If you’re recoating your wood floors this summer, hot weather may impact the recoating process. When the weather turns hot, a host of challenges can crop up.

Before applying your wood floor coating, bring your floor coating into the facility and allow it to adjust to room temperature. Never apply a coating that is warmer than the floor. Applying a hot coating to a cool floor can create millions of tiny bubbles. If your floor coating has been stored in a truck or sitting in the sun, it can reach temperatures of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. If you apply the hot coating to a cold floor, the coating will dry extremely quickly. As the warm coating penetrates the wood, it heats up air pockets in the wood, causing them to bubble as the coating quickly dries.

Drying Conditions

A properly dried wood floor coating means that enough solvents have been removed from the coating to allow the polymer chains to entangle. Entanglement enhances adhesion, durability, and overall beauty of a coating. In dry winter conditions, one concern is flash drying due to very low humidity. In the summer, air exchange is important. The outside air is typically humid, and adding solvents or water to the air inside makes it even more saturated, slowing the drying and curing, so you should exchange the air in the room with fresh air. You don’t, however, want this happening directly on a freshly applied and still tacky finish. You don’t want to stir up dust from the rafters.

For best results in hot, humid, summer conditions, be prepared to turn down any airflow while the finish is being applied, and be prepared to get it turned back on several hours later. Air movement and circulation is the most important factor in drying any wood floor coating.

Temperature

Increased temperature can impact drying time in multiple ways. Higher temperature can increase the air’s capacity to carry vapor which can speed up drying, but only if air is circulating. High temperature can also increase the curing rate of solvents in the floor coating.

However, you do not want your wood floor coating to dry too fast. If it does, there may be some combing lines in the coating. Therefore, in low circulation conditions, more time must be taken before allowing regular traffic and moving furniture back onto the floor. When you have low circulation conditions and hot and humid summer conditions, it is especially important to allow more time.

It is always important to consider air circulation, temperature, and dry time when recoating your wood floors. Representatives from Buckeye’s Reflections^® Wood Floor Program have the knowledge and expertise to help you determine when and how to coat your wood floors. Representatives can help train your staff in proper coating applications and procedures.

Contact your local Buckeye representative to find out more information about the Reflections Wood Floor Program and the training that accompanies it.

The Buckeye Reflections^® Wood Floor Program will help you get brilliant shine and excellent durability out of your wood floors. Buckeye has data to back up these claims, but the best way to learn about Reflections is through a Reflections seminar.

With a Reflections seminar, you not only get to see the products in action, but you get the chance to participate in the prepping and recoating process.

Day 1

Buckeye representatives will walk through the process of prepping your wood floor, explaining each aspect as they begin to prep your floor. They will do the same as they scrub and tack, and apply Gym Bond with flat mops.

Afterwards there will be time for questions and a quick introduction to recoating your wood floors.

Day 2

Day 2 is more hands-on. Reflections offers great products, and one of its greatest assets is the MFMA (Maple Flooring Manufacturer’s Association) approved training your staff members will receive from Reflections representatives. Staff members will first learn about prepping procedures in a classroom setting and then will accompany Buckeye representatives in prepping the rest of the wood floor.

Once the floor has been prepped, staff members will have the opportunity to learn about recoating wood floors. Buckeye representatives will present the difference between oil-based and water-based wood coatings, the equipment needed to recoat your floors, the application process, and various maintenance procedures.

To conclude the presentation, staff members will begin to apply their knowledge by recoating the wood floor alongside Buckeye representatives. At the end of the day, all participants will have the opportunity to ask additional questions. Each participant will also receive a Certificate of Training.

Finished Product

By the end of a Reflections seminar, your staff will be fully trained on the preparation and recoating processes for your wood floors as well as additional maintenance procedures. Your wood floor will be completely recoated, giving you the opportunity to fully evaluate how Reflections products can have a long-term impact on your facility.

