Understanding 21st Century Floor Care and Advanced Floor Protection

In today’s commercial environments, floors are expected to do a lot of heavy lifting. Constant foot and cart traffic, often with 24/7 demands, tighter maintenance windows, and a lack of floor care labor have made traditional floor care and protection methods/practices harder to sustain.

Choosing the right floor care treatment is no longer just about adding stripping and applying new applications of a floor finish/wax.. It is about maintaining appearance, extending floor life, and simplifying ongoing care with less floor care labor.

NeverStrip Micron Sealers represent a 21st Century Floor Care technology and approach designed to protect all, non-carpet flooring surfaces while eliminating the need for stripping. But what exactly are Micron Sealers, how do they work, and why are more facilities moving in this direction?

In this blog, we’ll cover:

• What Micron Sealers are

• How they differ from traditional impregnators, floor finishes and coatings

• Why durable and refreshable protection matters today

When evaluating modern floor protection options, one of the most common questions facilities ask is how Micron Sealers compare with traditional floor coatings. At a glance, both are designed to protect floors and maintain appearance, but how they work and what they require over time are fundamentally different.

Understanding this difference is critical for facilities trying to reduce maintenance disruption, manage labor shortages, and extend the life of their flooring without relying on outdated strip-and-recoat cycles.

This blog breaks down how Micron Sealers differ from traditional coatings and why those differences matter in real-world environments.

How Traditional Floor Coatings Work

Traditional floor coatings and finishes protect floors by building thickness on the surface. Each application adds another layer, which can initially improve appearance and provide short-term protection.

Over time, however, these layers accumulate.

As the buildup increases:

• Floors lose clarity and uniformity

• Scratches and wear become more visible within the coating itself

• Maintenance becomes more complex

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Traditional floor “wax” is no longer the best way to protect the floors in your property. You need to find a more advanced floor coating solution that can prevent damage to your floors, keep your maintenance costs down, and improve the appearance of your building. Read on to learn more about how to find the best floor coating for your needs, and get in touch with Neverstrip® Floor Coatings today!

NeverStrip Floor Coatings manufactures floor coatings with a difference. Our coatings are used in all sorts of different environments — from commercial and industrial spaces to residential homes. Our products are designed to lower long-term floor care costs, enhance your floors’ appearance, and also often to improve floor traction. Read on to learn more about the NeverStrip difference, or contact us today to get a free quote on new floor coatings!

Ceramic and porcelain floors are often considered low-maintenance, but real-world use tells a different story. This article breaks down a common industry myth about sealing these surfaces and explains how modern NeverStrip coating and Micron Sealer systems are used to improve traction, simplify cleaning, and extend floor life in commercial environments.

NeverStrip Vinyl Seal in Grocery Store Versus Wax

NeverStrip Vinyl Seal replaces conventional floor finish or wax on VCT flooring at an Iowa grocery store.

Vinyl Seal benefits versus wax include:

– Much more rapid dry times (5-minutes versus 20-40 minutes for wax)

– Less burnishing frequency, we have seen 70% reduction of burnishing

– Eliminate ongoing stripping, no need to strip but easy to do

– Less scrub and recoats

– Superior coverage per gallon of product

– Better protection against scratching, scuffing and staining

– Less life cycle cost per sq. foot

NeverStrip Vinyl Seal is designed for resilient flooring such as VCT, LVT and rubber. It is an outstanding choice to replace wax or conventional floor finish.

Vinyl Seal is part of the NeverStrip family of Micron Coatings. These coatings are super thin and are inorganic based. Wax is made from oil. Vinyl Seal is not. An example of inorganic is minerals, such as granite or marble.

Vinyl Seal can be burnished with any speed machine and will benefit from essentially all burnishing pads including diamond encrusted pads at 1,600, or above grit.

BMW Janitorial in southeast Iowa is using NeverStrip Vinyl Seal to produce “Big City” benefits for its grocery store clients.

Brian M. Warning, said: “I have been using traditional stripping and waxing procedures for over 10 years. NeverStrip Vinyl Seal is a game changer. As you strip a floor for the last time and apply Vinyl Seal, you can fully appreciate how this changes floor maintenance, Forever!”

Why Replace Wax with NeverStrip Vinyl Seal?

