Floor Stripping Process Dunwoody: Do You Even Need It
By the DBS Cleaning Services Team · · 6 min read
A full strip is the most disruptive thing you can do to a hard floor, and a surprising number of buildings book one when they did not need to. The floor stripping process Dunwoody facility managers keep on an annual calendar is worth questioning, because there are three different answers to a dull floor and only one of them involves stripping. Burnish, recoat, or strip and start over. Choosing correctly saves money, saves a night of disruption, and puts less wear on tile that is not getting any younger. Choosing badly means either wasting a strip or letting a floor go past saving.
Three answers to one complaint
Burnishing polishes the existing finish back to gloss at high speed. Recoating cleans the floor and adds fresh coats over what is already there. Stripping removes everything down to the tile and rebuilds from nothing.
They are not interchangeable, and the correct choice depends entirely on the condition of the finish that is already down.
Reading the floor to see whether the floor stripping process Dunwoody buildings booked is warranted
If the finish is intact but dull, burnish it. If it is thinning in lanes but sound elsewhere, clean and recoat. If it is yellowed, discolored, built up unevenly at the edges or flaking anywhere, stripping is the only real option.
The tell is usually the walking lanes versus the corners. Heavy contrast between them means the finish has worn through in traffic, and adding coats over that just makes the contrast permanent.
Long-tenure buildings tend to over-strip or under-maintain
Around Perimeter Mall, Ravinia, Dunwoody Village and Georgetown we meet buildings that have run the same annual strip for a decade without anyone asking whether it is still the right interval.
The other half of the market has the opposite problem. No interim burnishing at all, so the finish grinds down and every year genuinely does need a strip. A little maintenance in between stretches the cycle a long way.
Worth naming the reason nobody suggests the smaller option. A strip is a bigger line item than a burnish, and vendors selling on price per square foot have no incentive to talk you out of the expensive one. We walk the floor first and tell you which of the three you actually need, even when it is the small one. OSHA walking and working surface rules are a useful backdrop, since a properly maintained finish also holds its traction.
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
Dense medical and dental space narrows the options further
Dunwoody has an unusual concentration of small medical and dental suites, and many of them are floored in sheet vinyl or LVT rather than VCT.
On those, stripping is often ruled out by the manufacturer entirely, and the maintenance answer is cleaning plus whatever the maker specifies. Older terrazzo entries go on a polish and seal program instead.
Serving Dunwoody and the surrounding area
We serve Dunwoody from Norcross, plus Sandy Springs, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Doraville, Peachtree Corners, Norcross, Roswell, Buckhead and Tucker.
Frequently asked questions
How do we know if we need a strip or just a recoat?
Look at the walking lanes against the corners. Intact but dull finish can be burnished, thinning finish can be recoated, and yellowed, flaking or built-up finish needs a full strip.
Does burnishing replace stripping?
No, it delays it. Regular burnishing keeps gloss up and slows wear, which stretches the interval between strips rather than removing the need for one.
Is an annual strip always necessary?
Not always. The right interval depends on traffic, the finish product and how well the floor is maintained in between. Stripping more often than needed wears the tile itself.
What about our sheet vinyl exam rooms?
Those often must not be stripped at all. We check the manufacturer guidance for that material and put the correct maintenance program against it instead.
Ready when business begins.
Let’s walk your Dunwoody facility.
Before you book another full strip in Dunwoody, let us look at what is actually on the floor. Sometimes the answer is a burnish and a better interim schedule, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a night of disruption you did not need.
(470) 357-1470Serving Dunwoody and all of Metro Atlanta