Four different services get sold as “floor care,” they cost wildly different amounts, and most buyers cannot tell them apart on a quote. That is the usual framing for an article like this, and it is true as far as it goes.
But the expensive mistake is not choosing the wrong process. It is doing the right process on the wrong floor — and there is a live disagreement between flooring manufacturers that makes this easier to get wrong than you would expect.
Start here: two manufacturers, two opposite instructions
Luxury vinyl tile has replaced an enormous amount of vinyl composition tile in commercial buildings over the last fifteen years. The strip-and-wax cycle that the cleaning industry runs on was built around VCT. Many crews have been doing it for twenty years.
Here is Interface’s LVT maintenance guidance, under a heading that reads “Waxes and Polishes Are Not Recommended”:
“Interface’s LVT has a built-in top layer that does not require waxing or polishing. Wax will damage the surface of the LVT and create a cloudy finish. We are not aware of any methods to reverse this damage.“
Read that last sentence again. Not “will need correcting.” Not “may require additional work.” The manufacturer is saying it knows of no way to undo it.
Now here is Armstrong Flooring’s maintenance guidance for its own LVT and sheet flooring:
“Polish is not required for Armstrong Flooring LVT or Sheet, however it will not negatively impact the performance of the floor. For facilities that choose to incorporate polish as part of their maintenance programs please follow the steps below.”
And it then gives a complete polish programme, including “apply 3 to 5 coats of high-quality floor polish.”
Mannington, writing about its own products, takes a third position: “Sheet vinyl and luxury vinyl tile (LVT) do not need floor finish; therefore, we see a reduction of chemistry, water, and man-hours in maintaining these floors.”
So one manufacturer says wax causes irreversible damage to its product, another says polish is harmless on its product, and a third says it simply is not needed. All three are talking about their own flooring, and all three are presumably right about it.
Which produces the single most useful instruction in this article, and it is not about scrubbing or burnishing at all:
Find out what your floor actually is, and read that manufacturer’s maintenance document, before anyone brings a machine into the building.
There is no general rule for LVT. There is only your floor’s rule. And a provider who applies one standard programme across a building with mixed floor types will, sooner or later, do something to one of them that cannot be undone.
Interface is also explicit about the warranty consequence of getting chemistry wrong: “Powdered cleaners or caustic solutions could damage or stain the LVT and void the warranty.”
The four processes, and what each actually does to your floor
Assume for this section a VCT floor with a polish system on it — the floor the industry’s standard programme was designed for.
Dust mopping and damp mopping. Daily work. It removes soil before foot traffic can grind it into the finish, and it is the only one of the four that is purely protective. Interface’s guidance for its LVT gives the pattern: sweep, dust mop with microfiber or vacuum on suction only “daily or more frequently with heavy traffic,” then “damp mop the floor with a neutral cleaning solution using a microfiber mop once a day,” with a neutral cleaner at pH 6.0–9.0.
Nothing is removed from the finish and nothing is added. This is the cheapest line in any floor programme and it determines how often you need the other three.
Burnishing, buffing and spray buffing. A high-speed machine restores gloss to finish that is already there. Spray buffing runs at a slower speed — in the region of 175 to 350 rpm — while burnishing runs at 1,500 to 2,000 rpm.
And here is the constraint almost nobody is told: you cannot burnish a floor that does not have enough finish on it. Armstrong’s instruction is to buff, spray buff or burnish only “if there is sufficient base of polish remaining (3 to 5 coats).” Mannington’s guidance for high-speed burnishing calls for “at least four coats of polish specifically formulated for burnishing” — a burnishable finish, not just any finish — and warns that “careless or improper use of these machines can result in severe and extensive damage to the floor.”
So if a provider proposes burnishing a floor whose finish has already worn thin, that is not a service. It is a high-speed abrasive pass over a surface with nothing left to polish. Ask how many coats are on the floor first.
Scrub and recoat. The middle option, and the one most buildings should be using more often. A medium-aggressive pad removes the top one or two coats of finish — along with the dirt and scratches embedded in those coats — and one or two fresh coats go back down.
It has a prerequisite too: you need enough coats to give up. Manufacturer guidance for VCT puts it at four to five coats previously applied before a scrub and recoat makes sense.
One honest limitation: a scrub and recoat deals with damage that sits in the top layers. Deep scratches that have gone through the finish into the tile will still show through afterwards. If a provider promises a scrub and recoat will fix everything, they are overselling it.