Improved Appearance: every day, week and month

Reduced Interference: for customers, employees and management

Lower Costs: labor, equipment, pads, chemicals and strippers

NeverStrip Floor Coatings has been approached multiple times in the past weeks by separate medical facilities regarding the inadequacies of conventional acrylic, cross-linked floor finish or wax. These facilities were both looking for floor care solutions to better protect their floors and for their floor finishes to better resist disinfectants and alcohol hand-sanitizers. The surgical center and medical center both were introduced to NeverStrip Authorized Dealers, who addressed the needs using NeverStrip Gloss™ and NeverStrip Satin™ high performance urethane coatings.

A Northern California Surgical Center contacted NeverStrip. The Facility Director said, “they must be doing something different with disinfectant cleaners because they are destroying our wax.” He said, “we need a better solution that will hold up against the disinfectant cleaner without increasing the time, labor and materials needed to maintain their floors.” He also said, “we want shiny floors, which will not require burnishing and stripping.”

Low cost tile grout restoration is achieve-able with NeverStrip Tile and NeverStrip Color Sealer™. This solution is a fast, inexpensive way to make an old tile and grout floor (porcelain, ceramic and brick) look new and significantly easier to maintain.

https://www.neverstrip.com/sealing-ceramic/

This System can be successfully used in any commercial environment with tile and grout flooring in restrooms, lobbies, locker rooms, showers, etc.

Sealing Ceramic

Summit Custom Coatings, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada has been sealing ceramic with multiple applications of NeverStrip Tile Seal on ceramic and/or porcelain flooring of public pool decks during the past two years. These facilities are busy public recreation centers with hundreds of thousands of annual guests.

Improve LVT TractionImprove LVT Traction

NeverStrip Vinyl Seal (“Vinyl Seal”) is used to improve LVT traction. The product is a member of NeverStrip Floor Coatings (“NeverStrip”) Family of Micron Coatings. Vinyl Seal is to be used on resilient flooring including luxury vinyl tile (“LVT”), vinyl composition tile (“VCT”), linoleum and rubber. Use Vinyl Seal to improve LVT traction for commercial environments which require a higher coefficient of friction.

Vinyl Seal is applied “Micron” thin at 3,000 to 5,000 sq. feet per gallon per coat. Coverage is largely dependent on the applicator and the floor’s porosity. Typically, two applications are desired. A light mist is applied with a hand or pump-up sprayer and the product is spread thin using a looped microfiber pad. This ultra-thin or Micron-thin application allows for the texture of the floor to be retained, which is especially attractive for embossed or textured LVT.

Vinyl Seal has inherent, attractive wet traction properties regardless of the surface or smoothness of the floor. Testing has shown the use of Vinyl Seal improves traction on essentially any floor without the use of aggregate or added texture. Vinyl Seal is used to improve LVT traction.

Improve wet porcelain traction with NeverStrip Tile Seal™ and NeverStrip Liquid Grip™. This Blog is about the application of these two NeverStrip products onto Italian Porcelain in a Tennessee Bank by J and G Flooring, near Knoxville TN. JandGFlooring@twlakes.net

Click Here to read about how to improve traction on wet stamped concrete using NeverStrip Liquid Grip.

Barry Gore and his big sister, Teresa Huffines sat down with me to describe J and G Flooring’s recent project with NeverStrip Micron Products-NeverStrip Tile Seal™ and NeverStrip Liquid Grip™, respectively. The goal of the project was to improve traction on wet porcelain floors within this Tennessee bank facility.

Linoleum is a green, sustainable flooring choice. Demanding commercial traffic will scratch and dull any flooring. Linoleum is no exception.

Maintaining LVT within schools is easy to do and is low cost with NeverStrip Vinyl Seal™, a NeverStrip Micron Coating.

NeverStrip Floor Coatings (“NeverStrip”) recently interviewed an architect, who asked the question, is LVT the Right Choice for Schools?

The Architect wishes to be unnamed, concerning her recent experiences with newly installed LVT at K-12 schools.

She said:

“Our firm is heavily involved with K-12 education. She asked, is LVT the right choice for schools?

Clients have been running into issues with LVT and its maintenance. I am not sure what to do.

I am questioning the suitability of LVT within education, if possible, I am trying to get away from it.”

When asked if her concerns were with any specific LVT manufacturer, she said, “across the board.”

She said, “LVT is not holding up in the hallways and classrooms. The hallways with foot traffic always looks dirty. The LVT seems to hold dirt. The classrooms are quickly scratched from the chairs.”

