The evolution of luxury vinyl will ‘floor’ you
One of the very interesting stories that Shirley PaiHilton of Kahala Pacific Floors has chronicled over the last 10 years are the trials and errors of the flooring industry in developing just the right vinyl floor.
With luxury vinyl being one of her best sellers, Hilton tells the story each month at her Great Flooring 101 seminar and she’s extending the story to share with Hawaii Renovation readers, too.
“Well, it started with the very popular Konecto line of floors,” Hilton said. “Unlike good old sheet vinyl, this flooring features individual planks of vinyl flooring, for a more elegant look and repair-ability.”
These floppy planks were installed by laying the next plank of flooring onto the pressure-sensitive adhesive tab sticking out from the piece right before it. While very easy to install, this overlapping product would prove to be problematic in the end due to adhesive failure. The other shortcoming was that you had to prep the floor to perfection before putting it down due to telegraphing of imperfections through the soft material.
“So then,” Hilton continued, “manufacturers decided, ‘Why don’t we install the vinyl onto fiberboard, just like laminate flooring, and cut the click into the sides? We will have no more adhesive problems by having a floor that clicks together and it will be rigid enough to cover subfloor imperfections.'” However, what they forgot is that most fiber-board is not waterproof. They promptly kicked themselves in the head and went back to the drawing board.
Next, they decided to add more layers of PVC with reinforcement, making the entire vinyl assembly thick enough to cut a click right into the material. Even still, the material was still pliable enough that floor prep had to be extensive and expensive.
Finally, they came up with the latest versions dubbed WPC for waterproof core or wood-plastic core, and SPC for stone plastic composite. By installing the vinyl onto a rigid, waterproof core material, they seem to have overcome all the shortcomings of the earlier generations.
This is just a fraction of what you will learn at Hilton’s monthly seminar. The next session will be held Saturday, July 14 at 10 a.m. at the company’s showroom. Sessions do fill up so call to reserve your seats today.
KAHALA PACIFIC FLOORS
CONTACT 847-7711
ADDRESS 926 Kohou St.
WEB kahalapacificfloors.com