Floor Technician Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A floor technician, also called a floor care technician or floor tech, is the custodial specialist who strips, seals, finishes, scrubs, burnishes and extracts floors, usually on nights or weekends when the building is quiet. In hospitals, schools, offices and retail stores the role carries the heavy machine work and much of the chemical handling in a cleaning team. This page gives you a floor technician job description template, the OSHA rules that apply to the job, what to require and what to drop, pay figures copied from BLS, interview questions and what it costs to reach candidates on social.
What a floor technician does
Most cleaning staff keep floors clean day to day by sweeping, mopping and vacuuming. A floor technician keeps the floor itself in shape. That means running the equipment and chemistry that restore and protect hard floors and carpet: auto scrubbers, swing machines, burnishers, wet vacuums and carpet extractors, plus strippers, sealers and finishes that have to be mixed and applied correctly.
BLS does not publish a separate floor technician occupation. Floor care sits inside janitors and cleaners, except maids and housekeeping cleaners (SOC 37-2011), and O*NET lists “Strip, seal, finish, and polish floors” among that occupation's tasks, along with “Follow procedures for the use of chemical cleaners and power equipment to prevent damage to floors and fixtures.” Every pay and employment figure on this page describes that wider janitorial group, not floor technicians alone.
The job is usually scheduled around the building. Hospitals and stores often run floor work overnight; schools save the big strip-and-refinish projects for summer and breaks; offices do it after hours or on weekends. BLS notes that most janitors and building cleaners work full time, that part-time work is common, and that schedules may vary.
Floor technician duties
- Strip old finish from resilient floors (VCT, sheet vinyl and similar) and apply sealer and new coats of finish to the manufacturer's specification
- Scrub and recoat floors between full strips to extend the life of the finish
- Burnish or buff finished floors on a set schedule to keep the gloss
- Operate auto scrubbers, swing machines, burnishers, wet vacuums and carpet extractors safely
- Deep clean and extract carpet, and spot-treat stains
- Clean and maintain other hard surfaces as assigned, such as sealed concrete, tile and grout, or stone
- Mix chemicals to the label dilution, read safety data sheets and wear the required PPE
- Set out wet floor signs and barricades, and keep work areas closed until floors are dry
- Clean, charge and do basic maintenance on floor machines, and report equipment that needs repair
- Keep a floor care log or work order record, and report damaged flooring to the supervisor
Floor care technician job description: hospital and healthcare floors
Hospital floor care asks more of the role than most settings do. The floor technician works in environmental services (EVS), around patients and staff who are there around the clock, so work is planned by unit and time of day, and corridors can rarely be closed for long. Expect patient rooms, operating and procedure areas, lobbies and long corridors, each with its own schedule and rules.
What changes in a healthcare floor care technician job description:
- Infection prevention. Floor technicians follow the facility's EVS and infection prevention procedures, including isolation signage and PPE. Put “follows infection prevention procedures and isolation precautions” in the duties.
- Quiet, safe work around patients. Machine noise, cords and wet floors in a patient corridor are a fall risk for patients and staff. Say that the technician coordinates with unit staff before starting.
- Health screening. Hospitals commonly require a background check, health screening and immunization records for EVS staff. List what yours requires so candidates are not surprised at the offer stage.
- Overnight schedules. Name the shift and the rotation, including weekends and holidays.
Safety rules that shape the job
There is no federal license for floor technicians, but two OSHA general industry standards define a large part of the job, and your job description should reflect them.
Walking-working surfaces. Under 29 CFR 1910.22(a), the employer must ensure that all places of employment are “kept in a clean, orderly, and sanitary condition,” that “the floor of each workroom is maintained in a clean and, to the extent feasible, in a dry condition,” and that walking-working surfaces are “maintained free of hazards such as sharp or protruding objects, loose boards, corrosion, leaks, spills, snow, and ice.” Floor technicians are how many employers meet that rule, and a wet floor left unmarked is the hazard the rule is written to prevent.
Hazard communication. Strippers, finishes and many cleaning concentrates are hazardous chemicals. Under 29 CFR 1910.1200(h)(1), “Employers shall provide employees with effective information and training on hazardous chemicals in their work area at the time of their initial assignment, and whenever a new chemical hazard the employees have not previously been trained about is introduced into their work area.” Build that training into onboarding and say so in the posting.
State and local rules, and your own facility policies, may add to these. This is general information, not legal advice.
Floor technician job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields and delete what does not apply. It is written for a commercial or healthcare building; the section after it covers other settings.
Job title
Floor Technician [/ Floor Care Technician], [Company or facility name], [City, ST]
Summary
[Company name] is hiring a floor technician to keep the floors in [our hospital / our client buildings / our schools] clean, safe and looking their best. You will strip, wax, scrub, burnish and extract floors on a planned schedule, using commercial floor machines and chemicals we train you on. [No floor care experience? We train you.]
[Shift, e.g. Sunday–Thursday, 10 p.m. to 6:30 a.m.]. [Pay range, plus any night differential]. [One sentence on what is good about working here.]