When asked about the Reflections Wood Floor Program a high-school Facilities Manager had this to say: “I could not believe the amount of pride my staff took in the wood floors once we implemented the Buckeye Reflections Program. For the first time we were receiving compliments on our wood floors instead of complaints. The Buckeye staff came and hosted a training with my staff on the upper wood floor. A year later they did a second training with my staff on the lower wood floor. Shortly after the second training my staff did the upper wood floor on their own and it turned out excellent.”

See how a Reflections seminar can have an impact on your facility and your staff by scheduling a seminar today.

Preparing your floor before you coat it, finding the proper coating, and making sure you have the proper training to recoat your gym floors are all important aspects of maintaining their beauty. However, what you do to take care of your floors between recoating them is equally as important. From daily maintenance to special considerations, Buckeye has all the procedures to keep your wood floor glossy and ready for play.

Daily Maintenance

1. Vacuum entryway mats.
2. Dust mop the floor with an untreated dust mop.
3. Spot clean floors with a 1.4 oz. per gallon dilution of Buckeye Green Light^™ Super Concentrated Floor Cleaner or Eco^® Floor Cleaner Fragrance-Free S32.

Weekly Maintenance

1. Unload soil from entryway mats.
2. Dust mop the floor.
3. Tack the floor with Screen Clean^™ Ready-to-Use Floor Prep Cleaner and Tacking Solution.

As Needed Maintenance

1. Remove gum and tape.
2. Use protective matting in high traffic areas during special events or structural maintenance.

Special Maintenance

1. Scrub the floor with an autoscrubber, white pad and Green Light or Eco S32 to remove heavy soil and black marks.
2. Scrub the floor with Floortonic^® Burnishing Liquid and an autoscrubber. Then burnish with a high-speed burnisher to restore gloss on Arena^® wood floor coatings.

Things to Remember

Do not use an autoscrubber daily. At the most, use an autoscrubber twice a month. If you use an autoscubber on a daily basis, grit will accumulate in the cleaning pads. This can scratch your floor. Moisture can also build up in wood floor boards and cause damage to the floor.

Buckeye has a variety of wood floor coatings. Newer floors should be coated with oil-based coatings. If your coating is oil-based, do not use a high-speed burnisher. Oil-based coatings do not respond well to high-speed burnishing.

Dust mops can leave a dry talc-like powder behind that can be slippery. A good way to combat this is to damp tack the floor with microfiber materials.

Keeping up with daily, weekly, and as needed maintenance procedures can breathe new life into your hard wood floors. Find out more about how to take care of the hard wood floors in your facility from your local Buckeye representative.

Download a Reflections Maintenance wall chart below.

“To preserve the beauty and life of your maple floor, the MFMA (Maple Flooring Manufacturers Association) recommends that recreational surfaces receive periodic refinishings. Facility use, abuse and maintenance will determine the appropriate refinishing schedule. Most gymnasium floors should be annually recoated.”¹

Wood floors are the foundation of your school’s gym but refinishing them is often costly and time consuming. However, properly recoating your wood floors is necessary to increase their shine and overall durability. Annually recoating a wood floor can extend its lifetime and protect you from the costly expense of replacing it before it has reached the end of its useful life.

Buckeye’s Reflections^® Wood Floor Program has the products, procedures, and training materials to best maintain your wood floor. Access to the proper training and equipment to get the job done make it possible to recoat your floors in-house. With Reflections, you can recoat your floors using many of the items you already have in your facility. Reflections uses the same tools used to strip and refinish VCT hallways and classrooms. This means no added equipment costs. You can coat your floors with your staff on your own time. With Reflections, you don’t need to wait for summer vacation. Recoating your gym floors can be done during winter or spring break.

Reflections couples readily available tools with hands-on training from Reflections representatives and web-based training approved by MFMA. Reflections representatives are experts in their field. They can make your wood floors last by helping you choose the right preparation method and wood floor coating.

