool, thats quite a bit of tile to bang out by yourself .

When in training mode keep things as simple as possible, after becoming a veteran you can over complicate this stuff....

 

[Russ T.]

Cool, thats quite a bit of tile to bang out by yourself .

When in training mode keep things as simple as possible, after becoming a veteran you can over complicate this stuff....

Me, over complicate stuff???? ;-)


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