Beautiful floors aren’t born—they’re built. When it comes to designing and building floors that customers love, flooring professionals and contractors understand the relationship between the layers of a floor and how to bring out a floor’s best with the proper tools and coatings.

Whether your customers want a traditional look or a completely customized creation, choosing the right coatings can help create a stunning floor. Aside from flooring material, the biggest impacts on a floor are the use of floor sealer and floor finish. When so many homeowners are looking to get fresh new looks for their floors, resealing or refinishing floors are great options for customers to transform floors without replacing them. Here are some things to remember when using floor sealers and floor finishes.

Bona offers a versatile range of floor sealers and finishes. Our sealers include a wide range of coloration possibilities from Scandinavian white to deep amber. And as the proud pioneer of waterborne wood floor finishes, our finish formulas are the most durable in the industry. They won’t fade, amber, or change color over time.

Together, our sealers and finishes provide the ideal system for both residential and commercial settings, enhancing the natural beauty and elegance of wood floors with unmatched reliability.

Todd Schutte, Bona’s director of Global eLearning answers the question, “What Makes Bona’s waterborne finishes the best?”

He says that because Bona has “our own reactors; in particular, one for polyurethanes, and one for isocyanates” it provides the system to build resins from the ground up, as variables can be addressed at the start. It’s this ability to fine tune the product that makes the difference in performance, reaction, and application.

Dive in and learn professional methods and techniques that you can apply to your next flooring project.

To give your customers the best-looking floors with superior protection, Bona Mega ONE and Bona Traffic HD are optimal choices that have been designed specifically for the needs of professional floor installers. Check out our other options in water based floor finishes, oil-modified floor finishes and our natural penetrating oil finish.

• Step 1. Pour a 6” wide line of sealer along the starting wall. Go with the grain of the wood.
• Step 2. Using a pre-dampened Bona floor coater, draw the floor coater forward with the grain of the wood, moving the sealer toward the opposite wall. To maintain a wet edge at all times, hold the floor coater at a snow-plow angle.
• Step 3. At the end of each run, turn the floor coater and pull it toward you through the puddle; then pad out the floor coater parallel to the wet edge.
• Step 4. Feather out all turns. Do not push too hard or too fast to avoid drips flying off the floor coater.
• Step 5. BE SURE YOU ARE USING THE RECOMMENDED COVERAGE OF 500-600 SQ. FT. PER GALLON. DO NOT SPREAD TOO THIN. Uneven coverage can cause blotchiness or color variance.
• Step 6. Allow the sealer coat to dry for 1-2 hours. High humidity and/or low temperature conditions will extend the dry time (recommended
  conditions of 65-80̊ F/40-60% relative humidity).
• Step 7. For smoothest results before final coat, see INTERCOAT ABRASION. At a minimum between coats, vacuum, and tack thoroughly with a Bona Microfiber Cleaning Pad (dry or slightly dampened with water).

Learn with the best, as Todd Schutte, Bona’s Director of Global eLearning in the U.S., walks you through techniques and proper methods for sealer application.

Wood Floor Finishes

While floor sealers protect floors by penetrating into the pores of the flooring material, the importance of a floor’s finish is, of course, the protective surface layer that is the first line of defense against floor damage. When it comes to a floor’s finish, professional installers have a wide range of finishes to choose from:

• Oil-modified floor finishes
• Water based floor finishes
• Moisture cured urethanes
• Acid cured urethanes (AKA Swedish Floor Finish)
• Waxes and Oils

When it comes to helping customers choose the right kind of floor finish, make sure the following concerns are addressed to give clients a wide range of options.

• Durability (abrasion/scratch resistance)
• Look and style (color, sheen level)
• Potential color changes over time
• VOCs/green options
• Maintenance
• Dry/cure time

Fixing Floor Finish Mistakes

Proper care and preparation are needed for applying floor finish. Floors need to be properly sanded, cleaned or repaired before any finish is applied. Fixing flaws in a floor’s finish can be a costly, time-consuming job. Here’s a list of common floor finish mistakes and ways to prevent them.

• Streaks. Ensure job site conditions are properly prepared for optimal drying. Most streaking problems can be traced back to the application or even the applicator itself. An easy way to eliminate problems with streaking is with the use of a roller.
• Side bonding. Using a quality floor sealer will help prevent side bonding. Be sure to inform customers of their maintenance responsibilities, especially in climate regions where humidity can be an issue.
• Peeling. Check to make sure the coatings you use are compatible with each other. Following manufacturer’s instructions will help give proper guidance on what abrasives are recommended when prepping the floor.
• Blistering. Temperature control is often the cause of blistering. When finishing a floor, consider the sun and either cover the windows with plastic or plan the job early in the morning or late in the day. Make sure that the room is properly prepped to allow for proper airflow as the finish dries.
• Uneven sheen. Make sure the floor finish is prepared according to manufacturer’s instructions. Ensure that the finish is mixed well. If multiple containers of finish are needed to complete a single application, batch them together to ensure a uniform sheen.