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Green Flooring
A guide to environmentally friendly floor finishes, flooring adhesives, and flooring products.
Due to varying VOC regulations, we are not able to ship certain products into certain states. The main products that you will find unavailable to you if you live in one of those states are Oil Based Polyurethane Floor Finishes and Oil Based Stains in Gallons and 5 Gallon Buckets (Quarts are allowed in some states). Below you will find a general outline of what is allowed on a state to state basis, along with some similar products that are VOC Compliant.
What is a VOC?
VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds. VOCs are organic chemical compounds that have high enough vapor pressures under normal conditions to significantly turn into vapors and enter the atmosphere.
Basically, it is a generic term for the chemicals that offgas from products into the air. A chemist at a paint finish company does not go to his shelf to grab a bottle of VOCs to add to the mix. Rather, the VOC levels are the result of all of the chemicals in a particular product that evaporate from it and enter the air.
These chemicals react in the air and create ozone, which is a public health hazard and one of the contributing factors for the creation of smog.
The federal government's EPA has a national rule (PDF) which was part of the Clean Air Act, passed in 1998. However, this rule allowed the manufacturers to pay an "exceedance fee" which allowed them to continue to make the products they were making.
At the time of this writing, there are two major groups with stricter VOC Regulations, with an impending third. The Ozone Transport Commision (OTC) covers Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the South Coast Air District (SCAD) cover California. CARB covers all of California with the exception of Orange County and the urban portions of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties which is covered by SCAD. Since half of the population of California lives in the SCAD, our software assumes those levels for all of California. If you live in another part of California, please call us and we can help place your order for slightly higher VOC level products.
The third is the Lake Michigan Air Directors Consortium (LADCO/MRPO) covers Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The LADCO has not set forth a plan at this time, but Ohio is slated to adopt the OTC States rules January 1st, 2009. You can read the rules at each of these organization's websites, although you may need to dust off that law degree to figure them out!
Floor Finishes and Stains in the OTC States
If you live in Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, or Virginia, here are your guidelines:
Floor Finishes: 350 VOC (Quarts OK)
Quick Dry Sealers: 200 VOC (Quarts OK)
Stains: 250 VOC (Quarts OK)
Basically, your normal oil based products in Gallons and 5 Gallon Buckets
exceed the VOC levels your state allows. However, since these states have a
"Quart Exemption" you may purchase quarts of those products. That's particularly
nice since no one makes a Low-VOC Stain that works right yet and quarts of stain
aren't too hard to work with. At the bottom of this page, we have listed
VOC-Compliant Finishes that are safe for use in your states.
Water Based Floor Finishes
BonaKemi
Bona Naturale
Bona Traffic
Bona Strong
Bona Mega
Basic Coatings
Revotech
Street Shoe XL
Hydroline
Emulsion
Duraseal
X-Terra
Absolute Coatings
Trek Plus
Grand
Oil Based Floor Finishes
BonaKemi
Woodline Poly Quarts
Basic Coatings
Oil Modified Urethane Quarts
Duraseal
Oil Modified Polyurethane Quarts
Stains
BonaKemi
DriFast Stain Quarts
Duraseal
Quick Coat Stain Quarts
Penetrating Wood Finish Quarts
Minwax
Wood Finish Penetrating Stains
Quick Dry Sealers
BonaKemi
DriFast Sealer Quarts (Oil)
Bona Bonaseal (Water)
Bona DTS (Water)
Basic Coatings
EZ-Dry Sealer Quarts (Oil)
Hydroline Sealer (Water)
Commercial Catalyzed Sealer (Water)
Duraseal
Superbase Sealer (Water)
Absolute Coatings
Sealer XL (Water)
Floor Finishes and Stains in California
You have the strictest laws in the country. California is broken into two sections, the
South Coast Air District (SCAD), which is the seven counties around Los Angelos,
and the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which covers the rest of the state.
Here are your guidelines:
South Coast Air District (Southern California)
Floor Finishes: 275 VOC
Quick Dry Sealers: 100 VOC
Stains: 250 VOC (Quarts OK)
California Air Resources Board (Northern California)
Floor Finishes: 350 VOC
Quick Dry Sealers: 200 VOC
Stains: 250 VOC (Quarts OK)
All oil based finishes cannot be shipped to you no matter what size.
They do allow quarts in stain though. Some waterbased finishes are even too high for you.
While the manufacturers are working to lower their VOCs in their coatings, we
have assembled a list below of finishes safe for use in California.
Since half of the population of California lives in the SCAD, our software
assumes those levels for all of California. If you live in another part of
California, please call us and we can help place your order for slightly higher VOC level products.
