I have your typical black and white checkerboard 12" VCT floor in my garage. It's super dirty, and in some places has the usual brown stain where the tires stained the surface. What's the most aggressive floor pad I can use on my 18" buffing machine to deeply and agressively clean this? Can a black pad be used on CVT or is that aggressive to the point it will damage it? What should I be using as far as a cleaning liquid to match the pad in aggressiveness to deep clean this as best as possible? Once done with that can I go right to the wax or are there intermediate steps I should be taking? Thanks!
Any vinyl composition tile (VCT) experienced guys on here - needs complete refinish
- Thread starter Doug427
- Start date
mike93lx
ALLIANCE MEMBER
It's VCT (vinyl composition tile). Might help with your searching.
Consider VCT System and throw away the wax.... 
That looks great, but with my size garage it's almost $2K. That's way outside the budgeted amount for this job, but I do thank you for the suggestion.Consider VCT System and throw away the wax....
duneslider
Well-known member
I am going to assume you do have a finish/wax on the floor. You don't need a super aggressive pad, you just need to use a floor stripper and we usually just use the white pads. Follow the instructions for the stripper. You will just put the stripper on the floor, let it sit for a bit then hit it with the buffer. The stripper softens the wax and breaks it up and the buffer scrubs it off. We squeegy and vacuum up the stripper and wax.
It might take a few strip and scrub cycles to get it to where you want it. Once done, let dry and apply your new finish. I usually try to use the stripper made by the same company as the finish, they tend to work better together.
It might take a few strip and scrub cycles to get it to where you want it. Once done, let dry and apply your new finish. I usually try to use the stripper made by the same company as the finish, they tend to work better together.
Actually there is no wax on the floor at all. I laid it down in 2017 and have been using the garage ever since. I never stripped and waxed the floor after laying it down. My bad, I know. It's got stains from the tires and it's just very dirty. I was thinking that doing the stripper as you said just as an agressive cleaning chemical and scrubbing with a black pad will get it about as clean as it'll get, unless some of you more experienced guys can think of a more agressive cleaning liqud that I can use to try to get some of the staning out before I wax it.
duneslider
Well-known member
I don't think a stripper will work for what you have. Basically, you have damaged the tiles. You might be successful with just a common degreaser type cleaner and the buffer but basically you are just sanding off the surface. If it were me and this was a job I came across I would try a less aggressive pad with a good cleaner and then replace tiles that were heavily damaged.
The wax, or finish, is supposed to be the wear layer.
The wax, or finish, is supposed to be the wear layer.
Roman G
Well-known member
Do you know what brand of tiles you used?
I have sanded VCT tiles to get stains out , or at least diminish them . it works OK, assuming the tile is colour through
a 6" R/O spneumatic sander with a rougher sandpaper working down to 120 . it may show signs of a different colour, but even if you had original tiles, after a few years they look different too .
a 6" R/O spneumatic sander with a rougher sandpaper working down to 120 . it may show signs of a different colour, but even if you had original tiles, after a few years they look different too .
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