Urethane Finish: Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Floor
Care
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For decades
now, floor finishing and maintenance have played a major role in
the cleaning industry. Until recently, building services
contractors and maintenance providers have relied on acrylic
finishes as the standard product of choice for floor
maintenance, but now they are employing Ultra-Durable Urethane
finishes as part of their efforts to reduce the size of their
environmental footprint.
There are countless brands and varieties of acrylic finishes on
the market. Manufacturers have spent millions of dollars
developing these finishes in order to make them stronger,
shinier, and more “user friendly.” Despite the improvements made
over the years, these finishes continue to require quite a
significant amount of regular and ongoing maintenance.
The industry today is seeing a rapid shift towards “green”
products, including green floor finishes. A floor finish may be
considered green for its basic chemical makeup, though the
system itself is not necessarily deemed environmentally
friendly. The sheer amount of chemicals, energy, water, and
labor used to maintain a floor with traditional finishes, even
green finishes, can be overwhelming. Regular daily buffing and
recoating are often required. One of the most significant
advantages of using Ul-tra-Durable Urethane floor finishes is
that unlike traditional acrylic finishes, the use of UDU
finishes never requires buffing or burnishing.
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green
Building Rating System is the nationally accepted benchmark for
the design, construction, and operation of high performance
green buildings. Through the use of LEED, The United States
Green Buiding Council provides building owners and operators
the tools they need to have an immediate and measurable impact
on their buildings’ performance. Using Ultra-Durable Urethane
floor finishes (UDU) may offer many more LEED advantages when
compared to traditional floor finish programs.
Chemicals Usage: One of the most dangerous processes used in the
floor care industry is the stripping process. The chemicals that
comprise wax stripper are often quite toxic and hazardous to
the user. Additionally, a very large number of workers’
compensation claims in this industry are the direct result of
slipping on a freshly stripped floor. No matter how a company
cares for its floors by traditional means, the need for
stripping the product is always required.
Water-based urethane systems, on the other hand, are designed to
drastically reduce, or even eliminate, the need for stripping
and reapplying the product. From strip to strip, the life cycle
of a waxed floor is typically 12-18 months, plus quarterly
reapplications in between. The reapplication (not stripping)
timetable for UDU finishes is approximately 18-24 months or
longer. There are many floors containing UDU finishes that were
originally applied over six years ago that still do not require
stripping.
Moreover, the noxious solution of stripper and old wax that is
washed down drains is likely causing problems in our lakes,
rivers, and oceans. The city of Palo Alto, CA is aware of this
and does not allow dumping this “slurry” down the drain,
particularly if the zinc is included as an ingredient in the
wax. Although zinc is a heavy metal that aids in the durability
of many acrylic finishes, overexposure to zinc may be linked to
a multitude of health problems. The composition of water-based
urethane finishes is such that zinc is not needed to give it
strength and durability.
Michael Chavez, general manager of Desert Floor Restoration in
Albuquerque, NM, says, “By using ultra-durable floor finishes
we can virtually eliminate the regular use of strippers and
other harsh chemicals. Our customers’ floors look glossier and
last much longer as we lower the regular maintenance cost with
this new program.”
Energy and Water Usage: Weekly buffing, quarterly scrubbing
and/or re-coating, as well as annual stripping of a traditional
floor finish require much energy and water to complete. Using
UDU finishes eliminates all of these steps. In the course of a
typical year, the sole maintenance requirement of a UDU
finished floor is simple: keep it clean. Dirt and grime will
not penetrate UDU finishes as they do in acrylics. This makes
the cleaning process for UDU finishes much easier and much more
“green”. The use of microfiber mops for daily cleaning is the
preferred and simplest cleaning method for UDU finished floors.
Microfiber cleaning is a very environmentally conscious method
of cleaning due to the reduced usage of water and chemicals.
Increased margins for the BSC: Floor service companies often
struggle to find ways to “do more with less.” When a floor is
initially stripped and finished with multiple coats of wax, it
generally looks pretty good. Unfortunately, its appearance
starts to diminish quite rapidly within weeks or even days of
the service. When the floors are buffed or
recoated, the appearance is improved again.
We call this the “roller coaster Urethane finishes far outweigh
those of effect” of floor finishing. When services are cut back
in order to save money or increase contractor margins, the
roller coaster effect is much more dramatic.
Kendall Dahlquist, owner of a ServiceMaster franchise, has seen
the benefits of making the transition to ultra-durable floor finishes.
He states that “using water based urethane in our janitorial and
commercial services division has saved us an incredible amount
of time and labor due to the longevity and minimal maintenance
requirements of the product.”
Cost savings for the customer: Increased contractor margins do
not necessarily mean increased costs for the end user. In the
case of water-based urethane, a “win/win” scenario is often
attained. Contractors can achieve a higher margin on the
service, while the customer can save money and simultaneously
acquire better-looking floors.
The advantages of using Ultra-Durable finishes far outweigh
those of traditional high maintenance acrylic finishes. Knowing
this, John Varnell, associate VP of Operations and Facilities
of Guilford College in Greensboro, NC converted his entire
facility to UDU finish technology. He claims that his facility
has glossier floors now with much less due to the fact that they
have eliminated the traditional cycle of buffing, recoating, and
stripping. It is no longer a secret that UDU finish technology
is here to stay, and that is a good thing for contractors,
customers, and the environment. ❑
Travis Negaard is the president of Negaard Enterprises, a
specialty floor finish supplier that is focused on ultra-
durable products, training, and support. To find out more about
Negaard Enterprises, email him at travis@negaarden terprises.com,
call 800-722-2998, or visit
www.negaardenterprises.com. |
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