Re-Waxing Your Stained Concrete Floor
As you live on your stained concrete floor, the
initial shine will inevitably be dulled by day to day wear and cleaning;
however, a dulled shine doesn’t necessarily indicate a need to re-wax right
away. You want to be careful not
to re-wax too soon or too often, as a build-up of excess wax can accelerate the
accumulation of dust, tracked-in grit, or mineral deposits from mopping, and
obscure the beauty of the floor beneath the finish.
Before you re-wax, we strongly encourage you to simply dry-buff your
floor, using a red buffer pad, removing a thin surface layer of wax and shining
the clean wax beneath it.
Dry-buffing will probably be all that you need to do
to restore your floor’s shine for the first 12 to 18 months after the initial
waxing. After 12 to 18 months, you
may need to reapply wax in the higher traffic and wear areas of your home, such
as the kitchen, bathrooms, and hallways. Other
areas that have lighter use should be re-waxed only as needed.
Materials
To
re-wax, you will need:
ü
Kemiko
Stone Tone Clear Wax (1 gallon per 800-1200 square feet, available by calling
The Garden Collection at 903-587-3708)
ü
Lambs
wool pad or other clean, soft cloth for wax application
ü
A buffing
machine (available from most rental stores)
ü
Two black
stripping machine pads and a red buffing pad
ü
2-inch
blue 3M painters tape
Preparation
First, apply blue 3M painters tape to all baseboards,
door bottoms, and appliances to protect them from the wax and the buffer.
You will want lots of light during buffing, so that
you can clearly see what you have done. Turn
on all of the lights and open blinds and curtains.
Plan your waxing path so that you back out of
doorways, preferably with light coming through windows, so that you can see what
you have done easily. Don’t wax
yourself into a corner!
Start by buffing the entire area to be waxed with a
black pad, going slowly, to remove surface wax and any ground-in dust and dirt.
Basically this is cleaning the floor to give a clean surface to start
from.
After you go over the area with the black pad, sweep
well and remove all dust and debris. Anything
left on the floor will be reincorporated into new coat of wax.
Shake unopened wax can well to mix wax and solvent.
Applying the Wax
Step 1 – Apply a thin coat of wax to an area about
5 feet square with a diaper or lambs wool pad.
Immediately go over this area with the buffer and a black pad.
Go slowly, spreading the wax with the buffer until it covers about 1 ½
times the original area, until the wax becomes tacky.
Be very careful, the floor will be extremely slippery at this stage!
Repeat this process throughout the area to be waxed,
periodically flipping the black pad over. If
you are seeing little balls of wax thrown off of the buffer, you may be using
too much wax. You should clean the
black pad by scraping off built up wax. When
wax accumulates along baseboards and in corners, wipe the wax away with a soft
dry rag while it is still soft. After
this step, the floor will have an inconsistent, spotty sheen.
Step 2 – After completing Step 1, switch to the second
black pad, and go slowly over the entire area again. This will put a consistent sheen on the floor, but not a
shine at this point. This step is
to eliminate ridges in the wax and give you a uniform surface.
Shave off any thickened wax deposits, ridges, or
drops of hardened wax with a razorblade-type window scraper.
Step 3 – After completing Step 2, switch to the red pad.
Go over the entire area slowly, periodically flipping the pad, especially
if build-up is occurring on the pad. This
step puts the shine on your floor.
Clean-Up
Sweep to remove any dust created by the final
buffing. Remove the blue tape.