Why Floors Fail: Everything You Need to Know About Expansion Joints for Flooring

Part 1 

The most common reason for glueless click-system laminate & vinyl floating flooring failure is inadequate expansion joints.
Vinyl body is less hygroscopic but PVC is definitely more heat conscious. Variation in temperature and humidity will lead to expansion or contraction which can lead to gaps appearing between planks or tenting. So for safety sake we recommend in our installation instructions that panel size should not exceed 8m in direction of the panel width and 10m in direction of the panel length without an additional expansion gap. This is obviously in addition to the 10mm gap around walls. Different manufacturers use slightly different measures but all approximate the rule above.

Kaindl, one of the worlds leading laminate manufactures recommends:
Bigger areas must be separated with an expansion gap of at least 15mm.
Laminate flooring consists of wood. Wood is a hygroscopic material and adapts to the ambient humidity levels and as a result, its dimensions are subject to slight changes. The expansion can be 2mm/m length. Keep this physical property of wood in mind when laying down your laminate flooring. 
A minimum expansion gap from 1.5mm/lm room length on both sides should be considered e.g.: Length of the room 10m x 1.5mm/lm = 15mm distance The must be expansion gaps of min. 1.5mm/m between rooms. Those gaps can be masked by using a special profile. When fitting near solid elements e.g. heating pipes make sure there is a distance of 1.5mm/m.

From timberfloors.co.za: Leave an expansion gap all around the perimeter of the room, usually between 8 and 10mm. This will allow the wood floor product to expand when the humidity in the air rises. This expansion gap will later be covered by the skirting. Laminate flooring is known to expand 3mm per meter, if allowance for this expansion is not made the floor will ultimately fail when it needs to expand.
Laminate flooring is also normally not laid more than 8m in length without breaking the length with an expansion joint profile. Most manufacturers have profiles available that look similar to the flooring decor or it can be made from aluminium. It is also strongly recommended that one breaks the laminate floor with an expansion profile at every room entrance. In other words do not take your flooring into different rooms all in one piece, an expansion profile should be fitted under the door entering each room. Remember to also allow for an expansion gap around door frames. This gap around door frames is usually filled with a colour sealant to compliment the floor decor.

For Luxury Vinyl Flooring (LVT) the expansion joints can be slightly smaller but remain just as important. IVC US, a prominent American company recommends the following: "Maintain a 1/4” (1/2 cm) expansion space around all walls, cabinets, pipes, toilet flanges and any obstacle in the floor."

And lastly a compact guide published by The Southern Africa Wood and Laminate Flooring Association: A Simple Guide to Laminate Flooring Installation, which also recommends a 10mm gap and room sizes no larger than 8x10m without expansion gaps. Pdf download here

In Part 2 Why Floors Fail: The missing step - Acclimatisation

Download our laminate and vinyl brochures or browse our website. Scroll down to "Lamadeira" here.

For any other inquiries about laminate & vinyl flooring please send us an email.

What is Ceramic Sintering? Sintering is the process of forming a solid mass of material by heat and/or pressure without actually melting it. Sintering is part of the firing process used in the manufacture of ceramic and porcelain tiles as well as other manufactured objects. Sintering also happens naturally in mineral deposits. The atoms in the materials diffuse across the boundaries of the particles, fusing the particles together and creating one solid piece. A common example of sintering is when ice cubes in a glass of water adhere to each other. The word "sinter" comes an old form of the word "cinder". Sintering is effective in the firing of ceramic tiles because the process reduces the porosity and enhances properties such as density, strength and translucency. As the diagram below shows, the process eliminates the small pores between each particle and fuses them together. Control of temperature and the consistency of the size of particles is very important to the sintering process. Some ceramic raw materials have a lower affinity for water and have a lower plasticity than clay, requiring organic additives in the stages before sintering. The general procedure of creating ceramic objects via sintering of powders includes: Mixing water, binder, deflocculant, binder and unfired ceramic powder to form a slurry; Spray drying the slurry; Putting the spray dried powder into a mold and pressing it to form a green body (an unsintered ceramic item); Heating the green body at low temperature to burn off the binder; Sintering at a high temperature to fuse the ceramic particles together.   Download our ceramic tile brochures or browse our website here. For any other inquiries about Porcelain or Ceramic tiles please drop us an email.   Ciao, The Link International team.

12 benefits of ceramic tile.

If your customer is uncertain about what flooring type to specify for their project, ceramic tile is just about the easiest choice to motivate.
 

·        1. Low maintenance – Ceramic tiles are easy to maintain, from simple cleaning to optional sealing over time. Beside cleaning, there is no special maintenance involved.

