INSTALLATION WPC? SPC? LVT? SVT? VET? VCT?
Clarifying vinyl options I spoke at a presentation for a large flooring contractor recently about a variety of flooring in the resilient category, especially vinyl and rubber. After the meeting, one of the industry veterans in the group pulled me aside. “Christopher, we have a lot of new people here, and they may be shy about asking a lot of questions. I think a lot of the lingo around vinyl flooring is unfamiliar to them. You should put together a short course like Vinyl Tile 101 to clarify it all.” A few weeks later, I was asked to clarify the difference between WPC and SPC and I realized this may be a good subject for me. I am a long-time member of Christopher ASTM Committee F.06 on Resilient Capobianco Flooring, where the industry standards for this category are created. As such, I am a bit of a terminology geek and these days, the terminology around “Vinyl Tile” has never been more confusing. Let’s start with glue-down products and the ubiquitous marketing term Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT). There are two ASTM product standards; Vinyl Composition Floor Tile (VCT) and Solid Vinyl Floor Tile (SVT). There is no category called LVT, a term that is sometimes applied to products that are VCT and sometimes as SVT. The difference? SVT has a higher vinyl content and thus, different performance characteristics than VCT. SVT is less porous, which makes for easier maintenance, but also requires a different adhesive because they have a vinyl back. Regardless of which resilient flooring you work with, most of the rules are the same — site conditions, product acclimation, and substrate preparation/testing don’t change from one product to another. An area where I still see a lot of mistakes being made is adhesive selection, application and open time. Follow the rules for adhesive selection and
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March/April 2020
proper trowel notch; it’s easy to assume that the same adhesive works on similar looking products, but that often is not the case because of differences in product backings. Pressure sensitive adhesive (PSA) is the most commonly used adhesive for vinyl. Back in the day, we had “clear thinspread” for VCT when the industry was moving away from black, “cutback” adhesive. Installers like PSA for the long open time and working time that allow adhesive to be spread in a large area, turn clear and tack-up so the installer can work on top of the newly installed tile without any risk of tile shifting or adhesive oozing. SVT products can sometimes be installed with a PSA, but don’t be tempted to use VCT adhesive on SVT. It’s a different formulation that doesn’t always work on vinylback products. Another method is wet-set — adhesives with short open time, so the tile is set while the adhesive is still wet. Homogeneous SVT often requires this type and vinyl back tile and plank in high traffic areas may also. Although harder to work with, they set very hard, which keeps the tile in place over the long term. In even more extreme conditions, twopart reactive adhesives such as epoxy or polyurethane work best in areas with high rolling loads or point loads, surface moisture or wide temperature variations. An option that I prefer for vinyl-back tile and plank is semi-wet- or tacky-set adhesive that is left open long enough that it develops some tack, is still somewhat wet, but is not open long enough to turn clear. The best way to tell it’s ready is to touch it lightly with a finger. If you get a smudge on your finger, it is not ready. If you see lines from the trowel notching, it is. This method still gives some very good bond strength to the finished floor, but is easier to do than wet-set. Finally, I’ll stress one more time that the proper trowel is critical. READ THE CAN to see what size notch you need and replace the trowels as they wear down. A good trowel costs pennies per square foot and that is an important investment. The category of “floating” products has really exploded in recent years. In the mid 1990s, laminate floors became popular because they required so much less floor preparation than
