VCT refinish, how to remove impurities from the air?

[G.C.S GeneralCleaningSolution]

Hey guys, we did a VCT refinish tonight. Rinsed the floor 7x’s. I know this is excessive BUT in our defense this place was a mess so we had to use a lot of stripper. And, I wanted to be sure we got that up. Anyhow, after rinsing we allowed the floor ample time to dry. Inspected it to make sure nothing was left behind. Honesty you could take a white glove across that floor. It would show nothing, it was clean. After we applied the first coat, he rinse the bucket & mop frame, changed mop heads and allowed time to dry, repeat, repeat, repeat & then the final coat went on. I had been carefully watching as he is applying the finish and I’m scooping the floor looking at it from different angles and all be damned on the surface of the last coat going down one of the hallways there’s specs of what I assume is fibers, possible from our microfiber finish mop but I thought if it was from our mop would we have seen this before the last coat? I mean I was watching like a hawk. Then i began to wonder if this was impurities in the air, possibly. Anyhow, I’m hoping after 24 hrs we can go back in to do a buff and hopeful this will take care of this, It’s not all over the floors just down this one hall last a closed door which leads to their production floor so the air flow is a bit different.
What’s your thoughts?

 

[floorclean]

If your process is as you say it was then it could only be one thing. It’s the “solids” or acrylic that makes up your floor finish. Years ago when we first started using higher solids floor finish we had a very similar thing happen. What I discovered was the acrylic was drying inside the container, in my case the 20L pail. When the finish was poured into the pail you couldn’t see it. In fact you couldn’t actually see it on the floor until there was a build up of about four or five coats. Some times it was heavier in certain spots then others. Most likely where we loaded our mops up with more finish.
So to solve the problem we picked up a very cheap flour strainer. When we pour the finish into the pail we pour it through the strainer. You’d be absolutely shocked the amount of solids we got. The problem has never happened again.
Bad news it doesn’t buff or burnish out. It’s there. Short of stripping out the whole floor your not going to do anything about it. Perhaps if it’s not to bad you’ll be the only one to notice.

 

[PistolPete]

I used to use a 3m tack cloth right before putting the finish down to pick up any dust or hairs

 

[Robert86]

A picture of it might help tell you what it is. Could be dust blowing down the hall either from that production room (air flows under doors) or from the HVAC or could be lint from your applicator (microfiber very unlikely) or something that got into your finish bucket... Lots of things. But if you had to eagle eye it from the right angle to notice it, than I wouldn't be worried about it.

 

[Smtwn janitorial]

I have had that problem before too. I think in my case it was the wax. I have also caused myself problems with failing to neutralize the floor. Mopping again and again should do it. I prefer to use an automatic scrubber and just go over it slowly once or twice. This seems to leave them cleaner and nearly dry, ready for wax.

 

[longkenn]

Yep, go into a hair salon and try speeding up the drying process with fans...
Go ahead......Ask me how I know that one!

 

[floorclean]

I use fans all the time 20” box fans. Never directly on the finish. Sometimes up to 30 in an area but more to move air. Speeds up the drying time by 75% sometimes. We have a few huge ones on wheels to place at door ways if needed where we place them drawing air out of the room. Makes a great difference. The trick using them is to make sure your finish has levelled. Once that happens all is good.