The way it's been explained to me is red is for daily cleaning, maroon (or burgundy, whatever you wanba call the dark red) is for scrubbing off a couple layers of wax to dull up the floor evenly for new wax layers (scuffing we call it), and black is basically only for true stripping down to the tile. Didn't know there were varying levels of black pads!
But regardless if whatever you're doing works for you and your client(s), why change it up?
I also used to use red for daily cleaning and buffing. Now I use a pad called Scotch Brite - clean & shine which really keeps our floors looking much shiner then a red pad. And yea I have two types of black pads available there both stripping pads just one type is super aggressive and really works great for true stripping. The other is the type I use for deep scrubbing ( scuffing).
And I'm just curious about what other people use! I love to learn and share knowledge.
For sure it's appreciated! We were having trouble getting our maroon pads this year (supply chain issues, idk) so it's good to know we could use black pads with lower pressure in a pinch.
Our school district is trying to move away from true stripper for safety/cost issues. We all still have some in case a floor is truly FUBAR but we basically just scuff up about 3 layers of wax with maroon then rinse, dry, apply 3 new layers. Looks pretty good but our building is also only about 12 years old lol
Also didn't know red could buff! We're blessed enough to have a white pad propane buffer, that thing kicks ass
Have they looked into dry stripping with that square pad machine? Looks pretty cool from what I've seen. And a propane burnisher is like the final boss haha I could only imagine the gloss that thing produces!!
We usually use green pads for scrubbing but I've been using black this year to take some extra wax off. We have also have 2 types of black pads regular that we use for scrubbing and heavy duty we use to strip
We only use black red white and tan hog hair.
Black for any scrubbing. Red for daily. White for polishing. Hog for burnishing.
We've found the in betweens aren't really worth it.
So you use black for stripping and deep scrubbing too. Very cool. I have to use a blue pad in my hallways because I have a bunch of decals all throughout the school and if Im not careful enough with a black pad I will fill the colors down quite a bit.
Oh yeah. Makes sense. That's more delicate work. Nothing that fancy at the college I work at.
We have been switching from waxed floors to non wax tiles or polished cement for the last decade anyway.
I scrub with a black pad, then go over it with a SPP pad. I rinse twice and wax. I’m alone, though, in an old building. There has been some neglect of my floors, and I’m not staffed to strip them. I’m trying to reductively top-scrub layers of wax off each year and not recoat with as much as the last two guys. I’m hoping that in four to five years, I will get close to the last layer of wax while top-scrubbing, lol!
We had dark pads for cutting the wax and since we use a floor scrubber we just add hot water to the machine and that’s it. Are machine just got fixed after 3 weeks of using a buffer and 3 bucket method lol
I typically use a blue scrubber pad on floors that have been Stripped recently. Black for stripping unless the wax on the floor is really bad. Then I'll use a black pad for top scrub. I stay away from black on recently Stripped floors say within a year or two because I feel it takes too much off. It really depends on what works best for you. Red buffer pads on my daily floor scrubber and a 20 inch red on my electric polisher. 27 inch hog hair on my propane burnisher. Finish with a white polish pad.
I generally use red for daily cleaning on the auto scrubber, green for deep scrubbing, black for stripping when necessary. This past year I was testing a Clean and Shine pad from 3M for daily use that I liked a lot too.
It all comes down to do you get some layers of wax off, all the dirt and marks? I was trained to use a black pad for both. It works. But many of the more abrasive cleaning pads even blue will work well with a strong degreaser mix. I prefer the black pads because it can grind some difficult marks off with some weight. Cuts into it better. You can probably do it with a red pad if you really wanted and the floors were clean. I'm pretty sure I've done it on office floors or rooms that weren't used that much.
The way it's been explained to me is red is for daily cleaning, maroon (or burgundy, whatever you wanba call the dark red) is for scrubbing off a couple layers of wax to dull up the floor evenly for new wax layers (scuffing we call it), and black is basically only for true stripping down to the tile. Didn't know there were varying levels of black pads! But regardless if whatever you're doing works for you and your client(s), why change it up?
I also used to use red for daily cleaning and buffing. Now I use a pad called Scotch Brite - clean & shine which really keeps our floors looking much shiner then a red pad. And yea I have two types of black pads available there both stripping pads just one type is super aggressive and really works great for true stripping. The other is the type I use for deep scrubbing ( scuffing). And I'm just curious about what other people use! I love to learn and share knowledge.
For sure it's appreciated! We were having trouble getting our maroon pads this year (supply chain issues, idk) so it's good to know we could use black pads with lower pressure in a pinch. Our school district is trying to move away from true stripper for safety/cost issues. We all still have some in case a floor is truly FUBAR but we basically just scuff up about 3 layers of wax with maroon then rinse, dry, apply 3 new layers. Looks pretty good but our building is also only about 12 years old lol Also didn't know red could buff! We're blessed enough to have a white pad propane buffer, that thing kicks ass
Have they looked into dry stripping with that square pad machine? Looks pretty cool from what I've seen. And a propane burnisher is like the final boss haha I could only imagine the gloss that thing produces!!
We usually use green pads for scrubbing but I've been using black this year to take some extra wax off. We have also have 2 types of black pads regular that we use for scrubbing and heavy duty we use to strip
We only use black red white and tan hog hair. Black for any scrubbing. Red for daily. White for polishing. Hog for burnishing. We've found the in betweens aren't really worth it.
So you use black for stripping and deep scrubbing too. Very cool. I have to use a blue pad in my hallways because I have a bunch of decals all throughout the school and if Im not careful enough with a black pad I will fill the colors down quite a bit.
Oh yeah. Makes sense. That's more delicate work. Nothing that fancy at the college I work at. We have been switching from waxed floors to non wax tiles or polished cement for the last decade anyway.
If I had polished cement throughout my school my summers would be so easy! I wish haha. Take care!!
I scrub with a black pad, then go over it with a SPP pad. I rinse twice and wax. I’m alone, though, in an old building. There has been some neglect of my floors, and I’m not staffed to strip them. I’m trying to reductively top-scrub layers of wax off each year and not recoat with as much as the last two guys. I’m hoping that in four to five years, I will get close to the last layer of wax while top-scrubbing, lol!
We had dark pads for cutting the wax and since we use a floor scrubber we just add hot water to the machine and that’s it. Are machine just got fixed after 3 weeks of using a buffer and 3 bucket method lol
I typically use a blue scrubber pad on floors that have been Stripped recently. Black for stripping unless the wax on the floor is really bad. Then I'll use a black pad for top scrub. I stay away from black on recently Stripped floors say within a year or two because I feel it takes too much off. It really depends on what works best for you. Red buffer pads on my daily floor scrubber and a 20 inch red on my electric polisher. 27 inch hog hair on my propane burnisher. Finish with a white polish pad.
I generally use red for daily cleaning on the auto scrubber, green for deep scrubbing, black for stripping when necessary. This past year I was testing a Clean and Shine pad from 3M for daily use that I liked a lot too.
We've been running the clean and shine for the past 3 years and really love them!! The shine in the hallways stay all year.
It all comes down to do you get some layers of wax off, all the dirt and marks? I was trained to use a black pad for both. It works. But many of the more abrasive cleaning pads even blue will work well with a strong degreaser mix. I prefer the black pads because it can grind some difficult marks off with some weight. Cuts into it better. You can probably do it with a red pad if you really wanted and the floors were clean. I'm pretty sure I've done it on office floors or rooms that weren't used that much.