How to Save Time/Money on VCT Cleaning & Maintaining

Vinyl Composite Tile or “VCT” is a very common floor covering found in break-rooms, doctor’s offices, schools, lab rooms, etc. It is great material for floors due to its high durability. Its glossy finish is due to multiple layers of protective wax coatings.

However, over time those coatings of wax accumulate dirt and scratches from wear. Routine moppings can no longer bring back that attractive finish.

At this point you have two options:

1. Lightly strip the floor to remove soil and scuffs within the top layers of floor finish and then recoat the floor with a coat or two of wax finish
2. Completely strip off all the coats of wax and re-apply multiple coats of finish (4-5 coats).

Which way you go will depend on how much wear and dirt build up has occurred. If floors are well maintained (professionally cleaned once or twice a year), time and money will be saved for only having to apply 1-2 coats of floor finish after cleaning to retain that “new floor” look (option 1, roughly 50% the cost of option 2). If floors are left for many years without care the glossy look will fade and dirt and grime will become trapped in deep layers of wax and in worse cases into the tile itself. At this point your only option is 2, complete strip of all wax coats and re-applying 4-5 coats to achieve that “new floor” look. A costly and labor intensive project taking many hours or days!

Basically any good sized VCT floor (2000 sq ft or larger) should be maintained through annual or even a rotation of bi-annual treatments in order to retain a nice appearance as well as control costs. A 5 year maintenance program of recoats followed by a total strip with a reapplication of 4-5 fresh coats is the most effective. This is how most large manufacturing and school facilities attack this issue, saving many man-hours per year while maintaining a great look!

Smaller floors may not get enough savings to make this approach cost effective. However, a good total strip and re-wax every few years will maintain and rejuvenate the floor nicely.

Just do not ignore these floors! VCT may seem hard and impenetrable, but vinyl is soft and the tiles will be easily and permanently damaged if the protective wax coatings are worn away.

To learn more about the benefits of VCT cleaning, or to receive a free quote, contact us today!