Special Adhesives for wooden solid floors and multilayer

ADHESIVES FOR PARQUET: THE TREES AND THE WOODS?

BBRI CHART SHEDS SOME LIGHT

Photo – Devo®

How often we speak about the speed of change in society, the economy, and science. We’re talking about meteoric and constant developments because humankind is learning new things all the time. It’s hard to keep up with it all. Nevertheless, as long as ‘change’ means improvement, we should welcome it. The development in the range of adhesives for wooden flooring is a good illustration of this progress. The range has grown, improved, and, actually, made things harder. Then, the day came when a chart from the BBRI brought some order to the chaos.

The need for an overview The need for some support and guidance was not only helpful, but also essential. In recent decades, parquet floor fitters have had to face unprecedented changes. We quote from a BBRI newsletter:

‘Wood is still a much coveted floor covering. Its popularity has led to huge growth and diversification of the market which endeavours at all times to meet the increasingly radical demands in terms of the look, plank sizes, and health. This diversification has touched virtually

all materials with which floor fitters can be confronted: substrates, wooden floors, adhesives, and finishes. All these innovations mean that floor fitters can now choose from some 1,900 possible product combinations. Moreover, this abundance of choice is linked to an important variable factor, namely the product trademark.’

It’s no surprise that all those changes have constantly forced the floor fitting profession to develop and made it increasingly specialised. All this has led to updates in technical reference documents. It has led the BBRI Parquet Work Group to commence with the revision of TV 218 'Wooden flooring: plank floors, parquet, and veneer wood floors’ from 2000. This TV (reference document) keeps the industry informed of the trade standards and provides accurate technical information about product families and fitting techniques without any commercial perspective.

How does the chart work? The BBRI has concluded that it is not always easy for construction professionals to choose the right adhesive for each application. Moreover, apart from the choice of adhesive, it is also necessary to take account of several other factors such as, for instance, the presence of floor heating, damp risks in a particular room, and such like.

Classification of adhesives To make it easier to use the chart, the BBRI has divided adhesives into four major groups on the basis of their chemical composition as follows: dispersion adhesives, mono-component PU adhesives, dual-component PU adhesives, polymer adhesives, and hybrid adhesives (e.g. SPUR, STP, and MS). Then, the deployability of the adhesives in co-relation to the type of parquet and the substrate has been indicated with a colour code.

- Green: The adhesive is compatible with the substrate and type of floor covering in question. - Orange: This choice of adhesive is possible, subject to certain conditions (preparation of the substrate and, if necessary, a primer) and in consultation with the parquet manufacturer. - Red: The adhesive is not compatible with the substrate and wooden flooring in question (e.g. due to a greater risk of distortion with a wide lamparquet – with a thickness of under 10mm – which you want to fit onto a covering floor or sealed substrate).

By means of 1, 2, or 3 asterisks, the chart refers to any external parameters also to be considered.

Illustration The chart shows us clearly what is and isn’t possible. Without reproducing all the possible combinations, we compare solid parquet to multilayer parquet on the basis of the chart.

Solid wood The chart provides for mosaic, industrial parquet, and strips. We will confine ourselves to strips. For narrow strips (9-11mm thick, width less than 75mm, and shorter than 400mm), apart from a prohibition

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on dispersion adhesive for subparquet, there are conditions for all the others, apart from the PU 2K which are given a green light. For wide strip parquet (thickness 6-10mm wide up to 180mm) everything is excluded except for PU 2K.

Multilayer Multilayer parquet cannot be glued with dispersion adhesive onto a sealed substrate, but that is the only restriction. For all the other adhesives the colour code is green under the conditions for 1K and 2K with sealed substrates.

Conclusion The merit of this chart, obviously, is that you can see the suitability of an adhesive for a particular application in an instant. However, we have to assume that this chart, too, will not survive the ravages of time and that an occasional revision will be necessary. That’s due to the speed of change!

What’s on the market ?