Strip and refinish. The most aggressive thing anyone does to a resilient floor. A caustic stripper chemically dissolves all of the existing finish down to bare tile, the slurry is machine-agitated and extracted, and the finish system is rebuilt from nothing — typically four to five coats, with drying time between each.
It takes a building out of service, it uses the harshest chemistry in the floor-care kit, and it is the highest-margin service most cleaning contractors sell.
How often should a floor actually be stripped?
This is where buyer and seller interests diverge most sharply, and the published guidance is worth knowing.
Flooring and floor-care manufacturers are conservative about it. Mannington’s guidance, as quoted in the trade, is to strip “only when necessary,” and that a good maintenance programme “will greatly reduce the need for stripping.” Hillyard, which makes floor-care chemicals, puts a full strip at every three to five years, and notes that regular interim maintenance can “delay a complete strip and recoat of the floor for well over a year.” Its trigger for stripping is condition-based: “if floors show yellowing, embedded dirt, or irreparable damage, it is time to strip and recoat.”
Cleaning contractors, including plenty in this market, commonly sell annual stripping as standard maintenance.
Those two positions are not reconcilable, and we are going to come down on the manufacturers’ side even though it is the less profitable one. A floor that is being stripped every year is usually a floor whose interim maintenance is inadequate. The strip is treating a symptom. More frequent scrub-and-recoat cycles, and more consistent dust mopping, push the strip interval out — which is cheaper over five years and gentler on the floor.
Two further cautions on stripping. Armstrong’s VCT guidance advises that aggressive strippers are “not recommended on tile floors less than two years old because they may affect the adhesive bond” — so a newly fitted floor should not be stripped at all. And if the finish in your traffic lanes has already worn through to the tile, stripping will restore the look but the underlying problem is that traffic has been wearing the tile rather than the finish. Fix the frequency, not just the appearance.
We should be straight about one thing the published sources do not support, because it circulates widely: we found no manufacturer statement that routine stripping physically removes tile material, and none putting a number on how much floor life repeated stripping costs. The conservative case for stripping less often rests on the manufacturers’ own “only when necessary” guidance and on cost over the cycle, not on a figure anyone has published.
The decision table
Walk your floors and match what you see to the right column. Take this to whoever quotes you.
| What you can see | What it needs | What it does not need |
|---|---|---|
| Gloss is dull, but the finish is intact and there are 3–5 coats on the floor | Burnish or spray buff | Not a strip |
| Light scratching and scuffing in the top layers; gloss gone | Scrub and recoat | Not a strip |
| Yellowing, dirt embedded in the finish, build-up at edges and corners | Strip and refinish | — |
| Finish worn through to bare tile in traffic lanes | Strip and refinish — then increase interim frequency, because the programme failed | — |
| Deep scratches that have reached the tile | Honest expectation setting; they will telegraph through any recoat | Not a promise that recoating hides them |
| Fewer than about four coats of finish on the floor | Rebuild the coats first | Not burnishing |
| Floor is less than two years old | Scrub and recoat | Not an aggressive stripper — adhesive bond risk |
| Floor is LVT or sheet vinyl | That manufacturer’s own maintenance document, before anything else | Possibly no finish at all, ever |
| Floor is polished concrete, stone, ceramic, rubber or sealed wood | A floor-specific programme | Not the VCT strip-and-wax cycle |
Equipment and chemistry: the details that cause permanent damage
A few specifics worth having in your scope, drawn from the manufacturers’ own documents.
Pads matter. Armstrong is direct about it: “protect your floor by avoiding the use of brown and black pads, or stiff-bristled, highly abrasive brushes.” It specifies a red pad for a light scrub and blue for a deep scrub, on a machine at 300 rpm or less. Interface, for its LVT, specifies “a non-abrasive pad (red or white 3M Floor Pad).”
Mops matter more than you would think. Interface is emphatic: “DO NOT USE STRING MOPS ON INTERFACE LVT.” Armstrong, for its products, lists cotton and blend wet mops among acceptable accessories. Another product-specific divergence, and another reason to work from your own floor’s document.
Never let chemistry dry on the floor. “Do not allow stripping solution to dry on the floor” is in Armstrong’s own stripping procedure, and it is one of the most common causes of a strip going wrong.
New floors need a waiting period. Interface says wait 48 hours after installation before cleaning. Armstrong says “do not wet wash, machine scrub, or strip the floor for at least five days after installation,” because excess moisture can interfere with the adhesive and seam treatments.