“Our gym floors are the most expensive floors in our schools, so we have to be confident in the products we use. The Buckeye Reflections Wood Floor Program is a complete program, not just products, and the training is phenomenal! Now we can do our gym floors in-house and save money, and still get results like this!” – Francis Howell School District, St. Charles, MO

Buckeye’s Reflections cost calculator can show you how much your facility can save by comparing the cost of the Buckeye Reflections Wood Floor Program to your current wood floor maintenance costs. It factors in the size of your gym floor, how many coats your floor will need, and the cost of all products and supplies.

For more information on the Reflections Wood Floor Program, click here.

Contact your local Buckeye representative to find out how much your facility can save with the Reflections Wood Floor Program.

¹MFMA Industry Recommendations – Sanding, Sealing, Court Lining, Finishing & Resurfacing of Maple Gym Floors. (March 2008). Retrieved from http://www.maplefloor.org/TechnicalInfo/Sanding-and-Sealing/Annual-Maintenance-Refinishing.aspx

Cure time. Floor prep. Safety. A lot can factor into coating your wood floors. Here are some things to consider before deciding which wood floor coating is best for your facility.

A Floor’s Age

Simply put, oil-based wood floor coatings are the only choice for newly installed wood floors. Because wood is composed of cellulose, it is porous enough to absorb water. This is why wood often expands when the air is moist in the summer and contracts when the air is dry in the winter. Over time, wood develops polymer protection against water. Until floors have been coated at least 4 times, it’s best to use an oil-based wood floor coating.

VOCs and Cure Time

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are odorous gases that can sometimes be dangerous to the health of employees or others in your facility.

While curing, oil-based wood floor coatings often emit more VOCs than water-based wood floor coatings. Oil-based wood floor coatings can take 2 weeks to fully cure. This means, for places like schools, wood floors must be coated in the summer to give them enough time to cure and disperse any VOCs emitted.

For water-based wood floor coatings, cure time is much quicker. Gym floors coated with a water-based wood floor coating can be played on within 2-3 days and are fully cured within a week. They also emit less VOCs while curing. Because of this, a school’s gym floor can be coated with a water-based coating over a long weekend or during spring break. This gives staff the flexibility to choose when to recoat the floors and keeps heavy odors away from teachers and students.

Burnishing

Oil-based wood floor coatings do not respond well to burnishing. However, some water-based wood floor coatings can be burnished to bring back gloss and traction to a wood floor. Buckeye’s Arena 300 responds well to burnishing, helping you regain the shine and durability of your wood floor without having to completely recoat.

Prepping the Floor

There are two ways to prepare a wood floor before coating it, wet prep and dry prep. Dry prepping your floors is not ideal because it leaves behind lots of dust. However, if you plan to use an oil-based wood floor coating and wish to prep and coat your floors on the same day, dry prepping is the only option. This is especially true for new wood floors. Wet prepping new wood floors can cause the floor boards to expand and lead to cupping and peeling. If your wood floors are new, dry prepping them before applying an oil-based coating is the best way to coat your floors.

With older floors and water-based wood floor coatings, you can wet-prep and coat the floor on the same day. This eliminates dust and saves valuable time.

Environmental Safety

Water-based coatings are not flammable. Buckeye’s Arena^® 300 is one of the most environmentally safe coatings in the industry, with a NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) rating of 0 for Health, Fire, and Reactivity. Also, when you have finished coating your floors with a water-based wood floor coating like Arena 300, all tools used during the process can be cleaned with water.

For oil-based finishes, this is not the case. Oil-based coatings are flammable and once you have finished coating the floor, the tools used to complete the process must be cleaned with flammable mineral spirits. Oil-based wood floor coatings often have more significant warnings on safety data sheets and, as mentioned, emit more volatile organic compounds into the air.

Room Temperature and Humidity

Fluctuation in room temperature can often cause wood floors to expand or shrink, causing cracks and air pockets to form between boards. The Maple Floor Manufacturing Association recommends that maple wood gyms be kept at a relative humidity of 35-50% and a temperature between 55-75 degrees Fahrenheit year round. While no coatings are immune to the problems that come with changes in temperature and humidity, oil-based coatings tend to resist cracking better than water-based coatings. If your facility has difficulty regulating its temperature or relative humidity, an oil-based coating may be the best choice.