·        2. Easy to clean – Sweep and wash! It doesn’t get simpler and cleaner than that. Ceramic floors make excellent kitchen floors as they can be easily wiped and disinfected from spills. If the grout gets dirtier than you like, you can use a specially formulated grout cleaner to help get the dirt off.

·        3. Cost – Ceramic tiles are cost effective. As with all tiles, the more high end the tile you choose, the higher the cost of the project; the more detailed the design, the more you’ll pay.

·        4. Repairable – Got a crack? Make sure to keep a few extra tiles around in the event of a crack. You can attempt to replace the tile yourself or find a handyman or tile contractor to do it for you.

·        5. Vast style and design options – There are literally thousands of different ceramic tiles around the world. The shapes, colors, styles and designs are vast.

·        6. Increase your home value – Ceramic tiled homes have greater resale value and homes with ceramic floors have a higher general home value when appraised.

·        7. Scratch resistant – Class 3 and Class 4 ceramic tiles (tiles which are made for moderate to heavy floor traffic) don’t scratch.

·        8. Reduces household allergens – Unlike carpets and rugs, ceramic tile does not attract dust and dust mites. Homes with ceramic floor tiles have less dust in the air, making the air in your home much healthier by reducing the amount of household allergens. This is a fantastic benefit, especially for those who suffer from dust-related allergies.

·        9. Environmentally friendly – Ceramic tiles are made from raw materials, including clay, sand and glass. These materials are combined with other recycled materials to form ceramic tile. Many ceramic tiles are made from recyclable content. Ceramic tile can also help to reduce your energy use by keeping your house cooler in the summer. They also add some insulating qualities to your home for the winter.

·        10. Moisture resistant – You won’t have to worry about accumulation of moisture in ceramic tiles. You can also wash the floor with lots of water if desired. Unlike wood floors, water will not damage ceramic tiles.

·        11. Fireproof - No more need be said.

·        12. Fadeproof - Because tiles colour and pattern is fired in a kiln, the colour is chemically fixed and impervious to UV fading.

Ceramic tiles? Sold!
 

Download our ceramic tile brochures or browse our website here.

For any other inquiries about Porcelain or Ceramic tiles please drop us an email.

Ciao,

The Link International team.

7 Ways to Tell Porcelain Tiles from Ceramic.

Both porcelain and ceramic tiles are made from a mixture of clay and other materials which are pressed into a dense mass then kiln-fired at over 1000 degrees C. Although both porcelain and ceramic tiles are called “ceramic tile”, porcelain is by definition harder, denser and absorbs less water which is why it is less prone to cracking when exposed to cold. Specifically porcelain should absorb less than 0,5% of its volume in water. But how do you tell whether a tile is porcelain or ordinary ceramic?

1. Check the packaging. Look for the word “Porcelain”, a water absorption of <0,5% or a Mohs hardness rating of 7 or above. Ceramic tiles generally only have a water absorption of <3% at best. If the tile is marked ‘Polished’ it is likely to be porcelain.

2. Check the price. Porcelain tiles usually cost around 40% more than ordinary ceramic tiles and could be even higher depending on other technical factors.

3. Try the spit test for water absorption. Turn the tile on it’s side. Apply a little spittle to the edge. If it is absorbed into the tile within a minute or less it’s ceramic. On a porcelain tile the liquid will remain on the surface in a shiny meniscus for many minutes or even until it evaporates

Porcelain tiles are generally made by the dust pressed method from porcelain clay like kaolin, which result in a tile that is denser and more durable than ceramic tile. The finish is a finer grained and smoother with sharply formed faces. Glazed porcelain tiles are much harder and are more wear and damage resistant than non-porcelain ceramic tiles.

4. Take a close look. Full body porcelain tiles carry the color and pattern through the entire thickness of the tile making them virtually impervious to wear and are suitable for any application. If the colour on the surdace is the same through the cross section it is a good but not infallible indication that you are looking at a porcelain tile.

5. Compare the hardness. Ceramic tiles are softer and easier to cut than porcelain so if you are comparing two tiles the one that is easier to cut is probably ceramic.

6. Test the hardness. A more accurate way would be to actually test the hardness using a reference material. Hardness is measured using the Mohs scale which rates hardness from 1 (talc) to 10 (diamond). Ordinary ceramic tiles will have a hardness of 5-6 whereas porcelain will have a hardness of 7 or better. You can use the following commonly available materials to firmly scratch the tile. If the material leaves a distinct mark the tile has a hardness less than the test material
· Penny (a bronze coin) - 3.0
· Knife blade (a good straight edged kitchen knife or penknife) - 5.0
· Glass (a broken piece of window glass) - 5.5
· Quartz (a sharp piece, available at new age lifestyle shops or a mineral scratch patch) - 7.0

...and lastly
7. Contact the manufacturer and request a laboratory test report. Porcelain is classed B1a.

