VCT vacuum

[TimP]

What are you VCT gurus using to suck up your slurry. I did my first floor today hack style with a mop and a squeegy to get up the slury. It was quite a pain and probably the most difficuilt part. I can see where it is worth it's money for sure for a good shop vac. What brands do you guys prefer and where did you get yours?


BTW it was surprisingly easier than I thought. I used my cimex with some lightning strip pads from Rick G, doodle bug the edges. Used spartan emulsifier stripper followed by a neutral rinse and then 5 coats of Spartan sunny side finish. The results were pretty good and I was quite pleased for a practice run. The floor was in my in-laws carpet stores warehouse and will get lots of abuse, which is a good spot to test for durability of a finish.

 

[Guest]

Pics please; BTW I use an old porty to suck up sludge stripper; However if you wanna take short cuts try using rough stripper pad on dry floor; pretty much sands old coat off; then apply stripper to remove rest and then scrub again; if you are doing white vct a damp mop with bleach water helps brighten the floor real nice.

 

[sweendogg]

I had my first go around in a dentist office. Used our regular lowes shop vac and it sucked up the slurry quite well.

Pics please; BTW I use an old porty to suck up sludge stripper; However if you wanna take short cuts try using rough stripper pad on dry floor; pretty much sands old coat off; then apply stripper to remove rest and then scrub again; if you are doing white vct a damp mop with bleach water helps brighten the floor real nice.

I'll have to try that bleach trick.

 

[joe harper]

CAREFUL... :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: :!: on the BLEACH TRICK..... :shock:

Most stripper's have an AMMONIA BASE...... :roll:

I would make SURE the floor is VERY WELL rinsed...!

 

[TimP]

Yeah the bleach thing is not my style but maybe peroxide would be a better idea.

I guess I can use the TM but I don't know if it's a good idea. I was thinking of one made for the job though I think they are 5-700 bucks or something like that.

 

[sweendogg]

Hmm yeah thats never good harper I guess is it. but a little sodium perc or peroxide may be the ticket. Many, Many, many people have repeatedly told me to not use our TM to suck up your slurry. Shopvac's work great, easy to clean out and far cheaper to replace.

 

[dealtimeman]

i started with a large wet vac from hd for about three years. now i use a nilfisk-advance battery scrubber or a 110v carpet extractor with a squegee acessory that we rinse with and has a cylindrical brush for agitation.

 

[Fon Johnson]

We use battery and electric vacs from Nobles/Tennant. Lower the front mounted squeegee and it will pick up slurry as fast as you can go. Don't use the tm. Even an expensive vac with the front mount squeegee is a lot cheaper than a trashed blower. And PLEASE be careful about "home brew" stuff like using bleach. Things like that have led to people being hospitalized, and some of them were the lucky ones.

Until you can justify a vac like that, a shop vac will save loads of time over mopping the slurry up. I still remember the alllllll night job that would now take us maybe an hour to do..

 

[Supersucker]

Get a shopvac with large capacity tank for all the foam, I have a 20gallon. With the high handle & big rear wheels. Hose it out as soon as you are finished. If you have one helper to pull the solution back with a squegee and another sucking it up you can move pretty fast.

 

[dealtimeman]

if using a wetvac you need to move quickly as to not let the slurrry dry on the floor.

 

[floorguy]

squeege the slurry to a spot, then wet vac it up, then flood rinse the floor, and do it again...

if you try to just suck it up it will streak like nuts, not enough liquid on the floor.

And no most strippers now are NOT ammonia based....dude get out of the 70s

butyls to soften the acrylic

monoethanolamine to attack the links that hold the polymers together.

and other possible solvents to aide in wetting, getting through the acrylic...etc

Go back and read most of the jugs/msds of strippers.....NON-AMMONIATED

only time i have used bleach, is to get rust spots from gondolas out....even then its not fool proof, and i charge extra for it

 

[TimP]

I must put down too much stripper cause I can't see it drying on me in a reasonable time period.


I'm looking at one from cleanfreak.com right now. Unless you guys have a better suggestion for a place since I want it delivered.

