Vinyl composition tile (VCT) flooring is a popular choice for commercial buildings as it’s proven to be pretty durable, making it a sound investment. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be regularly and properly cleaned and maintained. In order to keep the durability, VCT flooring needs a protecting finish to help enhance the beauty, extend its life, and prevent permanent damage. When you’re creating your floor cleaning schedule and checklist, here’s what you need to know about your VCT floor surfaces.
VCT Floor Surfaces: Initial and routine care
More often than not, VCT is manufactured with only a very thin coat of wax to simply protect it during shipping and installation. With this in mind, it’s recommended the floors be stripped and waxed after installation and before furniture and people move into the space. It’s important to note, manufacturers recommend against using an aggressive stripper on flooring that is less than two years old because it could weaken the adhesive. After applying the stripping solution, it needs to be removed very carefully with a wet vac or auto-scrubber and then rinsed with water, allowing time to completely dry. To complete this maintenance process, we recommend two to five coats of wax for the best outcome. This practice should be done at the very least two times a year, but it really depends on the foot traffic and the daily cleaning practices.
VCT Floor Surfaces: Daily cleaning
To really maintain the durability and shine of VCT flooring, daily care is incredibly necessary. To help lessen the possibility of damaging the tile finish, sweeping and dusting dirt away needs to be happening often. But to make the lives of the janitorial staff a little easier, we recommend adding floor mats at the entryways to catch all of the dirt and debris before it hits the floor. The only caveat is it’ll need vacuumed daily, but overall it’s a sound practice to extend the life of your floors. The next step would be to mop or auto-scrub the floors with a neutral impact cleaner. This step will help remove any small particles that were left behind. To finish off the floors, rinse them with clean water and allow time to dry completely.
This flooring is so popular because of how much it can withstand, but that’s only the case if it’s cared for regularly. Properly taking care of VCT flooring can be timely, but completely worth it in the long run. Making sure your staff understands what needs to be done to extend your floor’s life will prevent you from having to completely re-purchase and install brand new flooring – which is unnecessary if you know how to maintain it, making it a great investment with simple and proper care.