Overall Savings

In addition to the features mentioned above, oil-based wood floor coatings are often less expensive to manufacture and therefore cheaper for the end user. They also only require 1-2 coats in comparison to the 2-3 required for water-based wood floor coatings.

In contrast, the overall savings offered by water-based wood floor coatings can make a difference in your facility. Water-based coatings can save staff time when prepping the floor. Their quick cure time can make the most of your gym floor year round.

Buckeye’s Reflections^® Wood Floor Program has oil-based and water-based urethanes depending on your facility’s needs. To find out more about Reflections and which wood floor coatings are right for your facility, contact your local Buckeye representative.

When a wood floor is first installed, too much exposure to water can cause damage. Because the boards have not yet had time to fill with polymer protection, the wood can more easily absorb water and begin to warp. This is why, for the first 2-3 years of a wood floor’s life, it’s best to use an oil-based wood floor coating. However, once your floor has had time to settle and build up a layer of polymer protection in its seams, a water-based wood floor coating may be the better option.

The Reflections Wood Floor Program provides both oil-based and water-based wood floor coatings. Reflections coatings have low VOCs, making them environmentally responsible and less hazardous for employees. Each Reflections coating is quick-drying but Reflections’ Arena water-based urethanes allow sports play only 48 hours after application. For older wood floors, Reflections water-based coatings are ideal, making the recoating process quicker while retaining exceptional gloss.

As a whole, the Reflections program is designed to provide years of beauty, performance, safety, and durability to both new and old wood floors. The program comes complete with wood floor coatings, bonding agent, cleaners, tacking solution, and the tools you need to coat your wood floors in-house.

Glenn Miller, Director of Building and Grounds at Mount Olive Board of Education in New Jersey has been using Buckeye’s Reflections Wood Floor Program for 5 years. He credits Arena^® 300 and Reflections for the shine of his gym floors, saying, “Prior to the Reflections Wood Floor Program, we had been recoating our gym floors every year. We had been getting inconsistent results, even with the professional contractors we were hiring. I was a little concerned about my guys coating the floors themselves but Buckeye came in and trained my staff. Three custodians were able to coat the floors and we got a beautiful result.” With Arena 300 and the Reflections Wood Floor Program, Mount Olive’s gym floors have more grip and shine. Miller and his staff now coat their gym floors once every 2 years, saving them time and money.

Buckeye’s water-based wood floor coatings have allowed Miller and his team to recoat the floors quickly while providing more consistent results than many of the outside contractors they had previously hired. The training that accompanies the Reflections program has made it simple for staff at Mount Olive to complete the job with sparkling results.

To learn more about how the Reflections Wood Floor Program and its wood floor coatings can be customized to fit your facility, contact your local Buckeye representative.

Gym floors are some of the most expensive floors in your facility. Finding a cost effective way to maintain them can be difficult. Buckeye’s Reflections^® Wood Floor Program can reduce costs, provide excellent durability, and extend the life of your wood floors.

One of the simplest ways the Reflections program saves money is through the training it provides. With Reflections, employees can be trained to prep and recoat gym floors. For daily, weekly, and as-needed procedures, the Reflections Maintenance Wall Charts guide employees in proper gym floor maintenance procedures. The program provides comprehensive in-person and online training with tools like the Reflections Maintenance training videos. These videos provide employees with valuable information, covering topics like burnishing wood floors and vacuuming mats.

Buckeye uses the most innovative methods to help save time and money. When you’re ready to coat your gym floor, the Buckeye Reflections Wood Floor Program covers the proper techniques for applying both oil and water-based wood floor coatings including recommended product coverage, dry times, cure times, recoat windows, and more. With Buckeye’s latest and most innovative preparation method, the Gym Bond/Autoscrubber prep method, facilities can save up to 60% of the typical time and labor spent on prepping wood floors.

