introduction

Floor finish for vinyl flooring has a so called life just like finish on a wood floor. Although, wood floor finish is much more durable. Sand and other abrasives act like knives, scratching the floor finish. When walked on this material cuts into the finish, abrading away the shine and even look of the floor. Over time finish wears and as a result looses its luster, depth of shine, and shows wear patterns where there is high traffic. This is a result of the floor finish becoming scratched and it is not able to reflect light back up but instead reflects the light in a disorganized manner. In addition, floor finish porous and traps soil creating dark patches that appear dirty. In an effort to slow this process down a procedure know as buffing or burnishing is performed. Buffing/Burnishing is performed on a periodic basis. Buffing/Burnishing repairs minor scratches and removes surface soil from the floor. It will not however remove deep scratching and soil that works its way deep into the pours of the finish in between periodic visits to buff/burnish. If soil is left on the floor day after day it will slowly work its way into the finish. Yes, buffing/burnishing will remove 90% of this dirt but 10%will always be left behind if the soil is allowed to be absorbed into the finish. Over time this creates dark patches. To help delay the appearance of these patches two processes can be performed individually or together. Both would be ideal because each removes more soil but one or the other will be better than neither at all. The first, frequent mopping can be performed so there is less soil that can work its way into the finish. Second, more frequent buffing/burnishing. Over time no matter how good the floor care program is the floor will need some sort of restoration procedures performed to it. There are two types of restoration. The first is the most extreme and that is complete stripping of the old floor finish and recoating. The first, stripping removes all dirt and scratches leaving a brand new look. The second, top scrubbing removes 90% of the dirt and scratches but may also leave an appearance of dark patches if they currently exist although much less if at all noticeable.

The more a floor is mopped the longer it will go without the appearance of dark patches. The more a floor is buffed/burnished the longer the floor will go before it needs to be top scrubbed. The more a floor is top scrubbed the longer it will go before it need to be stripped. Each process delays another.