Strip and wax problem- Blotchy floor finish from salt/ ice melt?

[Joey33]

Hey Everybody,

So we did a strip and wax on a store last weekend. We had a problem ( you can see the picture attached) with the finish drying blotchy. We did 4 areas, only one area was open to the public. Finish was dry, at least we thought before anyone walked on it. All areas look great besides the one open to the public. It had around 30-45 min to dry and was very well ventilated in an open area. We walked on it before it opened, and there was no sign of any wet areas.

We had a bad snow storm that morning, and the parking lot gets absolutely covered with salt. The owner mentioned how much he hates what it does to his carpet and floor. The area we did was not near the entrance, but of course that stuff gets tracked all over it. Could the salt be what caused this? He said he mopped the floor, it is not visible when it is wet, but of course as soon as it dries you can see it. We are going to go back, try to buff it out and worse case do a full strip and wax.

There was hardly any wax on the floor, we did the typical process
Dry cleaned
Stripped the old wax with annihilator
Vacuumed up
Rinsed floor very well (it was very dirty)
Then of course applied the wax (X coat Nano)

Thanks, all knowing forum covenant

 

[floorclean]

It’s very hard to tell from the pictures. My best guess is a contaminant of some sort. I highly doubt it’s salt other wise it would be the whole floor. Most likely it’s not been either rinsed enough or all the old finish didn’t get taken off.

 

[Joey33]

Sorry for the bad picture. I snapped a few quick ones and didn't realize that they are very blurry, this was the only one worth posting.

I forgot to mention that it is definitely right on the top surface of the finish, I can feel it with my hand. The entire effected area is covered with this- maybe where the snow/ salt pooled?

 

[floorclean]

Highly unlikely, but anyway without doubt it’ll have to be restripped. I’d still put my money on it wasn’t properly rinsed or with contaminated mop heads.