by Dawn Shoemaker — June 2015 — The demand for hard flooring, especially vinyl and various types of decorative tile, will rise by 5 percent each year to reach 9.3 billion square feet by 2017, according to Freedonia, an international market research firm based in Cleveland, OH, The study, conducted in 2013, reflects a fairly significant rebound driven by new building construction and renovation since the economic downturn in 2008. It also reflects what many jansan distributors and building service contractors (BSCs) are well aware of, which is “The office and commercial segment will post the strongest growth during this time, fueled by double-digit advances in construction spending and rising interest in hard surface flooring as a low-maintenance alternative to carpeting.”
According to the report, a great deal of the hard flooring selected will be luxury vinyl tile flooring (LVT), favored because it offers the durability and performance properties of traditional vinyl flooring products, but which features a high-gloss appearance.
“Many retailers, including major chain grocery stores and pharmacies, are installing LVT floors,” says Michael Schaffer, a senior executive with Tacony’s Commercial Floor Care division and president of floor care equipment manufacturer Tornado Industries. “They like LVT because it typically is a nowax/nofinish floor, making it easier to maintain. This helps reduce floor care costs and environmental issues often associated with more traditional vinyl composite tile floors (VCT).”
In addition, Schaffer cites another floor trend, again driven most likely by environmental and economic reasons. “Others have moved away from traditional hard surface flooring to new materials and floor coverings that do not require a finish,” he says. “For example, porcelain flooring that looks like hardwood flooring has become very popular today and does not require a finish. This all reflects a growing trend away from floor finish in many facilities.”
Did You Know?
The major ingredients of acrylic floor finishes are polymer, wax, and plasticizers.
- Base polymer accounts for wear and maintenance properties, such as gloss, hardness, durability, slip and scuff resistance, etc.
- Wax provides buff ability—more wax means a more buffable finish; too much wax makes the finish soft and more susceptible to dirt and scuffs.
- Plasticizers assist in film formation and floor resiliency.
Source: parish-supply.com
Still, there are buildings, such as healthcare facilities, that want their VCT and traditional floors to have a high-gloss luster and that typically does require a finish. Not only do these facilities believe it enhances the appearance of the floor, but it helps protect the floor from damage. Also, it is generally easier to clean and care for finished floors.
“This is where distributors and BSCs come in,” says Brian Peters, chairman and CEO of Peters Supply, an Afflink member distributor of facility maintenance, packaging, food service, and office supplies. “For those locations that still want a high-gloss shine on their floors, distributors and BSCs have to work together to select floor coatings that deliver quality and durability at the best price.”
This can be a complicated process because there are so many types of floor finishes available from scores of different manufacturers. Peters believes this is where web-based “dashboard” systems or analytical tools can be especially useful because they help distributors and their customers quickly compare different floor finishes in terms of cost, performance, application, and other barometers.
Finish Selection
The following guidelines can help make selecting a cost-effective floor finish a bit easier.
True purchase price
Discussing the cost of floor finish can be much more complicated than realized as there are different ways to evaluate which finish ultimately is the best buy. It may seem like the easiest way to “price” floor finish when making a purchase decision is to simply look at the sticker price. So if one gallon of finish costs $25 and another costs $35, doesn’t that make the $25 gallon the better buy? Not necessarily.
What if the $25 gallon of floor finish is designed to cover 1,800 square feet but requires six coats to produce an acceptable shine? In this case, it will cost $150 in floor finish to cover that floor. Let’s say the $35 gallon of finish also covers 1,800 square feet, but produces an acceptable shine after only three coats of finish. This means it costs only $105 to finish the 1,800-square-foot floor, a savings of $45.
This illustrates why selecting finish based on price per gallon or even pricer per square foot is often not the best method. Instead, selecting finish based on its “mileage”—how far it will go or how much it will take to produce the desired results—usually will prove to be the better yardstick and can result in a cost savings, even if the initial price is higher.
Best total value
Another way to determine which type of floor finish is the most cost effective and the best value is to test two or more floor finishes and determine how much labor, time, and materials it takes to maintain the floor with each.
Let’s say, for instance, that we have selected two floor finishes that cost about the same based on their “mileage.” However, over the course of the year, we find that finish A needs more burnishing (or spray buffing) than finish B to maintain its shine. Finish A also appears to be wearing faster than finish B, requiring more frequent recoating. And finish A needs to be stripped and the floor refinished after eight months of service while finish B is still holding strong after 12 months.
When labor costs, chemical costs, and the costs for the finish are calculated, it becomes obvious that despite the same initial cost, finish B is the better value.
Gloss costs
A third consideration for selecting the most cost-effective floor finish is to determine how much time and labor are required to maintain the floor’s gloss. Let’s say our customer is a busy medical center that wants a high-gloss shine on its floors. We use two different floor finishes in two different areas of the building that receive about the same amount of foot traffic. Using a gloss meter—which measures the amount of light reflection from the floor—we find that finish A registers a very high gloss rating of 80 at the start of the day but a gloss rating of 60 at the end of the day. This indicates that the floor will have to be burnished to restore its high-gloss shine. We use finish B in the other floor area. At the start of the day, it, too, registers an 80 with the gloss meter, but at the end of the day, it registers a 75, which is still a high enough gloss rating to prevent the floor from having to be burnished each day, making it the more cost-effective finish based on gloss costs.
Stripping costs
We should be able to understand the following guideline without an example. Some floor finishes are harder to remove than others, and as all BSCs and distributors know, stripping a floor is one of the most labor intensive—and potentially dangerous to both the worker and the environment—of all floor care tasks. “This can be even more true for a traditional, nongreen floor finish than a metal-free or environmentally preferable floor finish,” says David Holly, a director with The Ashkin Group, LLC., and deputy director of The Green Cleaning Network. “The green finish may not require the use of a conventional stripper, but instead a green or less environmentally invasive finish remover can be used.”
In either case, the more time and effort it takes to strip a floor, the more costly it is to maintain the floor, which should be considered when selecting a floor finish.
Product synergy
Invariably, it is best to select a floor finish along with other floor care chemicals and cleaning solutions from the same manufacturer. “The reason for this is because many manufacturers develop their floor care products to work together, synergistically, as part of a system, and this can help reduce the time and costs it takes to maintain the floor over the long term,” says Peters.
Equipment
After taking the trouble to select the floor finish that delivers the most mileage and that is the least labor intensive to apply, maintain, and strip, selecting a less-than-satisfactory floor machine would totally defeat our overall goal of making floor care more cost effective.
“One of the wisest investments a facility service provider can make—and a distributor can help guide and implement for their customers—is to select ‘best in class’ floor care equipment,” Schaffer says. “This is equipment engineered to maximize cleaning efficiency and help reduce the costs of floor maintenance. And in many cases, along with being more effective, higher quality floor equipment typically provides years of dependable service, essentially paying dividends over time.”
Dawn Shoemaker is a frequent writer for the professional cleaning and building industries. She may be reached at info@alturasolutions.com.