Chimiver

ADESIVER HERCULES is an odorless two-component adhesive for wooden floors with a very low sensitization level, free of solvents, water and isocyanic resins. ADESIVER HERCULES is epoxy resins based with a MW > 700. It has outstanding traction resistance, workability and coverage. Also suitable for gluing wooden floor onto underfloor heating and cooling system. Suitable for laying pre-finished and pre-calibred wooden floor as well as any other type of timber flooring including boards without having to prepare a bed of wood laths.

Devo® Amongst other things, Devomat presents Devo® Glue MSP 150 1C, a mono-component and semi-elastic hybrid MS polymer adhesive which contains no silicones or isocyanates. It is designed for multilayer stabilised parquet, whilst Devo® Glue MSP 250 1C is the best-seller at Devomat Industries. This glue is suitable for glueing all types of wood (solid wood up to 20cm wide) and is particularly recommended for fitting pre-finished parquet. The glue contains no water or VOCs and spreads excellently. Devo® Glue MSP 250 is a hard-elastic glue (about 70 Shore) with great adhesive strength, it conforms to the standard CSN EN 14293, and it has the EC1-Plus (EC1-R) classification. Devo® Glue MSP250 is packed in bags of 5kg. Devomat also has dual

component adhesives in its range. Devo® Glue PU 570 2C is a waterless, dual-component, polyurethane epoxy, and semi-elastic parquet glue which is specially for glueing wooden floors onto cement-bound substrates or existing floors (tiles, marble, wooden floors, etc.). Devo® Glue PU 650 2C is also a waterless, dual-component, epoxy-polyurethane parquet adhesive, but this product is hard-elastic.

Emfi

For glueing wooden floors Emfi offers EMFIPARQUET PRO PLUS and EMFIPARQUET PRO ECO for full glueing and EMFIMASTIC PU or PS PARQUET for cordon glueing. Their adhesives are suitable for glueing solid wood or multilayer parquet floors, with the choice depending on the sort of parquet fitted. EMFIPARQUET PRO PLUS and EMFIPARQUET PRO ECO are both approved as suitable for use by the FCBA for solid oak of 20 x 200mm and 14 x 130mm. The elasticity of an adhesive is essential because it absorbs the dilatation move ments of parquet and relieves the pressure on the base. Generally speaking, the wood sort used most in France and the Benelux is oak because it is an indigenous wood which represents the essence of what is fitted. Finally, their adhesives are designed specifically for glueing parquet, so they are not recommended for glueing other types of flooring.

Soudal STAUF

Soudal has various adhesives which are suitable for wooden floors. Most fittings are done with a hybrid adhesive which combines the best aspects of several forms of technology. The adhesives meet the EU standard for elastic parquet adhesives, they have an EC1+ classification, and they excel in performance and convenience. Multilayer parquet is resistant to fluctuations in temperature and humidity, a less high-performance adhesive is also chosen. Parquet adhesive should allow the wood to move, follow and absorb it, or be strong enough to prevent movement. A perfect combination of elasticity and end strength gives the characteristic properties of the adhesive. The wood sort largely determines which adhesive should be used. Some sorts are strongly affected by humidity, whilst others contain more resin and therefore impede the adhesion. Some need a waterless PU adhesive, whilst others require an elastic adhesive based on hybrid polymer. For flexible types of flooring there is a special adhesive, namely LVT Premium Floor & Wall.

Adhesive specialist STAUF offers three top products for wooden floors: SPU 460, SMP 950 and SPU 570. The all-rounder among STAUF’s parquet adhesives is SPU 460. This adhesive features high shear strength and excellent ridges. It is suitable for use with floor heating systems and available in a coloured version for dark timber types. Being water-, solvent- and isocyanate-free the adhesive is especially user-friendly. The hard-elastic adhesive STAUF SMP 950 adheres ecologically to parquet and at the same time protects against residual moisture. It convinces with excellent dimensional stability of solid floors and is low in consumption. Last but not least there is SPU 570. With its exceptionally high shear strength properties it is STAUF’s prime parquet adhesive. SPU 570 is particularly suitable for larger wood boards, because it guarantees excellent dimensional stability. In addition, this hard adhesive regulates residual moisture. It is of course usable for almost any kind of parquet floors. All three parquet adhesives are patented according to ISO 17178 and are suitable for all common subfloors.

Photo – Soudal