VINYL FLOORING GUIDE

Thanks to some great advancements in styling and technology, today's vinyl floors are very different than they were just a few years ago! If you are looking for diversity in colors and patterns, look no further than vinyl flooring!

The unique manufacturing processes used today can replicate the look and textures of real ceramic tile, stone and wood grains. Plus, the resilient manufacturers have created new manufacturing processes to make vinyl floors more tear and stain resistant.

There are two common types of vinyl flooring. The older construction type is called inlaid construction and the newer, more common construction type is called rotogravure construction.

The inlaid process uses solid colored vinyl chips that are laid on top of a carrier sheet and then bonded together with heat and pressure. The inlaid process has been around for years and generally results in geometric type patterns and designs. Residential inlaid floors have a clear wearlayer placed over the top of the chips to make the floor's finish easier to maintain. The appearance of your inlaid floor is dependent on how long the clear finish will last.

The rotogravure printing process is the most commonly used method for making residential vinyl floors and offers unlimited possibilities in pattern and design. This involves a print cylinder that spins around while the vinyl's core layer (called the gel coat) passes underneath. The cylinder systematically prints various colored ink dyes to create the pattern. After the print dyes are set a clear wearlayer is applied to the surface. Like the inlaid the appearance retention of a rotogravure floor is dependent on the durability of the clear wearlayer.

The wearlayer is critical to the performance of a vinyl floor. The thickness of the wearlayer varies with each manufacturer's collection, or series and is generally measured in mils. The thickness of a mil is about the same as a page in your telephone book. So a 10 mil wearlayer would be comparable in thickness to about 10 pages in your telephone book. The more expensive vinyl floors generally will have a thicker wearlayer and a much better finish.

Today, manufacturers are building all-around, much better performing vinyl floors than ever before. The new, high-end vinyl floors have better technology to help resist showing wear and staining far better than any of the middle to low-end vinyl floors made today. The special urethane finishes used on today's residential, high-end vinyl floors will give you a richer looking floor, better designs, better tear-resistance and much better performance!