She went on to say, “schools are familiar with VCT with the maintenance of a thick layer of wax. The wax took the abuse and then got stripped, recoated and buffed each summer. LVT is harder than wax. What happens when the LVT gets scratched or abused? How does one refresh LVT after it has been abused?”

Longer Lasting Gym Floor Urethane Coatings for Demanding Schools

Schools have learned there are longer lasting gym floor urethane coatings available for demanding schools. These NeverStrip products replace the use of conventional gym floor urethane products, which requiring annual applications. NeverStrip Gloss, Satin or Matte are typically re applied once every 5 years versus annually.

J & G Flooring of Jackson, Tennessee recently completed a natural stone restoration made easy on a travertine stone floor with NeverStrip Diamond Encrusted Pads™ and NeverStrip Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal. The project was done at a lower cost, in less time and mess than conventional stone polishing systems. The stone restoration and polishing project was done at a beautiful central Tennessee home in less than one day.

Rich Batka, Director of Building and Grounds, Brookfield-La Grange Park School District #95 goal was to Lower Floor Care Maintenance Costs for VCT, LVT and Sheet Vinyl. Rich discovered how to lower floor care maintenance costs for VCT, LVT and Sheet Vinyl floors by using NeverStrip Gloss instead of conventional acrylic floor finish or wax.

Rich said, “With NeverStrip™ one almost need sunglasses on a sunny day because the floors are so shiny”

NeverStrip Gloss was applied to multiple classrooms and hallways during the past Summer, said Rich, as well as a large multi-purpose room with 10+ year old sheet vinyl. Rich pulled the trigger on these applications after a 6-month Pilot.

Faster polished concrete to a 1600 grit appearance is achieved with NeverStrip.. This is a faster System compared to mechanical polishing systems. The labor costs are much less for a comparable or equal appearance.

NeverStrip and a global concrete equipment manufacturer recently worked together. We developed polished concrete four different ways. Step 1 used 100 grit hybrid diamonds to polish the concrete. Next, diamond tooling to 800,, 1600 and 3000 grit polished the concrete. Then, we compared the four.

We discovered, the NeverStrip concrete looked like the polished concrete to 1600 grit.

The following table quantifies activities with each slab using the NeverStrip Micron Polishing System for Concrete and three mechanical polishing systems to 800, 1600 and 3000 grit levels, respectively.

T.V.S. Floor Coatings and Restoration completed a cost effective marble restoration. A homeowner was going to replace all the marble flooring in her house. Over 3,500 square feet. The homeowner assumed that she needed to replace the marble, at a cost approaching $100,000. The floors had extensive staining and the non-sanded grout was in terrible shape.

Shelby and Jim of T.V.S. knew how well NeverStrip™ products perform on marble. The marble restoration was achievable at a fraction of the cost and time of replacement. It was a cost effective marble restoration.

TVS created a plan that would take1week to finish. It took 6 days. This was a big improvement over the multi-month estimate to replace the marble

Ceramic Porcelain Sealer

A high quality, commercial grade ceramic porcelain sealer has been hard to find. Not any more! NeverStrip Tile Seal™ is a high quality, commercial grade ceramic porcelain sealer. Apply Tile Seal onto ceramic, porcelain, quarry tile and brick. The product has performed in schools, hospitals, office buildings, airports and demanding commercial buildings for more than four years. Performance can last for years between re coats. Also, removing Tile Seal is not necessary in its normal life cycle. In addition, Tile Seal is easy to maintain with numerous commercially available cleaners. NeverStrip has its own specific Micron cleaners for Tile Seal. These cleaners are NeverStrip Micron Clean™ and NeverStrip Micron Restore™.

How does one seal LVT seams when Luxury Vinyl Tile “LVT” most often has a factory-applied urethane coating. These UV cured coatings protect the floor from abuse and allow LVT floors, in most cases, to go without a sealer or finish applied and maintained after installation of the floor.

There are a few potential drawbacks for not using a sealer on an LVT with seams. A concern can be foreign matter finding its way into the seams. The liquid or solid can get below the flooring surface. Cleaning may not remove some or all of these materials.

LVT Seams (Common Concerns)

Water from the cleaning process can soak into the seams. Water may compromise the adhesive. NeverStrip is aware of water compromising adhesive used with PVC Free flooring. A major health care organization is dealing with this issue right now.

Organic matter from food and drink can fall into the seams. The typical cleaning process may not remove these food and liquids. Bacteria may begin to breed and expand. Urine, from incontinent residences or patients may puddle on the floor. The urine may seep into the seams producing unhealthful and not desired “restroom” odors. A building manager obviously does not want restroom odors throughout his/her facility!