What you will do
• Strip, seal and refinish hard floors, and scrub and recoat between strips
• Burnish floors on the schedule for each area
• Run auto scrubbers, swing machines, burnishers and carpet extractors
• Deep clean and spot-treat carpet
• Mix chemicals to label dilutions and use the required PPE
• Put out wet floor signs and keep areas closed until floors are dry
• Clean and charge equipment after each shift and report anything broken
• [Follow infection prevention and isolation procedures (healthcare)]
• Record completed work in [floor care log / work order system]
What you need
• Able to work [shift] including [weekends / holidays]
• Able to stand and walk for the full shift, push and guide floor machines, and lift up to [X] pounds
• Willing to learn and follow chemical safety and equipment procedures
• [Pass a background check / health screening, if required]
• [Valid driver's license, if the role travels between sites]
Nice to have
• Floor care or custodial experience
• Experience with [auto scrubbers / burnishers / carpet extraction]
• [Healthcare or EVS experience]
What we offer
• [Pay range] [and night or weekend differential]
• Paid training on equipment and chemicals
• [Benefits and when they start]
• [Path: lead floor technician, EVS supervisor, maintenance]
How to apply
[One step. Say how fast you call back.]
Requirements: what to ask for, and what to drop
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Floor care experience | Nice to have, not a must. Stripping and burnishing are learned on the job. Requiring years of experience cuts out custodians and housekeepers who would learn fast. |
| Schedule | Keep it, and be exact. Night and weekend availability is the real requirement for most floor technician jobs. |
| Physical demands | Keep, and describe plainly: standing and walking all shift, guiding heavy machines, moving furniture, working with chemicals. |
| High school diploma | Usually drop. BLS lists no formal educational credential as the typical entry-level education for janitors and building cleaners. |
| Driver's license | Only if the role drives between sites. Otherwise it screens out people for no reason. |
| Background check or health screening | Keep where your facility or contract requires it, and say so up front. |
Customizing it by setting
Hospitals and healthcare facilities
Covered above. Add infection prevention, patient-area etiquette, isolation signage and the health screening your facility requires.
Schools and universities
Much of the heavy floor work happens over summer and breaks, with maintenance during the year. Say whether the role is year-round and what the summer project schedule looks like.
Commercial cleaning contractors
BLS reports that 35 percent of janitors and building cleaners work in services to buildings and dwellings, the industry that includes cleaning contractors. Contractor floor technicians often travel between client sites. Say how many sites, whether a company vehicle is provided and whether mileage is paid.
Retail, grocery and warehouses
Large sales floors and sealed concrete mean long runs on ride-on scrubbers and burnishers, usually overnight while the store is closed. Name the equipment.
Lead floor technician
Add scheduling the floor care calendar, training new technicians, ordering chemicals and pads, and inspecting finished work.
What floor technicians earn
BLS does not publish a floor technician wage. For janitors and building cleaners (SOC 37-2011), the median hourly wage was $17.71 in May 2025, or $36,840 a year. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $13.77 and the highest 10 percent more than $24.17.
Median hourly wages in the top industries for janitors and building cleaners, May 2025:
| Industry | Median hourly wage |
|---|---|
| Government | $20.76 |
| Educational services; state, local, and private | $18.63 |
| Healthcare and social assistance | $18.35 |
| Services to buildings and dwellings | $17.21 |
These figures cover all janitors, so check local floor technician postings before you set a range, including any night or weekend differential nearby employers pay. BLS counted 2,432,600 janitors and building cleaners in 2025 and projects employment to grow 2 percent to 2,486,200 by 2035, with about 321,800 openings a year.
Interview questions for a floor technician
These six questions test safety habits, care with chemicals and fit with the schedule. Experienced candidates should answer them easily; trainable candidates should show the right instincts.
1. Walk me through how you would strip and refinish a hallway.
A good answer has an order: close and sign the area, dust mop, apply stripper at the right dilution and let it dwell, scrub, pick up the slurry, rinse and neutralize, let it dry, then thin coats of finish with drying time between. Skipping the rinse or rushing coats is a warning sign.
2. How do you decide how much chemical to mix?
Listen for “the label” and a dispenser or measuring. “I eyeball it” damages floors and wastes product.
3. Someone walks through your wet floor. What do you do?
Good answers put safety first: stop the person, check they are not hurt, fix the barricade, then repair the finish. Anger at the person is a poor sign in a hospital or store.
4. What machines have you run, and what do you check before you start one?
Look for specifics: pad condition, cord or battery, squeegee, tank levels. For trainees, ask what equipment they have used anywhere and how they learned it.
5. This job is Sunday through Thursday nights. How does that fit your life?
Ask it directly. A clear no now is better than a quit in week two.
6. Tell me about a time you found damage or a problem you did not cause.
You want someone who reports it right away, not someone who works around it. A cracked tile or a leaking machine reported at 2 a.m. saves you money.
