Almost every expensive floor problem started as a maintenance schedule nobody kept. Finish gets walked off, grit gets ground in, and a floor that needed regular attention now needs restoration at several times the cost.
VCT wants a cycle, not a rescue. Regular burnishing maintains gloss and, more importantly, maintains the sacrificial finish layer that protects the tile. When burnishing is skipped, foot traffic wears through finish into the tile itself, and at that point you are buying restoration or replacement rather than maintenance.
A full strip and refinish is disruptive, takes real dry time, and usually wants a weekend. Done on schedule it is infrequent. Done reactively it is constant. We state the cycle in the contract so it is a planned cost rather than an argument in year two.
The mistake with carpet is waiting for it to look dirty. By then abrasive soil is already in the pile cutting fibers, and a single annual hot water extraction cannot undo a year of that. Interim encapsulation between extractions keeps appearance level and meaningfully extends carpet life.
Traffic lanes and edges are where carpet actually fails, and they are what a rushed crew skips because the open floor is faster and looks fine.
Terrazzo, polished stone and sealed concrete each want different chemistry, and the wrong pH will etch or dull a surface permanently. Stone in particular we assess before touching — honing and polishing are not reversible, and a lobby floor is not the place to experiment.
Sealed concrete is common in loft conversions and forgiving until the seal wears through, at which point it stains readily. Knowing where the seal stands determines whether a floor needs cleaning or resealing.
Tell us your surfaces and square footage and we will propose cycles with per-occurrence pricing.