Thread: Encapping stairs?

You can encapp by spraying on and brushing in the product by hand but a small hand held buffer is better. Can be on the end of a variable speed drill or a car polishing buffer if you don't do a ton of stairs.

If you do a lot of stairs there are machines sized for stairs. What used to be called a BAM machine (bare --- minimum). A couple of orbital machines will do stairs.

The orbital machines are nice..

These oreck orbilal machines work great.

They make a pad driver for them and then a 12 " bonnett.

Easy money. You don't even have to bend down like you have to with a hand held buffer.

oreck orbiter is pretty nice option, ill get one, one day :P

few other options are:

Gem's orbital polisher, the black heavy duty version excellent for op'n stairs.
gem-industries.com/orbital.php


also a Cyclo, a duel head orbital machine
cyclotoolmakers.com/

Hos, took the cyclo and modified it to accept 2 and 3 foot poles from different angles, so you can stand and operate the machine standing perfectly straight, and smiling the entire time lol, well worth the extra $ imo
hos-usa.com/products/orbot-micro.html

I also ordered some of the microfiber bonnets from cyclo to remove soil, as many of you know me by now, im not a fan of straight encapping


These are what i use personally
I think that it also provides a more professional image, there's never been someone asking " why are you using a grinder on my stairs?" lol

Yikes, I do admit that I use encapping on commercial grade carpet........but personally would never use encap method to clean stairs, especially residential.

Originally Posted by admin

Yikes, I do admit that I use encapping on commercial grade carpet........but personally would never use encap method to clean stairs, especially residential.

lol, just need to use the right methods Tre

by op'n it cleans up fantastically, lifts the pile and usually dry in 10-15 min
looks the exact same as when i used to hwe stairs

For encapping "COMMERCIAL" stairs with a Oreck Orbital I use the oreck pad driver and the 13 " pad that is supposed to be used in a dirt napper brush.

http://www.cleancraft.com/Replacemen.../zz-fdnr13.htm

It works great!!

A hand held buffer used to polish cars works great. I usually have to go back and do a hotwater extraction if the stairs are really soiled.

That Cyclo looks pretty cool, need to check into that.

I bought a porter cable tool for steps, before that I was getting a workout with a brush and towel

Hey Pat,

Is this what you have?

http://www.autogeek.net/po.html

*Bump*

I am putting together a proposal for a large theater. There, of course, are quite a few stairs. Can someone tell me an effective, in expensive way to clean them?

A brush and towel will take to much time and energy (I'd rather HWE). Some of the machines are to expensive for someone like me (I don't do enough ENCAP). I like the idea of the oreck orbital, considering I can find them on eBay. However, my I am concerned I will need to purchase other pieces for the machine. Will I? And, are the expensive?

I just bought this for stairs for $43.00 http://www.excellent-supply.com/8-in...sory_p_10.html


I have not had a chance to use it yet.

Originally Posted by Kenny Wright

I just bought this for stairs for $43.00 http://www.excellent-supply.com/8-in...sory_p_10.html


I have not had a chance to use it yet.

It's perfect. Thanks

Oh, I just realized it's just the bit. Not the drill. Still good though.

I have one of those, does not work great but for 1 job here/there you will be fine. The area will need to be wet enough so it spins, might want to try a small bonnet pad also, same reason.

I use the oreck orbiter with a 13 inch bonnet. Just did a super nasty set of stairs and they looked great once I was done. Since it is a high volume job I would buy a bunch of the 13inch bonnets and just pad cap all of them. Orbiter is easy to use for stairs and I would think it would be great for what you are about to do.