 

[TimP]

I ended up ordering a nobles typhoon from Jon-don. I hope to get it tomorrow. I've got a few jobs lined up already. I've got a restaraunt, also a salon, if not 2. Plush there are quite a few to call that have called me in the past. And I haven't advertised to do this work at all.

 

[floorguy]

Dude your gonna be like :shock: :shock: :shock: WHY DIDNT I BUY THIS SHIT BEFORE???

 

[TimP]

I think so too. Plenty of work and so far it doesn't seem as bad as I keep hearing from people. As long as you have the right tools for the job I can see making money from it. I really only work part time cleaning carpet, 4-500 hours on my TM per year. So filling in with something else should help me to make a better living for sure.

 

[dealtimeman]

i dont think the floorguy has stressed enough not to let the floor dry that typhoon is very good at what it does and will get that floor dry very quickly! always have water ready to rinse with. and when i mean rinse i mean resoak the floor with clean water and do so until the water come out clear.

 

[floorguy]

didnt you read higher that he has enough on there...

and yes, with wet vac type things, re flood the floor and rescrub...helps on multipule levels

 

[TimP]

thanks for the help. The stripper I'm using is one that says it don't require rinsing. shineline emulsifier plus by spartan.


Anyways it's great to have some good advice. I'll keep it in mind if I'm starting to have a problem.


I got the typhoon today, put it together and it looks like quality and also professional. It don't seem to have any more suck than a regular shop vac but I don't think it needs to. It's relatively quiet and that's a good thing in my opinion. Also the dump hose is great to have in comparison to a regular shop vac. I hope it's quality made and that I don't have to worry about it going out on me.

 

[floorguy]

lets qualify "no rinsing required"

it means you dont need to neutralize the floor...


you tellin me you get 100% of that crap off the floor??? 1st try??


you may need to buy me a plane ticket out there to show ya how its done :wink:

always always, always rinse the floor...wether it be running an autoscrubber over it, or if you dont have one of those, reflood the floor and scrub...leaves a better finished product, and makes it easier to mop edges etc. later

 

[TimP]

I rinse the floor with a neutral rinse, I'm not sold on the water only thing. I was just saying it's one of those so I may not have to worry about the drying so much.

The floor I did do for practice looks really good to me. I only did a section in the warehouse like I said before. But the tile looks like new except for the scratches in the surface of the tile that I can't fix and a few tire marks from our forklift that I didn't take the time to try to get up which if it was for money I would of tried a few things on the truck to get em up.

 

[floorguy]

I rinse the floor with a neutral rinse, I'm not sold on the water only thing. I was just saying it's one of those so I may not have to worry about the drying so much.

If that strippered solution dries on the floor, and you go to mop it, you will notice, and it is more of a pain to get off then not...(mostly because you have moved/put equipment away)

saying its "one of those so you dont have to worry about drying" yet thinking you have to neutralize is backward thinking...

worry about drying...................and dont worry about the neutral

 

[TimP]

I rinse the floor with a neutral rinse, I'm not sold on the water only thing. I was just saying it's one of those so I may not have to worry about the drying so much.

If that strippered solution dries on the floor, and you go to mop it, you will notice, and it is more of a pain to get off then not...(mostly because you have moved/put equipment away)

saying its "one of those so you dont have to worry about drying" yet thinking you have to neutralize is backward thinking...

worry about drying...................and dont worry about the neutral

I understand the drying part, and believe you have very good reason and merit for bringing it up and I appreciate it. And with experience I'll figure out how to do things efficiently and not have a problem with drying.


But I like the neutral rinse because it has cleaning ability, water is not a cleaning agent by itself. Which it will help to get any remaining soil etc up that you miss after getting up your slurry that is able to get up, unless it needs a stripper again. Not like a neutral rinse costs much more than a water only rinse. That's just the way I see it. I may end up changing my mind. Experience changes how you do things, I don't clean carpet the same as I did in day 1.

 

[floorguy]

The neutral rinse is on the acidic side, much like in carpet cleaning, it is made to neutralize the akly side of the cleaning agent (stripper in this case)

Much like advancements in polymers to where you dont need sealers any more. Its the same here, thats why they call them no rinse..

when you do the water rinse/scrub it takes the left over residue and helps restrip things, but it also dilutes it out enough that it wont cause bonding issues with the finish.