Summer Floor Finish Application Tips
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During the summer months, schools switch gears from a busy facilities with hundreds of students traveling from room to room and building to building to the to buildings busy with maintenance staffs working on floors and other projects with the benefit of close-to-empty facilities. Summer also brings hot and humid weather and the adverse affect on floor finishing with it.
There are many horror stories of bad results from applying floor finish during hot and humid conditions. High humidity delays the evaporation of the water from the finish while having zero effect on the evaporation rate of the solvents in the finish. The uneven evaporation ratio leads to a watery finish that has not properly melted together and formed the desired film on the floor.
Below are the top 4 tips to use to avoid the pitfalls of finish application during humid summer weather:
1. STRIP THE DAY BEFORE
Waiting a day after stripping allows ample time for the added moisture in the air produced by stripping off old finish to dry out.
2. APPLY THIN COATS
Avoiding thick, heavy coats will decrease the water presence in the finish on the floor, allowing for a more evenly formed film.
3. RUN AIR CONDITIONING
Air conditioners remove humidity from the atmosphere. In absence of air conditioning, run fans to circulate the air.
4. EXTEND PERIOD BETWEEN COATS
Given the atmospheric conditions of summer, allow more time than usual between coats to give each thin, newly applied coat ample time to cure.