The best window to strip and refinish resilient commercial floors in Greater Montréal is mid October to late November, before the first real snowfall brings calcium and sodium chloride through your doors. A fresh, fully cured finish with enough coats acts as a sacrificial layer: the salt and grit wear the finish instead of the tile. Wait until January and you are stripping a floor that is already etched, with crews working around slush and short drying windows.
Below is what a pre-winter strip and wax should cover, how to scope it in a contract, and what typically moves the price.
Why salt season is hard on commercial floors
Road salt in Québec is mostly sodium chloride, with calcium chloride and magnesium chloride blends used on sidewalks and private lots. All of them leave an alkaline, crystalline film once the meltwater dries. On vinyl composition tile (VCT), sheet vinyl and sealed concrete, that film does three things:
- It dulls and hazes the finish within days, which is the white bloom you see near entrances in February.
- It scratches. Salt crystals and sand under foot traffic behave like sandpaper.
- It softens and breaks down floor finish that was applied thin or never fully cured.
A floor that goes into winter with two tired coats of finish will often wear through to bare tile in the first 10 to 15 metres from the entrance by March. Once that happens, salt reaches the tile itself and the damage is no longer cosmetic.
What a proper strip and refinish includes
"Strip and wax" gets used loosely. In a commercial scope it should mean all of the following:
- Moving or protecting furniture and taping off baseboards, carpet edges and doorways.
- Applying stripper at the dilution the manufacturer specifies, with enough dwell time to break down every old coat, not just the top one.
- Machine scrubbing with a low speed floor machine and stripping pads, plus edge work by hand or with an edger along walls and corners.
- Wet vacuum pickup of the slurry, then at least two clean water rinses. Skipping the rinse leaves alkaline residue that stops the new finish from bonding.
- Neutralizing the floor if the stripper chemistry calls for it.
- Sealer on porous or older tile, where specified.
- Finish coats, applied thin, with full drying time between coats. Four to six coats is common for high traffic entrances and corridors; lighter areas may get three.
- Cure time before traffic and before the first burnish.
Ask your contractor to write the number of finish coats and the product line into the work order. "Waxed" with one coat and "refinished" with five coats look identical on day one and very different by Christmas.
Which floors need it, and which do not
- VCT and vinyl tile: the main candidate. Needs a full strip when the finish is worn, yellowed or built up unevenly.
- Sheet vinyl and luxury vinyl tile (LVT): many LVT products are factory coated and should not be stripped aggressively. Check the manufacturer's maintenance guide before you approve the scope.
- Sealed concrete in warehouses and plants: usually auto scrubbed and recoated, not stripped like VCT. Industrial floors with epoxy coatings follow the coating maker's instructions.
- Linoleum: sensitive to high pH strippers. It needs a stripper and finish rated for linoleum.
- Ceramic, porcelain and stone: no wax. These get deep scrubbing, grout work and, for natural stone, sealing.
If you manage a mixed building, the scope should list each floor type separately, with the method and products for each.
Full strip versus scrub and recoat
Not every floor needs a full strip every fall. A scrub and recoat (deep scrub the top layers, then add two or three fresh coats) costs less and takes less downtime. It works when the base coats are still sound, the floor has no yellowing, and there is no heavy buildup along the edges.
A practical schedule many facility managers use:
- Full strip and refinish: once a year on high traffic floors, ideally in the fall.
- Scrub and recoat: once or twice in between, often in late spring after salt season.
- Burnishing or spray buffing: weekly to monthly depending on traffic, as part of regular janitorial service.
Planning around downtime
Most strip and wax work in offices, clinics and retail happens overnight or on weekends. A few planning points:
- Square footage per night: a two to three person crew can often complete roughly 2,000 to 4,000 square feet in a night depending on furniture, edges and the number of coats. Large areas are phased by zone.
- Ventilation: strippers and finishes need air movement and the right temperature to dry. Confirm the HVAC stays on overnight in the work areas.
- Temperature: finishes cure poorly in cold spaces. Loading docks and vestibules in late November may need to be done earlier in the season.
- Access and security: confirm who opens the building, alarm codes, elevator access and where the crew can dump wastewater. Stripping slurry should never go into a storm drain.
Typical costs in Greater Montréal
The figures below are typical ranges only, not a quote, for commercial resilient floors in the Montréal area:
- Full strip and refinish (VCT): often in the range of about $0.35 to $0.85 per square foot.
- Scrub and recoat: often in the range of about $0.20 to $0.45 per square foot.
- Small jobs: many contractors apply a minimum charge per visit, so a 600 square foot vestibule can cost more per square foot than a 20,000 square foot floor.
What pushes the price up or down:
- Total area and how many separate zones or visits it needs.
- Furniture density and how much must be moved.
- Condition of the old finish (heavy buildup takes longer to strip).
- Number of finish coats and whether sealer is required.
- Night, weekend or holiday scheduling.
- Edge work, stairs and small rooms, which are slower than open corridors.
For a rough number on your full cleaning program, the pricing calculator and the Montréal pricing guide give ranges by building type.
How to scope it in your cleaning contract
If you already have a janitorial contract, periodic floor work is often priced separately. Put these items in writing:
- Floor types and square footage per area.
- Method per area (full strip, scrub and recoat, burnish only).
- Number of finish coats and the product line.
- Frequency and target month (for example, full strip in October or November).
- Who moves furniture and who is responsible for any damage.
- Hours of work, access and wastewater disposal.
- How the result will be inspected (gloss, uniform appearance, clean edges, no residue on baseboards).
At Simple Service, floor stripping and waxing is part of our specialized cleaning work across Montréal, Laval, Longueuil, the Rive Nord and the Rive Sud, and it can be added to an existing commercial cleaning program. We carry $5M general liability insurance with a
Frequently asked questions
How long after waxing can people walk on a commercial floor?
Light foot traffic is usually fine a few hours after the last coat is dry to the touch, often by the next morning when the work is done overnight. Heavy traffic, carts and furniture should wait longer, and the first burnish should wait until the finish has cured according to the product's instructions, often several days.
How often should commercial floors be stripped and waxed in Montréal?
High traffic floors such as entrances, lobbies and main corridors are typically stripped and refinished once a year, with one or two scrub and recoats in between. Low traffic rooms can often go two years between full strips if they are burnished and maintained regularly.
Can floor stripping be done during business hours?
It is possible in closed off zones, but most buildings schedule it overnight or on weekends. The floor is wet and slippery during stripping, the chemicals have an odour, and every coat needs drying time, so working around occupants slows the job and raises the risk of slips.
Does a fresh floor finish really protect against salt damage?
Yes, as long as there are enough coats and the floor is maintained through the winter. The finish takes the wear instead of the tile, and daily entrance care (mats, damp mopping with a neutralizing cleaner, regular burnishing) keeps salt from building up on it.
Book your floors before the first snow
Fall slots for overnight and weekend floor work fill up quickly once the weather turns. If you want your floors stripped and refinished before salt season, send us your building details through our quote form with the floor types and approximate square footage, and we will come back with a scope and a price.