NEED VCT HELP

Michael L

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Joined
Mar 11, 2018
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38
Location
Florida
Name
Michael L
Been stripping vct for a few years now but we have always used auto scrubbers to do it. Recently we purchased a propane powered stripper machine and it's been saving us alot of time but when we seem to do color tiles. The machine seems to Eat the color off the tile. A friend of mine informed me there is old vct and new vct. The old being vct that is a bit softer and the newer being hard. He informed me I cannot strip with the stripping machine on the old softer version of the vct because it will scrape away the color. This is new to me. We recently did a dr office with blue tile and it scraped off the color in so many spots. The customer wants me to restrip and wax which I am going to do, but it seems like the color is already faded off the floor and restripping will do nothin to bring the color back. PLEASE is there anything I can do to blend this in???? This is a deal that a has 6 different offices, the first one we did with stripper machine had white tile and came.out great but this one with blue is horrible. ADVICE SERIOUSLY NEEDED

20180729_132020.jpg
 

Michael L

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Mar 11, 2018
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Florida
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Michael L
I have some diversey sealer I've never used. So re strip it and apply sealer and then follow with with wax. How many coats of sealer should I apply? It will even out the color even tho the propane stripper scraped the color off the tile? Did you see the video?
 

KSL

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May 7, 2017
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Massachusetts
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Kent
For some reason the video will not play on my phone. Blue tile is notorious for acting this way. I would re strip with a heavy dose of stripper and allow plenty of dwell time and use a 175 with a black pad.

Two to three thin coats of sealer should level the appearance off. Then apply the finish for a high shine.
 
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Kenny Hayes

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Apr 17, 2009
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Yukon, Oklahoma
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Kenny Hayes
I would imagine he used brushes with that stripper. I think your friend has it backwards about new verses old vct. Have you applied finish at all? Most of the new vct is the same front to back of tile. Most tile manufacturers recommend no stripping pads these days. This the reason for spp’s. So, the only thing to do is apply finish. You might have to apply more coats that usual. Propane strip machines are for sale a lot here in OKC. No offense, but I can’t imagine using one in a doctors office anyway.
 

Dolly Llama

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IF no finish has been applied yet to the floor in the pic...and it's dry
doesn't look like "color lose" to me ...as Kenny mentioned, color is same all thru (you could belt sand 1/16" off and it's the same)

Looks more like sealer was striped off all the high spots and left in low spots


did it look like the pic after being wet mopped ?(while still wet/before fully dry)
IF it didn't, Kent's suggestion sounds right to me

but I hate VCT, avoided it like the plague and only know enough to be dangerous


..LT.A.
 

Willy P

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Oct 2, 2007
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Vancouver
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Willy P
Listen to Kenny ( rider). The tile I've seen always has the colour all the way through. How level is the subfloor?
 

encapman

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Oct 7, 2006
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St Petersburg, FL
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Rick Gelinas
Like it's been said above, normaly the coloring runs consistent all the way through a VCT tile. Same on the top, the center, and the bottom.

Normally once you've applied finish (and/or sealer) the color variations will disappear.
 

hydracat

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Aug 14, 2012
Messages
172
Location
olympia wa
VCT with now finish looks white and chalky. Worst case is re strip with a small machine that's more even. Test one square to see if there's even a problem after applying sealer/finish. I have sanded small areas to blend in damaged tile and couldn't tell any difference since the color was all the way through. it also looks like you used weak stripper.
 

Dolly Llama

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Larry Capitoni


after seeing that....and obviously finish coated

oh BurrRother
does that ever look dreadful

maybe describe in detail, your method, chems and procedures used
and I'll bet one of the smArt VCT guys here can help

cause to my less than knowledgeable/experienced eyeball ....it's looking like it didn't get striped right
or
some offending chem residue didn't get rinsed away right
or
both

dayum...that sux


Give details, Michael
I figure all the profit's out the window due to redo
But maybe someone will have a suggestion to fix without you losing money on fixing this one

details help

..L.T.A.
 
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Michael L

Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2018
Messages
38
Location
Florida
Name
Michael L
I didnt see any of this until now. we use diversey pro strip. We soak the floor with diluted stripper and let it soak for 20 minutes or so before scrubbing. Hit the edges and corners by hand and run a propane stripper for the rest of the floor.
 

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