DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL

DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL builds on the DuRa Finish™ ULTRA MATTE platform, with increased grammage (coating buildup) in the abrasion resistant layers of the coating stratum. DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL exhibits superior abrasion resistance, scratch resistance and impact resistance properties, and is therefore a suitable candidate for many commercial applications with moderately high foot traffic. DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL is an evolution of the original ULTRA MATTE residential finish, and it thus shares many of its aesthetic characteristics, such as a high degree of clarity and harmony with the wood’s texture, resulting in a beautiful natural looking appearance not commonly found in other commercial grade wood flooring finishes.

SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATIONS AND REPORTS

Flooring with DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL has been tested for VOC emissions and has achieved GREENGUARD Gold certification. In addition, CRAFT’s floors have achieved a Declare label with a Red List Free designation, indicating that all coatings, stains, fillers and glues used to make CRAFT floors are free of any of the toxic substances commonly found in building products. An extensive Life Cycle Analysis of the environmental impacts that arise from making CRAFT flooring (including the entire finishing process) is captured in a Product Specific, Type III Environmental Product Declaration which has been published and is available as public information. For more information, visit our Planet page.

DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL is a proprietary finishing system that achieves its superior abrasion, scratch and impact resistance properties by utilizing increased grammage of the most high-performance wood coatings available. DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL uses water-based coatings in conjunction with technically advanced UV cured polyurethanes which employ macro-molecule cross-linking technology with silicon dioxide and acylated PU resin.

Recommendations and Limitations for Using DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL Flooring

Extensive testing and analysis of DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL demonstrates that floors with this finish are suitable for commercial applications with light to moderate foot traffic. Suitable applications in sectors such as office, hospitality and retail benefit greatly from beautiful and creative wood flooring that is durable enough to fulfill the lifetime requirements of the project. However, there are some commercial applications where institutional settings with very high foot-traffic, such as educational, healthcare, etc., have very demanding floor surface requirements, and any type of wood flooring is therefore not suitable. Ultimately, it is up to the design teams and specifiers to exercise sound judgement and to specify DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL flooring only where appropriate.

Considerations for Using DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL Flooring

The main feature differentiating a commercial grade finish from that of a residential one, is its significantly improved abrasion resistance. Commercial spaces experience high levels of foot-traffic, and the repeated friction caused from shoes sliding across the floor’s surface will gradually wear the surface down. Making floor finishes highly abrasion resistant means that the finish can withstand continuously high levels of scuffing and abrading before the finish is worn through. Being highly abrasion resistant, however, does not necessarily make a floor impervious to scratching and denting. Although a DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL floor will have a very hard surface that is highly resistant to small scratches and scuffs, the limiting factor for how well any wood floor can withstand deep gouges caused by sharp, heavy objects or dents caused by high-heeled shoes, will be determined by the hardness of the wood substrate itself. It is therefore recommended to avoid using softer wood species such as walnut and give preference to harder species such as oak or hickory in applications where it is deemed that the likelihood of damage caused by denting and deep scratching is high.

Accessories

All CRAFT accessories are finished with the same process as the matching flooring, thus ensuring a comparable appearance in stain colour, gloss level, wearability, etc.

Gloss Level

The target gloss level of DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL is 6-8%. Although it is technically possible to achieve a gloss level below 6%, floors with gloss levels below 6% look dull and lack luster and depth. Gloss levels above 10% make a floor look shiny and unnatural. A gloss level of 6-8% gives wood beautiful depth and luster while still maintaining the look of natural wood.

Resistance to Colour Change

All stains, glazing and coatings used to colour and finish a CRAFT floor are formulated to be resistant to UV discoloration such as yellowing, and to maintain colour consistency over time. However, it should be noted that continuous exposure to high levels of UV rays can lead to gradual colour change. For projects with large south-facing windows, it is strongly recommended to utilize UV protection to greatly reduce the possibility of eventual colour change of all interior materials including furniture, artwork and flooring. Aftermarket protective films, such as those made by 3M, are one recommended solution.

Care and Maintenance of a DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL Floor

In order to get the longest life out of any urethane finished wood floor, it is of utmost importance to follow several important recommendations, which are covered in the CARE AND MAINTENANCE of a CRAFT FLOOR guide, available for download here. In addition, when flooring is used in a commercial application, several important considerations must also be made:

Regular Cleaning of aDuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL Floor

Given that commercial floors are frequently cleaned, often on a daily basis, and sometimes by third-party contractors, it is important that proper cleaning procedures be observed at all times:

• DO NOT Wet Mop floors, or use Steam Cleaners on wood floors. Water from wet mops or steam cleaners can seep down into the grooves and spaces between individual planks and can cause irreparable damage.
• If cleaning is done with a vacuum, use only a soft brush attachment. Use the vacuum to capture dirt and sand, and to clean out the grooves between planks. Be mindful to use a plastic attachment when vacuuming in corners and hard to reach areas, and to avoid scratches from any hard metal ends. DO NOT use a vacuum with a beater bar attachment as this can cause damage to the floor’s finish.
• If cleaning is done with a broom, sweep with a soft, fine bristle broom, removing grit before it can scratch or mark the floor.
• For thorough cleaning, use an all-purpose floor cleaning kit such as Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner with Bona Hardwood Floor Mop, or equivalent, that is NWFA approved. Clean as needed. NEVER use wax, oil-based detergent or any general-purpose household cleaner.
• Since water is incompatible with wood floors, it is important to clean up any spills immediately. Wipe up with a soft dry cloth or very carefully remove with a wet/dry vacuum. Make sure to dry thoroughly without blasting heat directly on the surface.

Refinishing a DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL Floor

DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL is a hard, abrasion resistant coating that is not easily removed from the surface of wood. It is nonetheless possible for professional wood flooring refinishers to remove the finish by using specialized floor sanding equipment. When the entire finish is removed, in what is known as a “sand and refinish” process, all of the finish, including the stain and the wood’s original texturing will be removed via heavy-duty sanding equipment. This process will often remove 1mm or more of the floor’s overall thickness, and is usually only required when the finish is severely degraded, or for when it is required to change the floor’s stain colour or wood texturing. In instances where the surface of the floor is only moderately worn, and the underlying stain remains unaffected, it is often possible to do what is referred to as a “screen and recoat”, whereby new surface coatings are added to the existing finish.

It is possible to successfully do a screen and re-coat on a DuRa Finish™ COMMERCIAL floor, but it is strongly recommended to do isolated testing first before attempting the procedure on an entire floor. Once the finish of a floor begins to experience significant wear, it is highly recommended to rejuvenate the finish through the relatively simple screen and recoat process as opposed to waiting until there is complete wear-through in some areas, which will cause damage to the stain and surface of the wood, and therefore necessitate the more extensive sand and refinish process.

Product End-of-Life

Although it is commonly thought that any wood finished with urethane coatings is not possible to recycle, some jurisdictions are now accepting urethane finished wood for recycling. As per the extensive material declaration through ILFI’s Declare program, and the status of CRAFT’s products as Red List Free, there are no recognized toxic substances in CRAFT’s stains or finishes, and therefore there is no concern about CRAFT products causing environmental contamination at the end of their useful life, upon recycling or disposal.