How Often Do Floors Need Strip and Wax?

"Strip and wax" gets used for every kind of floor work, but it's really the heaviest step in a cycle. A full strip takes the old finish all the way down to the tile and starts over. Done right, the lighter steps in between push that big job further out, saving downtime and keeping the floor looking better all year.

The three levels of hard-floor care

• Burnishing or buffing. A high-speed machine polishes the existing finish to bring the shine back. It's quick, and it's the routine step in busy areas.
• Scrub and recoat. The top layers of finish are scrubbed off along with ground-in dirt, then fresh coats go down. It restores most of the look of a full strip in less time.
• Strip and refinish. All of the old finish is removed and several new coats are applied. It's needed when the finish is worn through, yellowed, or built up unevenly.

What sets the schedule

There is no single right number. Traffic is the biggest factor:

• Heavy traffic (entries, retail floors, school and clinic hallways) wears finish fast. These areas usually need frequent burnishing and regular scrub-and-recoats, with a full strip when the lanes wear through.
• Moderate traffic (offices, break rooms, corridors) can go longer between recoats, and a full strip less often.
• Light traffic (private offices, storage, low-use rooms) may only need attention once in a while.

Winter salt, grit tracked in from a shop or lot, rolling carts, and how well the floor is mopped day to day all shift the schedule. A floor that's dust mopped and cleaned with the right solution every night needs far fewer heavy services than one that's only mopped now and then.

Signs a floor is overdue

• Dull gray traffic lanes next to shiny edges.
• Dark, dirty buildup in corners and along baseboards.
• A yellow or uneven look across the floor.
• Scratches and scuffs that buffing no longer takes out.
• Bare tile showing in the busiest paths.

Plan it, don't react to it

The most cost-effective approach is a written floor-care schedule: which areas get burnished, which get scrub-and-recoat and when, and when a full strip is due. That schedule should be set by walking the building, not by a calendar alone. In the Quad Cities, a scrub and recoat before winter gives the finish more to lose to salt, and spring is the time to recover the entries.

Keeping the building open

Floor work needs the area clear while the finish dries, so it's done after hours or in sections on weekends. A good crew plans the order so people always have a path through the building in the morning.

Fortis runs floor care as its own scheduled service, separate from nightly cleaning, so it actually happens on time. We can walk your floors and put a written schedule together, from burnishing to full strips.