Polish terrazzo with NeverStrip Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal™ is lower cost with high quality, lower maintenance and long-lasting durability.

A Kansas City entertainment venue was interested in sealing ProtectAll Flooring. During 2018, 2,500 square feet of Protect-All flooring was installed. The facility selected the Protect-All flooring for its sound absorbing properties, durability and high traction. The facility selected the NeverStrip Micron coatings to be applied onto the ProtectAll flooring for their appearance, clean-ability and traction.

Restore stained concrete floors are achievable with NeverStrip Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal. This product delivers cost effective restoration of stained concrete floors

These sealers are based on a 21st Century Floor Care Technology.

Pro Surface Solutions, near Rochester, New York removed old flooring from a commercial office space and replaced it with a polished concrete system using: 1) NeverStrip Densi-Prime, 2) Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal and 3) NeverStrip Shine – 11,000 Grit – diamond encrusted pad.

Jason West, Pro Surface, said, “The project was completed using a total of 80 man hours.” He estimated that a conventional polishing approach would have required 150 man hours.

The NeverStrip Micron System for Polished Concrete significantly reduces the number of diamond steps with the planetary grinder. So, instead of 30, 50, 80 metal and 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 resin diamonds, Pro Solutions stopped at 150 Hybrid; applied Densi-Prime twice; burnished the floor with propane burnisher; then applied Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal twice and burnished the sealer after each coat.

Watch an Instructional video on the NeverStrip Concrete Polishing System

How to refresh Luxury Vinyl Tile, or LVT, is a question being asked more and more. It’s a concern of facility owners worldwide.

LVT is the most popular, rapidly growing type of flooring in the world. It is taking market share away from all other types of flooring, especially carpet and VCT. But, what does one do when the LVT stains or scratches? Most LVT is treated with a UV cured urethane in the factory. This flooring and urethane are not meant to be refreshed in-place in the field after installation.

So, what is one to do when the floor becomes stained from yellow mustard, betadine, red wine, etc. etc. What about scratching from improper chair glides, walkers with plastic leg tips, or a pebble stuck to the bottom of a shoe?

What is needed is a process to remove the stain or buff out the scratch, and then easily and cost effectively apply a sealer to refresh the flooring to a like-new appearance.What is also needed is a sealer to protect the luxury vinyl tile or LVT from ongoing abuse, while bringing out the richness of the floor and its colors.

NeverStrip Floor Coating’s Micron Sealer, Vinyl Seal, is used to seal, protect and maintain luxury vinyl tile. It enriches the colors, provides an attractive sheen, and refreshes worn out, stained or scratched LVT.

NeverStrip Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal has been used on hundreds of thousands of square feet of terrazzo throughout a major international airport for 3+ years with outstanding results.

The floor was initially polished to 800 grit diamonds with a planetary machine. Two applications of Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal were then applied at 5,000 sq. feet per gallon per application. Each sealer application was then burnished with a 6,000 grit diamond encrusted pad using a propane burnisher.

The ongoing maintenance has been daily cleaning with auto scrubber and red pad; weekly burnishing with a diamond pad and annually one coat of sealer has been applied to the highest demand areas.

The floor care contractor, who applied the Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal and maintains the floor, has told NeverStrip this system has been easier to clean and maintain than any previous terrazzo polishing system previously used by them. He said, soil releases easily from the sealer. The floor responds very well to burnishing. The Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal holds up to heavy foot; wheeled baggage traffic and ice melt. There has been no need to remove or strip the sealer due to discoloration or any other reason.

One of North America’s largest commercial office property management companies wanted better looking and easier to keep clean tile and grout floors for Class A office building restrooms.

NeverStrip Stone, Terrazzo and Concrete Seal was applied onto Tate STONEWORKS’ raised access flooring at the Honolulu International Airport as part of the Hawaii Airport Modification Program.

Sealing Laminate Flooring with NeverStrip Vinyl SealNeverStrip Makes Sealing Laminate Floors Easy, Fast and Effective

NeverStrip’s Vinyl Seal will bring new life to your laminate floors while making them easier to maintain. Your floors will not only look better, but you will benefit from easier cleaning, better traction, protection from scratches, scuffs, and stains, and improved sealing of seams.

Check out these before and after pictures from a long term care facility that used NeverStrip’s Vinyl Seal.