Whipping/circular marks on vct floor

[ATypicalSe7en]

First time poster her. Sorry in advance if the format is wrong. I've recently got promoted to a floor tech at my job working at a clinic and been doing a lot of research on this forum and online to know what I am doing. I Also got a little training in from the other floor tech who works here too.

So problem I am having is that after dust moping and auto scrubbing the floor I would burnish the floor. However no matter what pad i use be it aqua, tan/hoghair, even the pink eraser pad I keep getting whips on my floor after running the machine for a short while. I found there is burnt wax I think it is on the bottom of the pad that is causing this.

I've ask everyone I can and search google for days but for the life of me i can't get a definite answer for this and maybe someone on here can help me. I don't know if it's cause the pad is dirty. If the pad is to aggresive. Or even if i am walking too slow behind the machine. The machine we use are tennant 2550 or the corded burnisher and the wax on the floor is diversey high mileage.

 

[floorclean]

The pad is getting filled up with floor finish. I’m not familiar with that particular floor finish. My guess is either that floor finish is to “soft” to high speed burnish or the floor finish has been altered with using a wrong product on it. It’s a tough call without seeing what’s going on. However seeing the picture of the pad it’s definitely getting a build up of floor finish.
So one thing I’d try is spray buffing it a few times with a good spray buff using only a red pad. Spray buffing is a system that usually uses a two pad system IE: blue or green followed by the red. After that try burnishing again.

The second thing I’d try using new blue pads on the auto scrubber. The thought behind that would be to try and harden up the finish. Typical we only use new green pads on our autoscrubbers in the grocery stores. You really need the more aggressive pads to clean the floors. You may even try using a restorer in the auto scrubber.

When you refinish the floor look for a finish that is compatible with high speed burnishing. I prefer a finish at is at least a 33% solids. It’s hard to put down for someone with little experience but well worth the results. Minimum of six to eight coats. But please only the first and last to the walls. And burnish after the last coat is dry.

 

[ATypicalSe7en]

Sadly my job doesn't allow us to spray buff because the people who did before did it incorrectly and messed up the floor in another clinic. If I am not mistaken the floor finish is about 25% solid and the auto scrubber we use a red pad 3m 5100. We do have a white pad i can use with a buffer 600rpm but i don't think it would produce that much of a shine by itself.

 

[floorclean]

Sadly my job doesn't allow us to spray buff because the people who did before did it incorrectly and messed up the floor in another clinic. If I am not mistaken the floor finish is about 25% solid and the auto scrubber we use a red pad 3m 5100. We do have a white pad i can use with a buffer 600rpm but i don't think it would produce that much of a shine by itself.

No white pads are good for nothing. Property done spray buffing is still the best system bar none.

 

[Common janitor]

Some thoughts .
We can eliminate a problem with the wax because it’s a decent name brand product .
Pads aren’t the problem because you’ve pretty much used all of them with the same result .
The hogs hair pad shown really doesn’t look that bad ......... at least not to me .
So , it either has to be your “ technique “ and / or the machine you’re using .
When you’re burnishing it’s heating the wax up so the machine has to be in constant motion when the pad is on the floor .
If the machine has a small trolley wheel on the front of it and it’s adjustable the pad may be to low and not on the floor correctly .
Hope it helps .
All the Best , Ed

 

[ATypicalSe7en]

Some thoughts .
We can eliminate a problem with the wax because it’s a decent name brand product .
Pads aren’t the problem because you’ve pretty much used all of them with the same result .
The hogs hair pad shown really doesn’t look that bad ......... at least not to me .
So , it either has to be your “ technique “ and / or the machine you’re using .
When you’re burnishing it’s heating the wax up so the machine has to be in constant motion when the pad is on the floor .
If the machine has a small trolley wheel on the front of it and it’s adjustable the pad may be to low and not on the floor correctly .
Hope it helps .
All the Best , Ed

I know not to let the pad/machine sit on the floor ever in 1 spot as it'll burn the floor. I follow this video as a guide when I burnish the floor. The machine pressure is set to the lowest and stays in the green never to the red. The one we have at the clinic is a tennant Br 2000 DC and a 2550. We have a guy that come maintenance the machine every month so I'm not sure how to level the machine itself unless it's the pad pressure knob. Another supervisor at a clinic told me it could be because of uneven floor that's causing it too but I don't think that would be the case with different types of pads.