A tenant emails that the corridor looks tired, and somebody immediately books a strip and refinish. Sometimes that is right. Often it is the most disruptive answer to a small problem. Let us talk about stripping vs burnishing Buckhead. It sounds like a matter of preference. It is really a diagnosis, and you can learn to make it standing in your own hallway with a flashlight. Dull is one thing. Scratched through to the tile is another thing entirely. Once you can tell those apart, you stop buying the biggest job on the menu every time a floor stops looking new.

Dull and damaged are two different problems

A floor that has lost its shine but still has an even, unbroken film on top is asking for polish. The finish is there. It has been scuffed flat by shoes and needs heat and speed to lay back down.

A floor with white scratch marks that go all the way to the tile is a different patient. No amount of buffing brings back a coating that has been worn off. That one needs finish put back on.

How to settle stripping vs burnishing Buckhead before a machine comes off the truck

Kneel down in a traffic lane with a light held low across the surface. Even haze across the whole lane means gloss loss. Bright thin lines with tile color showing through means the film is gone in spots.

Then check a protected corner behind a planter or under a console. That corner is your control sample. If the corner is glossy and the lane is not, the lane wore. If both look flat, the whole floor is simply due.

In a tower, downtime is the number that matters

Nobody in a Peachtree Road building asks what floor work costs first. They ask when people can walk on it again, because freight elevator windows and overnight access are the real constraint on this side of town.

Burnishing is the light option and the fastest to hand back. A scrub and recoat sits in the middle. A full strip and refinish is the longest closure, because every coat has to cure before traffic returns, and how long that takes depends entirely on the product and conditions. Your scope should name those hours, not guess at them.

OSHA walking and working surface rules treat wet and slick walking surfaces as a real hazard, which is exactly why a rushed return to traffic is a poor trade. A lobby near Lenox Square or Phipps Plaza gets one first impression per visitor.

Most commercial cleaning gets sold on price per square foot, then quietly handed to whoever was cheapest and free that night. That’s why quality slides after month two — the scope was never real to begin with. We build yours from an actual walkthrough of your actual building, on your actual hours. Then we send the same crew who learned it. Boring? Completely. It’s also the only thing that makes month five look like month one.

DBS Cleaning Services Group

Stone and plank do not follow the VCT rulebook

The terrazzo and marble in a Garden Hills or Peachtree Park lobby are not finish floors. They are polished stone, maintained by honing and diamond work, and a stripper made for vinyl tile has no business on them.

Luxury vinyl plank in newer suites usually carries no floor finish at all by design. Stripping it like old vinyl tile can dull the factory wear layer permanently. Same building, three surfaces, three plans.

Frequently asked questions