What sort of finish is on the wood floor?

[Mikey P]

New customer want her 2 yp wood floor cleaned. I asked for photos first and they give me the impression that the engineered wood is a penetrative type oil rubbed type vs a coating


What do you see?

Hi M*********
The last photo shows a concerning amount of soil on the wood, the photo give me the impression that the planks are not coated with a polyurethane or similar top finish, but rather a oiled hand rubbed penetrative sealer, which unfortunately often leads to soil absorption from dirty mop water.

It would be best if I came out to test a few small areas to see if we get the results your are looking for.

I have a $200 minimum for this, which would be deducted from the final bill if you proceed with the work.

Cost wise for the wood and area rug, we're looking at $1000 -$1200 If that all sounds do-able, I can come by this coming Tuesday around 9:30 AM to test the floor.

Thanks for the photos!

 

[Mikey P]

Sure that would work. I would want the cleaning to work. Do you have ability to clean it if it’s oil rubbed sealer?

yes, but the results probably wont be as great as if it were coated.Do you have any record of what wood product it is? Manufacture, product name or style, SKU, receipt or box lying around in the garage perhaps?

Yes. Let me see what I can find!

 

[hogjowl]

Can’t tell anything. The pictures suck.

 

[Mikey P]

all she had...


I found this...


https://1stopfloor.com/shop/hardwoo...ak-dm-modern-craftsman-coastal-line-mcca1203/






The manufactures love to cover themselves as you can see in this How To Clean Your Floor info

The say not to use water, but then recommend Bona Wood Floor cleaner, which is water based...


https://www.hfdesignllc.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Hardwood-UVCuredFinishCareMaintenance.pdf

 

[Mikey P]

I have used Bona on the floor. I think they recommended it- why I have it.

It's best if I come out and run some tests.

How have you been cleaning the floor?
whats your mopping process?

I have a vacuum Mop- I’ll show you. Yes- come on out, let me know when.

 

[hogjowl]

It says it has a urethane finish.

 

[Bryce C]

Assuming it has a urethane finish like the info sheet says... Would a product like Wood Fresh and an OP machine with absorbent pads work well enough? Or do you need to hit small areas with a CRB and carefully rinse and extract with low psi to get it in good shape?

 

[hogjowl]

It just depends on the soil level and the texture of the floor.

 

[BIG WOOD]

New customer want her 2 yp wood floor cleaned. I asked for photos first and they give me the impression that the engineered wood is a penetrative type oil rubbed type vs a coating


What do you see?

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Hi M*********
The last photo shows a concerning amount of soil on the wood, the photo give me the impression that the planks are not coated with a polyurethane or similar top finish, but rather a oiled hand rubbed penetrative sealer, which unfortunately often leads to soil absorption from dirty mop water.

It would be best if I came out to test a few small areas to see if we get the results your are looking for.

I have a $200 minimum for this, which would be deducted from the final bill if you proceed with the work.

Cost wise for the wood and area rug, we're looking at $1000 -$1200 If that all sounds do-able, I can come by this coming Tuesday around 9:30 AM to test the floor.

Thanks for the photos!

$1000-$1200 seems too cheap. Hardwood doesn't fit in our business model, because of all the different variations, risks, and the fact that all the customers who live in a furnished hardwood floor home never move the furniture. I think this type of floor looks like a problem waiting to happen, and I would prefer a hardwood floor only specialist to that lady. They live like they're rich. Especially in your area. So price should've never been mentioned. But you're making an education curriculum for all floors, so I see whey YOU'RE doing it. It's just dangerous to tell carpet cleaners to add this to their business model

speaking from experience here. I did enough hardwood floors for about 2years before I dropped the service and focused on my main investment In this business. That was the second time I had to drop a service to return back to my main investment. If you guys are owner operators, be very careful when adding a service like this to your portfolio. Hardwood is a totally different type of cleaning, preserving, etc. And the time it takes does not line up with a carpet upholstery tile cleaners daily schedule. It will interfere with your current system of scheduling due to the amount of time it takes to prep, screen, and apply finish to the floors. This was the reason I never got into heavy restoring of natural stone. Too much time on one job

This is from an owner/operator's perspective and advice. If you have a crew of 2-3 men handy, by all means have fun doing it

 

[hogjowl]

You’re assuming too much

 

[Bryce C]

$1000-$1200 seems too cheap. Hardwood doesn't fit in our business model, because of all the different variations, risks, and the fact that all the customers who live in a furnished hardwood floor home never move the furniture. I think this type of floor looks like a problem waiting to happen, and I would prefer a hardwood floor only specialist to that lady. They live like they're rich. Especially in your area. So price should've never been mentioned. But you're making an education curriculum for all floors, so I see whey YOU'RE doing it. It's just dangerous to tell carpet cleaners to add this to their business model

speaking from experience here. I did enough hardwood floors for about 2years before I dropped the service and focused on my main investment In this business. That was the second time I had to drop a service to return back to my main investment. If you guys are owner operators, be very careful when adding a service like this to your portfolio. Hardwood is a totally different type of cleaning, preserving, etc. And the time it takes does not line up with a carpet upholstery tile cleaners daily schedule. It will interfere with your current system of scheduling due to the amount of time it takes to prep, screen, and apply finish to the floors. This was the reason I never got into heavy restoring of natural stone. Too much time on one job

This is from an owner/operator's perspective and advice. If you have a crew of 2-3 men handy, by all means have fun doing it

How about knowing enough to safely clean 1 or 2 rooms of wood floors in order to land larger jobs like move-ins where the customer wants every floor in the home cleaned and the place is empty? Do you still turn those down? If someone tests for finish type, identifies areas of high wear and moisture damage, manages and confirms customer expectations... still too risky to go for it with basic cleaning on the job type I described?

