SHOWIN’ OUR STUFF
New, Patented Subfloor Technology Called a Game Changer by the Flooring Industry
A
few years ago, at a laboratory in Rosendahl, Germany, a group of Schönox product
Their goal was to create subfloor products that would offer strength and speed with minimal to no shrinkage of the material.
development researchers and technicians undertook an initiative to develop what the
flooring industry had long since felt was impossible. Their goal was to create subfloor products that would offer strength and speed with minimal to no shrinkage of the material. At first reading, this seemed a reasonable combination of qualities; however, the science of the available materials produced a barrier. Unfortunately, for decades, this barrier had become accepted as an industry standard. Some background. Cement-based patches and self-leveling materials, long admired for their drying speed, can expeditiously be covered with flooring. Conversely, gypsum-based products found favor in challenging subfloor environments where the product's shrinkage was not an option, and versatility was necessary to cover various irregular subfloor conditions. That versatility, however, came at the cost of speed. The Schönox team was optimistic. They developed and pioneered synthetic gypsum-based technology in previous years, creating a new category of patches and self-leveling products. Those products allowed many subfloors to be renovated rather than demolished, and with outstanding environmental and performance positives, thus diverting millions of tons of construction waste from landfills. Another environmental positive, the products themselves,
A glimpse inside one of the Schönox labs used to develop Hybrid Active-Dry Technology.
made in part from recycled content reclaimed from the process used to purify the emissions from coal-fired energy plants, provide minimal shrinkage. Flooring installers raved about the minimal shrinkage of synthetic-gypsum subfloor products just as environmental voices heralded the positive impact of the products on the manufacturing, use, and impact sides of the equation. The positives were substantial, but the issue of speed remained. The Schönox team, determined to develop a technology with all the positives and none of the cement and synthetic gypsum negatives, continued their plight. Months into the process, the researchers realized the answer would not be a variation of the existing subfloor products but rather a new technology altogether. Years of additional development work were poured into the effort with an underlying goal to revolutionize subfloor projects. Much of the development process remains confidential and the methods used today to manufacture the resulting products are closely-guarded secrets. Schönox will say the development pathway moved the team to create a new binder used with cement and gypsum elements, combined
62 Premier Flooring Retailer | Digital 3 2020