What it costs to reach a floor technician
Our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark does not have a cleaning or custodial role family, so we have no floor technician figure and will not borrow one and relabel it. What it does publish: across all 891 campaigns the median cost per applicant was $13.88, and the nearest hourly, no-credential role family, warehouse / production, ran a $9.83 median with a 20 percent apply rate. Treat those as reference points, not a forecast.
What moves the number is in your control. Across the benchmark, campaigns where under 5 percent of clickers finished the form paid $53.77 per applicant; campaigns between 20 and 35 percent paid $4.41. For a night floor technician job, that means a short mobile form that asks about the shift and any floor care experience, then a call the same day. Cost per applicant is not cost per hire.
Staffing the rest of the team? See the janitor, housekeeper, housekeeping supervisor and maintenance worker job descriptions, and how to hire housekeepers and janitorial staff.
The job description is not the job ad
The template above is the document for your files and your ATS. The ad has to stop a custodian, housekeeper or warehouse worker scrolling on their phone.
- Lead with the shift and the pay. For night floor work, the differential is often the headline.
- Say “we train you on the machines” if you do. Most people who could do this job have never been called a floor technician.
- Show the equipment in the image. A burnisher or ride-on scrubber is more specific than a stock photo of someone mopping.
- Keep the form to a few questions and call back the same day.
- On Facebook and Instagram, job ads run in the Employment special ad category: a minimum 15-mile radius, and no targeting by age, gender or ZIP code. Write the ad so the location and shift do the filtering. See Meta's special ad category.
More on the ad itself is in what makes a good job ad and janitor interview questions.
Frequently asked questions
What does a floor technician do?
A floor technician maintains and restores floors in commercial buildings: stripping old finish, sealing and refinishing hard floors, scrubbing and recoating, burnishing, and extracting carpet. They run floor machines, mix chemicals to label dilutions, set out wet floor signs and keep equipment clean and charged. Most work nights or weekends when the building is quiet.
What is the difference between a floor technician and a janitor?
A janitor covers general cleaning such as trash, restrooms, dusting and daily mopping. A floor technician specializes in floor care: stripping, waxing, burnishing and carpet extraction with commercial machines and chemicals. BLS counts both in the same occupation, janitors and building cleaners, but floor technicians usually need more equipment skill and work set night schedules.
How much does a floor technician make?
BLS does not publish a floor technician wage. Janitors and building cleaners, the occupation that includes floor care, had a median hourly wage of $17.71 in May 2025, or $36,840 a year. In healthcare and social assistance the median was $18.35 an hour. Check local postings, including night differentials.
Do floor technicians need a license or certification?
No federal license exists for floor technicians. OSHA does require employers to train workers on the hazardous chemicals in their work area under the hazard communication standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200(h). Some employers prefer vendor or industry floor care training, but it is rarely required. Check any state or contract requirements that apply to your facility.
What should a floor care technician job description include?
A floor care technician job description should name the setting, shift and pay, then list the core tasks: stripping, sealing and refinishing, burnishing, scrubbing and carpet extraction. Add the machines used, chemical safety and PPE, physical demands, any background check or health screening, and whether you train people with no floor care experience.
Can I hire a floor technician with no experience?
Yes. Stripping, refinishing and burnishing can be taught on the job with a trainer, the right machines and hazard communication training. Custodians, housekeepers and warehouse workers are a good pool to recruit from. Hire for reliability on the schedule and a careful attitude with chemicals, then train the technique.
What interview questions should I ask a floor technician?
Ask them to walk through stripping and refinishing a hallway, how they decide how much chemical to mix, what they do when someone walks on a wet floor, what they check before starting a machine, and whether your night schedule fits their life. Good answers are specific and put safety and signage first.
What hours do floor technicians work?
Most floor technicians work nights, early mornings or weekends so floors can be closed and dried without foot traffic. Hospitals and stores often run floor care overnight, and schools save big projects for summer and breaks. BLS notes most janitors and building cleaners work full time. Put the exact shift in the posting.
What does a hospital floor technician do differently?
A hospital floor technician works in environmental services around patients and staff at all hours, so work is planned by unit and time. They follow infection prevention and isolation procedures, keep corridors safe during work and coordinate with unit staff. Hospitals commonly require background checks, health screening and immunization records for these roles.
How much does it cost to recruit a floor technician?
Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark has no cleaning role family, so there is no floor technician figure. Across all 891 campaigns the median cost per applicant was $13.88, and the warehouse and production family, the nearest hourly role, ran a $9.83 median. That is cost per applicant, not cost per hire.
Related job descriptions
Hiring floor technicians?
The description is the document. Getting it in front of custodians, housekeepers and night-shift workers near your building is the part we do.
Wage, employment and projection data for janitors and building cleaners (SOC 37-2011), the occupation that includes floor care: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, Janitors and Building Cleaners, last modified 27 August 2026; wages are May 2025 OEWS. Tasks from O*NET OnLine 37-2011.00. Safety requirements from 29 CFR 1910.22 and 29 CFR 1910.1200 on eCFR; general information, not legal advice. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 managed campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months. Read at source 24 September 2026.