And check your mat backing. This one catches people who did everything else right. Armstrong recommends “mats without latex or rubber backing since these backings can cause permanent discoloration.” If you have just put proper entrance matting down for the rain season — which you should have — make sure the backing is compatible with the floor underneath it.
Why you should not strip a floor in a Sacramento winter
Timing is the cheapest saving available in floor care, and most buildings get it backwards.
Sacramento averages 18.52 inches of rain a year, and 82% of it falls between November and March. During those five months the city averages 3.04 inches a month — more than Seattle’s year-round monthly average of 2.84. Which means tracked-in grit is concentrated into exactly five months of the year.
Grit is an abrasive. A floor refinished in January gets five months of wet, gritty foot traffic across brand-new finish, and by April you are looking at the floor you paid to fix. The same money spent in April buys a finish that holds through the dry season.
So: keep the floor sealed and maintained through the wet months with dust mopping, damp mopping and scrub-and-recoat as needed, and schedule heavy restoration for spring. Buy the finish once instead of twice.
Winter is also when floors look their worst and when managers are most likely to authorise a strip. Resist it unless the condition genuinely demands it.
Three honest things
Our industry strips floors more often than the manufacturers say is necessary. Flooring and chemical manufacturers say “only when necessary” and “every three to five years.” Annual stripping is widely sold as standard. It is the most profitable service on most floor-care price lists, and we would rather tell you that than sell you one you do not need.
We may be the ones who get the LVT question wrong. A crew with twenty years of VCT experience will default to the VCT programme, because that is what floor care has meant for most of their careers. Ask any provider — including us — to tell you what your floor is and what its manufacturer specifies, before they quote a programme. If they cannot answer, that is the answer.
And if your finish is worn through, the maintenance programme failed. A strip will fix the appearance. It will not fix the cause, and in twelve months you will be back in the same conversation. The honest fix is usually more frequent interim work, which costs less per year than an annual strip.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between scrubbing, burnishing and stripping a floor?
Burnishing uses a high-speed machine, around 1,500–2,000 rpm, to restore gloss to finish that is already on the floor; it adds and removes nothing, and requires a sufficient base of finish — Armstrong specifies 3 to 5 coats remaining. Scrub and recoat removes the top one or two coats of finish along with the dirt and scratches in them, then applies one or two fresh coats. Strip and refinish chemically removes all finish down to bare tile and rebuilds the system, typically four to five coats. Stripping is the most aggressive and most expensive of the three.
How often should commercial floors be stripped and refinished?
Less often than it is usually sold. Mannington’s guidance is to strip “only when necessary” and notes that a good maintenance programme “will greatly reduce the need for stripping.” Hillyard puts a full strip at every three to five years and says regular interim maintenance can “delay a complete strip and recoat of the floor for well over a year.” Many cleaning contractors sell annual stripping as standard. A floor needing a strip every year usually has inadequate interim maintenance.
Should you wax or polish LVT flooring?
It depends entirely on the product, and manufacturers disagree. Interface states that its LVT “has a built-in top layer that does not require waxing or polishing,” that “wax will damage the surface of the LVT and create a cloudy finish,” and that it is “not aware of any methods to reverse this damage.” Armstrong states that polish “is not required for Armstrong Flooring LVT or Sheet, however it will not negatively impact the performance of the floor,” and publishes a polish programme. Mannington says LVT does not need finish. There is no general rule — read your own floor manufacturer’s maintenance document before any finish is applied.
Can you burnish a floor that has not been waxed?
No. Burnishing only restores gloss where finish remains to be polished. Armstrong specifies burnishing only “if there is sufficient base of polish remaining (3 to 5 coats),” and Mannington’s guidance calls for at least four coats of a finish specifically formulated for burnishing, warning that “careless or improper use of these machines can result in severe and extensive damage to the floor.” A floor with too little finish needs its coats rebuilt first.
When is the best time of year to refinish floors in Sacramento?
Spring, after the rain stops. 82% of Sacramento’s annual rainfall arrives between November and March, and tracked-in grit acts as an abrasive on fresh finish. A floor refinished in January faces five months of wet, gritty traffic before the dry season begins. Keep floors sealed and maintained through winter with dust mopping, damp mopping and scrub-and-recoat, and schedule heavy restoration for April onwards.
Want to know which process your floor actually needs?
JAN-PRO Commercial Cleaning in Sacramento will walk your floors, identify what each one is, check how much finish is on it, and tell you which of the four processes it needs — including when the answer is “nothing yet.” If your floor is LVT and should never be coated, we will say so rather than quoting you a finish programme.
Call (916) 376-8977 or request a facility visit online.