The Tile/Floor Stripping From Hell & How To Avoid It.
Why insistence are important to listen to.
So I get this emergency call on Sunday, it was a live in assistant home in Aurora that needed to have some tile floors stripped and waxed.
I thought no problem.
He explained he need this done on Monday because of an upcoming inspection on Tuesday.
Thinking about what he said, I agreed to go out Monday to do an inspection to confirm what
we were up against.
As it turns out, the floor was in bad shape needed to be stripped down completely. It’s had been neglected for years.
So I explained that they may need to strip the floor down twice or three times to make it look good.
Unfortunately they needed it done for an inspection Tuesday. (which was the next day) So I explained it would be a ok job if I only stripped it only once, they insisted that I do the best I could and would be fine.
Of course this was maintenance saying this and not the owner of the complex. We had no clue.
That night we showed up and thought we could get that puppy strip down in about 3 hours, WRONG!
As it turned out, it took 5 hours and still needed at least 1 more stripping. But we didn’t have time.
Why?
They served breakfast in the mornings at 8am and needed to put dining area we were stripping back to in order. Since the maintenance guy planned it at night, we were limited; It was so bad, that it took 5 hours to strip off about 90%. of the first layer. (We stopped at about 2 a.m.).
We called the maintenance guy about 2 hours into the job and told him the situation, and he say “just do the best you can” I didn’t feel good about that, because I knew the owner might feel differently about the situation, so I continued… knowing the situation they were facing with the inspectors in the morning.
The Owners Prospective
That next morning the owner took a look and was disappointed that the floor wasn’t finished. The maintenance guy never told him they needed more time to do it right.
Since he wasn’t aware that his floor needed extra care, he had the assumption that all would be well with his floors the next morning.
That couldn’t happen with his time restraints. This taught me a good lesson, Always get the decision maker(s) involve in any pressure sensitive job.
Explain the pros and cons, then let them decide which way they should go…
Nothing against maintenance and management types, but the bottom line is what the owner wants and whether or not we can deliver in a timely fashion.
Lesson Learned!
Sometimes it’s better to stick with your gut and even turn down a job (if necessary) to maintain an excellent reputation.
On a better note. We did strip it down again, buffed it out and the floor did look much improved, even though they should have added another coat of finish to make it look fantastic.
Here’s the type of work you can expect when a floor is properly scripted and waxed….
Here’s what you should consider…
If you were thinking of having your floors strip and waxed in Aurora or any other town, make sure you give yourself the time to get the results you want.
Otherwise “Murphy’s Law” might rear it’s ugly head as it did for the client mentioned above.
You should aways get a completition date and be clear what the results will be before hiring anyone.
That’s my two cent, I hope this help you make a good choose.