Buckeye knows that every gym floor is different. Reflections products include both water-based and oil-based wood floor coatings, as well as other wood floor maintenance products. These products hold up well to scuffing and scratching. They are easy to apply, less viscous, and don’t have harsh odors. The Reflections Wood Floor Program and its products can be customized to fit your facility needs, ensuring the improved durability, shine, and life of your gym floors.

Find out how much you can save with the Reflections Wood Floor Program using the Reflections Cost Calculator. Contact your local Buckeye representative for more information.

On September 11-14, 2017 Buckeye will join the entire cleaning industry at ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America Trade Show and ISSA Convention, the largest industry trade show of the year, in Las Vegas, NV. ISSA/INTERCLEAN North America is where new strategies, insights, and products are on display. While there, discover opportunities to achieve greater profits and improved efficiency for your company.

Buckeye will be at ISSA to discuss the advantages of programs like our Eco^® Proportioning Program, Reflections^® Wood Floor Program, Hard Floor Care Program, and Symmetry^® Hand Hygiene Program. Learn about these programs and new products from Buckeye at booth #3943.

Join us and 16,000+ professionals in the cleaning industry including distributors, building service contractors, facility decision makers, and residential cleaning companies. Exhibitors from over 25 countries will be participating to showcase the latest products and services. ISSA/INTERCLEAN will have 60+ education seminars and training workshops as well as over 700 suppliers and equipment manufacturers.

Visit us in Las Vegas to share market insights and discover the value of Buckeye programs and products.

A complete program is the best way to extend the life of your wood floors and maintain their beauty, performance, safety, and durability. The Buckeye Reflections^® Wood Floor Care Program combines Arena^® water-based wood floor coatings and Coliseum^® oil-based wood floor coatings with proper procedures to achieve beautiful, longer-lasting wood floors. The Reflections program also includes specialty products, one of which is Gym Bond, a water-based urethane bonding agent.

Gym Bond is formulated with exclusive technology to provide maximum adhesion when applied to previously coated maple wood floors before urethane wood floor coating application. When applied, Gym Bond drastically reduces peeling from tape on a gym floor and increases adhesion when applied both under and over gym floor paint and decals. Only one coat of Gym Bond is required and it covers 1,800 square feet per gallon.

Gym Bond is a low-VOC water-based bonding agent, making it safer for the environment. It also has a very low odor, excellent leveling, and dries quickly with no ambering. A floor coated with Gym Bond may be recoated with a Reflections water-based floor coating in 2 hours or a Reflections oil-based floor coating in 4 hours.

Other specialty products in the Reflections Wood Floor Care Program include Screen Clean^® Ready-To-Use Floor Prep Cleaner, Tenacity^® Pre-Cleaner, Buckeye Green Light^™ Daily Cleaner, and Floortonic^® Burnishing Liquid. In combination with Gym Bond, these other specialty products maximize your floor coating adhesion and make it easy to use the equipment already available in your facility.

Contact a Reflections representative in your area to learn more about the program.

Arena^® 300 is a 100% urethane water-based wood floor coating with exceptional durability and shine for all types of wood. It has an extremely mild scent and no solvent odor. Since it is made from a single component, there is no mixing required. Other benefits of Arena 300 include easy application, quick dry time, and greater abrasion resistance. It provides excellent leveling and superior film hardness, while being environmentally safer and VOC compliant.

Arena 300 is part of the Buckeye Reflections Wood Floor Program. A wood floor is one of the most expensive and prestigious floor types, and needs to be protected. Reflections products make it is easy to use the equipment that is already available in your facility, and the program is cost effective, easy to follow, and will extend the life of your floors. Many of the products are VOC compliant such as VOC compliant Arena water-based wood floor coatings and high performance and VOC compliant Coliseum^® oil-based wood floor coatings. The program also offers hands-on training at no cost to you. Contact us today to learn about using this product and other wood floor care products from Buckeye International.