Between Coats - Conditioning Pads and Sheet Rolls

A: Don’t over use your abrasive product when abrading between coats of finish. A worn out abrasive will still dull the surface, but it may not be putting the proper scratch into the finish to get a good mechanical bond for the next coat of finish. If the surface isn’t abraded properly, you can wind up with finish peeling, flaking and chipping. It’s a lot less expensive to use a few more abrasive products on the job than to go and re-sand a job because of finish failure.

A:

Buffing on stain is a technique that is gaining in popularity due to the time savings over traditional methods and the use of fewer materials, like rags and stain.

Our screen driver pads in tandem with our maroon conditioning pads create the perfect system for applying stain with a rotary buffer. The unique design of the screen driver pad allows it to hold and apply stain evenly on the floor without slinging. 

The maroon pad (with 7" center removed) is placed on top of the screen driver pad. This center hole creates a “trough” where the stain is poured. This system is then driven with either a screen driver or maroon pad on the buffer drive plate. The screen driver and maroon pad remain on the floor during the process. The operator only needs to tip back the buffer to add more stain to the “trough.” This makes for less mess during the process.

Typical Process

• Edges are cut in and wiped off by hand in appropriate size section of floor
• Stain is applied to main section of floor with buffer
• A clean screen driver pad is put on the buffer to buff off excess stain left on floor
• Move to next section of floor

Note:

• Not all stain can be applied with this method, check with stain manufacturer
• Do not work too large of an area to avoid lap marks
• Dispose of used pads properly, they are flammable

A:

• PSA strips have a short life. They tend to last approximately 150 square feet before needing to be changed.
• Because they wear so quickly, most people tend to over use them and wind up dulling the finish and not properly abrading it. This can lead to finish-adhesion problems.
• PSA strips may tear or curl up very easily. This means the contractor has to stop frequently to change strips, increasing time spent on the job.
• This system usually isn’t aggressive enough to abrade finishes properly in “screen” and recoat applications. Existing cured finishes are tough to abrade, and this system may only dull the finish which could lead to finish-adhesion problems.