A commercial floor scraper is one of the most versatile and useful tools you can have in your surface preparation equipment inventory. Unlike the manual “shovel-style” scrapers that take hours or even days of back-breaking labor, a commercial option allows you to easily take up sheets of flooring, reaching all the way down to the base or subfloor in a short period of time. 

The three main types of commercial scrapers are hand held, walk-behind, and ride-on. Each one is useful in flooring demolition, but we want to take the opportunity to lay out exactly why you need a ride-on floor scraper and when you can use it for the best results. 

Why You Need a Ride-On Floor Scraper

Floor scrapers offer the versatility that most other surface preparation equipment can’t provide. While floor grinders and shot blasters are great for concrete and stone, scrapers and floor strippers can take up the following materials: 

  • Carpet and tack strip
  • Tile and mortar or thinset
  • Rubber or mastic coatings
  • Wood or parquet
  • Vinyl or linoleum floor coverings

They can also be used outdoors to take up asphalt and rubberized coatings on sport tracks and tennis courts! You can tackle a wider variety of jobs and increase your specialization. 

A ride-on floor scraper can easily remove layers of those materials in a fraction of the time it takes to use a manual or even a walk-behind scraper. While different models vary in speed, they range from 150 feet per minute for battery-powered  varieties to over 400 feet a minute for the larger propane-powered models. This gives you a massive increase in productivity while reducing worker fatigue. 

When Should You Use a Ride On Floor Scraper?

Having a powerful, ride-on floor scraper is ideal when you’re working in an open, level space with few to no impediments, like columns, walls, or furnishings. Many flooring contractors use them for:

  • Outdoor spaces, including playground surface, basketball court, and tennis court resurfacing.
  • Gymnasiums
  • Warehouses
  • Office buildings
  • Retail establishments
  • Schools
  • Basements or garages
  • Common areas in dorms, apartment buildings, and other communal living spaces.

The ride-on scraper can tackle the majority of these open spaces, then a hand-held electric floor scraper can be used to quickly handle the details, like inside closets or bathrooms, stairs, and narrow corridors. 

Using the Right Accessories with Your Ride-On Floor Scraper

While you may hear horror stories about floor scraper blades damaging soft concrete slabs and causing expensive, difficult to repair cuts and gouges, as long as you are using the right tools, you can work on almost any surface. For example, you would want to use a thin blade that can skim under carpet and adhesive with ease while a floor scraper chisel is better suited to thinset and tile. Knowing which floor scraper parts you need is as important as knowing when to use a ride-on floor scraper! 

Contact Us for Your Ride-On Floor Scraper

If you want to make short work of your next flooring demolition project, contact us for the tools you need. From propane-powered floor scrapers to replacement blades, we can get you what you need at the right price. Contact our product experts today at  (815) 472-9735 or by filling out our contact form to get started!