Download our brochures or browse our website here.

For any other inquiries about Porcelain or Ceramic tiles please drop us an email.

Ciao,

The Link International team.

What Exactly is Resilient Flooring?

What Exactly is Resilient Flooring?   Unlike brittle tiles made of minerals, resilient flooring is made of material that has some elasticity, giving the flooring a degree of flexibility called resilience. Resilient flooring is available in large sheets or pre-cut tiles or planks. It either comes with pre-applied adhesive for peel-and-stick installation or requires adhesive to be troweled on to the substrate or in the case of most planks, is made with an integrated glueless click and lock mechanism along the edges. Resilient flooring includes many different manufactured products including old fashioned linoleum, sheet vinyl, vinyl composition tile (VCT), cork (sheet or tile), rubber and ultimately Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT). Performance surfaces used for dance or athletics are usually made of wood or resilient flooring. Hospitals, schools and pre-school children's centres often use sheet vinyl. Increasingly both commercial and residential spaces are using LVT for its resilience, texture waterproofing and sound absorbing qualities. We currently supply Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) in planks 1,2m x 186mm in 12 different colours under our own Lamadeira brand. We are planning on dramatically expanding our range to include Vinyl performance surfaces and sheet vinyl soon.   Download our brochure comparing Laminate, Composite and Vinyl flooring here. Download our LVT brochure here. For any enquiries please drop us an email.   Ciao, The Link International team.

Top 5 new ink-jet tile styles.

Recently we held a workshop with some of our customers. In preparation we did some research with our partners throughout the world and in particular in the U.S., all this really leading up to the Coverings'15 expo in Orlando next year.

We plan to have several new ranges of Ink-jet tiles that will appeal to the U.S. market and hopefully also have overlap to other international markets. We decided to select five new "looks". When the brainstorm was over we had the 10m wall in our showroom area literally covered with colour printouts, torn-out catalogue pages, our own posters and samples. The final winning categories turned out to be:

New Cement  looks including a textured cement for non-slip outdoor applications.

Rapolano Stone look with more contrast and more colour variation. Beautiful!

Distressed Wood look in multi-colour variations.

Slate, a classic but again with more variation in colour and contrast.

Travertine; making the most of high-definition ink-jet technology - The detail, the detail!

Our own variations of the ideas and looks above are now in design development in Italy to be ready for production by the end of September.

Meanwhile download our existing brochures or browse our website here.

For any other inquiries please drop us an email.

Ciao,

The Link International team.

What's the Difference Between Laminate, Composite & Vinyl Flooring?

All three flooring types are made of layers laminated together. The difference is in what those layers are made of and what that implies for performance. There's no point is asking "What's best?", as always it's really a matter of fitness for purpose.

Traditional laminate wood flooring is made of; a transparent wear layer, a printed paper decor layer, high density fiberboard (HDF) and a thin backing layer for stability. Laminate comes in various thicknesses from 7 mm (light domestic) to 12mm (commercial grade) and is fairly rigid.

Composite Flooring is made of a urethane wear layer, a printed paper layer and a Wood-Plastic Composite (WPC) body. In some cases the WPC is in fact a mineral-plastic composite of calcium carbonate. An Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) foam backing is sometimes added. Composite tends to be very rigid.

Luxury Vinyl (LVT) is made of a thick wear layer then a Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) layer onto which the design is printed directly. A sound-proofing EVA foam layer is mounted to the bottom. LVT is somewhat flexible.

The big difference between the three types is that Composite and Vinyl are waterproof whereas Laminate is is only water resistant; flooding may well cause swelling and warping so laminate cannot be installed in bathrooms and other wet areas.

Laminate is cheaper than composite or vinyl, but it does require more surface preparation as it has a tendency to reflect any imperfections in the underfloor.

Underlayer. Composite and Luxury Vinyl generally have an integrated foam rubber (EVA) layer that cushions the floor and adds to thermal and sound insulation whereas Laminate requires a separate underlayer and thus more complex pre-installation preparation.

Vinyl and Composite tend to be supplied with more modern glueless locking systems like our licensed and patented 1Lock system which make it very easy to install and prevents slippage in both directions.

In summary; traditional laminate is cheaper but more difficult to install. It is inclined to separate if exposed to water. Composite and Vinyl are both somewhat more expensive but waterproof and easier to install. Luxury Vinyl in particular is very forgiving of imperfections in the base floor.

Contact us for Laminate, Composite or Luxury Vinyl flooring to suit your market needs.
Download our LAMADEIRA FLOORING brochures here.