A question I get asked regularly is "Can I use my Floor Scrubber to strip my floors?" The short answer is Yes. That follows with a BUT. So let's discuss the but and how to use a floor scrubber to strip floors.
1) When stripping floors with your scrubber, remember that stripper is corrosive and designed to remove floor finish. That being said NEVER put your stripper in the clean water tank this is for 3 reasons. 1) You may forget it's there or someone will not know it's there and use the scrubber on new floors and ruin your wax job. 2) As some strippers are corrosive this can be hard on your water pump/actuator and can be a costly repair. 3) Stripper needs dwell time and the best way to accomplish this is via a manual floor flood.
2) Swing buffer may still be needed. Yes as much as you can use the pads on your scrubber to strip the floor, there are times that the build up may be too much for the scrubber to handle. I usually recommend that you swing strip the floor first and then use your floor scrubber to rinse the floor.
3) Clean up is Key. Yes this is the most important part. And since stripped wax can dry up fast clean up needs to be done immediately. If stripping a small area you could clean up between the dry time of the first and second coat of wax but the sooner the better.
What needs to be cleaned:
Pad holders
Squeegee should be removed and rinsed
Vac Tanks
Any splash around and under the scrubber
Don't forget to clean up buckets and wringers while at it.
Yes when applied properly and cleaned up a floor scrubber can save you lots of time and labour on your next strip and wax project.
Phil-T
"Nothings too filthy for Phil-T"
