Floor Care · Guide
If your floors get stripped and waxed in a school, a clinic, or any occupied building, the smell people complain about is largely VOCs. Low-VOC floor care reduces that off-gassing, and on a lot of sites it is no longer optional. Here is what VOCs are, where they come from in floor care, and how a low-odor job is run.
Volatile organic compounds are carbon-based chemicals that evaporate into the air at room temperature. In floor care they come off as the strong smell during and after a strip and wax. Beyond odor, elevated VOC levels are an indoor air-quality concern, which is why occupied buildings, schools, and healthcare facilities increasingly require low-VOC products and why green building programs limit them.
| Product | VOC source | |
|---|---|---|
| Floor finish (wax) | Coalescing solvents that help the film form | |
| Floor stripper | Solvents and amines in the formula | |
| Sealers | Solvent carriers in some products | |
| Cleaners | Solvents in some general-purpose cleaners |
Each step can be swapped for a lower-VOC equivalent, with the finish and stripper mattering most.
For sensitive sites this pairs with our school floor care approach.
Not anymore. Early low-VOC finishes lagged on gloss and durability, but modern products perform at or near conventional finishes when applied correctly. They can need slightly more attention to dry time and technique, which is a fair trade for usable air in an occupied building. Performance comes down to the product plus the application, not the VOC level alone.
Related: odor control, floor stripper types, floor finish types, and school floor care.
Need a low-odor strip and wax in an occupied building? Get a free floor assessment.
Volatile organic compounds, solvents in some finishes, strippers, and sealers that evaporate into the air and cause the strong odor during and after floor work, plus air-quality concerns.
To reduce odor and indoor air-quality impact, which matters most in occupied buildings, schools, and healthcare, and to meet green building and procurement requirements.
Modern low-VOC finishes perform at or near conventional ones when applied correctly. They may need a bit more attention to dry time and technique.
An independent certification for lower-environmental-impact products. Green Seal and UL Ecologo certified floor-care products are common choices for green and occupied-building programs.
You can greatly reduce it with low-VOC chemistry, after-hours or break scheduling, ventilation, and sectioning, though some residual odor during cure is normal.
Using certified low-VOC products can contribute toward LEED credits as part of a green cleaning and materials approach.
Low-VOC refers to reduced volatile compound content; low-odor describes the experience. They usually go together, but a product can be one without fully being the other.
They are chemicals that require correct handling, PPE, and ventilation. Low-VOC products reduce exposure and odor, but all floor-care chemicals should be used per their safety data sheets.
Tell us your facility, floor types, and square footage. We'll scope the work and send a written quote. Not sure what you have? Send a photo and we'll tell you.