It could be that I don't know enough and should walk away from every wood job. But I do have tincture bottles of denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner, and mineral oil to do some finish tests on wood floors in my inspection kit.

 

[Bryce C]

although I put together that finish testing kit for the 1 time I did a scrub and recoat, which went well but I will never do it again without proper training. I admit that for basic wood floor cleaning I just see and feel if the floor has a urethane or similar coating on it, watch out for moisture damage and high wear areas, then go for it

 

[hogjowl]

It’s possible to add wood floor cleaning without any extra equipment. It’s called CLEANING for a reason. And it doesn’t require a rocket science certificate.

 

[Mikey P]

More than likely I'll mop down neutral cleaner at 150 to 200 ft at a time use a white brush under my crb and a 150 psi rinse from the truck mount and it'll clean up beautifully..

If it doesn't respond to doing essentially the same thing by hand, I'll walk

Me that level of soiling looks highly suspect for 2 years worth of living

But she said something later about using some goofy device to clean the floors so it's quite possible it's just recycled mop water residue

 

[BIG WOOD]

I agree, a certificate isn't needed to clean a floor, but. most of them are beyond a simple cleaning to do a professional job.

When I was in the hardwood preservation service, they customer always thought that just a cleaning would get that floor looking like they wanted it. 9 out of 10 jobs the floors needed to be screened and 2 coats of finish to deliver the satisfaction the customer requests.

I did a "cleaning" on one job and it was one of the last jobs I did. I tested it with some stripping agent that came with the kit I ordered. The several spots I tested came back negative on the finish. When I applied my cleaning chemical, the floor clouded up terribly and I made a $$$$ mistake. I had to hire a hardwood company to come in and fix it. Screw that

You're not losing any money turning down a couple rooms of hardwood cleaning. Tell the customer to find a house cleaner to do that, and go clean their couch for $125-$150 for 20min of cleaning.

 

[Mikey P]

We shall see...

 

[Bryce C]

I agree, a certificate isn't needed to clean a floor, but. most of them are beyond a simple cleaning to do a professional job.

When I was in the hardwood preservation service, they customer always thought that just a cleaning would get that floor looking like they wanted it. 9 out of 10 jobs the floors needed to be screened and 2 coats of finish to deliver the satisfaction the customer requests.

I did a "cleaning" on one job and it was one of the last jobs I did. I tested it with some stripping agent that came with the kit I ordered. The several spots I tested came back negative on the finish. When I applied my cleaning chemical, the floor clouded up terribly and I made a $$$$ mistake. I had to hire a hardwood company to come in and fix it. Screw that

You're not losing any money turning down a couple rooms of hardwood cleaning. Tell the customer to find a house cleaner to do that, and go clean their couch for $125-$150 for 20min of cleaning.

Thanks for the extra clarity. For now I'll go above and beyond to eliminate any hope of exceptional results with wood floor cleaning and continue doing it as an add-on in larger homes, and be careful to test for topicals. In hindsight, why do you think your stripper test missed the topical? Was it something like an acrylic urethane and your cleaning chemistry was just too aggressive?

 

[Mikey P]

View: https://www.facebook.com/stories/1594630963960975/UzpfSVNDOjEwNzYzMjQ3NTEyNDgwNzE=/?view_single=1

 

[BIG WOOD]

Thanks for the extra clarity. For now I'll go above and beyond to eliminate any hope of exceptional results with wood floor cleaning and continue doing it as an add-on in larger homes, and be careful to test for topicals. In hindsight, why do you think your stripper test missed the topical? Was it something like an acrylic urethane and your cleaning chemistry was just too aggressive?

I don't have a clue why my testing missed the acrylic, and the homeowner didn't know the history of the floor either, since they were moving in and the house was empty. I did several tests all over that floor too, not just one spot. And I was using the chemical made for hardwood floors on cleaning, so I know the process to clean wasn't too aggressive.

It brought me to my conclusion that I have enough work in the carpet, upholstery, tile/lvp, water damage that hardwood floors can kiss my ass. I'm still mad about that day. What happened shouldn't have happened since I did the proper steps to clean.

 

[hogjowl]

Matt must live in hardwood hell

 

[BIG WOOD]

Matt must live in hardwood hell

more like owner/operator hell.

Bad luck in the past with
-truckmounts
-physical (shoulder, hip, ankle (pigeon toed), knees, joints in hand, back
-IRS (honestly playing by the rules to pay and it is draining my account).
-employees (they're all entitled, lazy bastards)
-hardwood floor

Hardwood is just a small part of owner/operator hell

 

[hogjowl]

Yeah, the IRS must be the worst with employees being a close second.

 

[Mikey P]

Ugh, I have to call them in Monday



But, can you think of a better time in history to commit tax fraud?