With the growing emphasis on sustainability, adhesive-free flooring solutions are only expected to increase in popularity, as the industry strives to facilitate a circular material approach, says Craig Thornhill.
WITH the growing emphasis on sustainability, adhesive-free flooring solutions are only expected to increase in popularity, as the flooring industry strives to facilitate a circular material approach.
For flooring contractors, they also offer considerable time savings. Here, I’ll explore adhesive-free flooring in more detail, including the long-term performance, commonly asked questions and top tips on installation.
With hospitals, call centres and certain retail outlets offering around-the-clock services; the likes of schools, colleges and offices only closing over the weekend; and residential settings such as care homes and social housing often only having a matter of days (or even hours!) before a new resident moves in, there is an evident need for flooring solutions that allow a quick and easy installation.
Add to this the increasing pressures around sustainability and material circularity, both from customers and their clients, and the growing demand for adhesive-free flooring becomes clear.
While there are different types of adhesive-free flooring, the main methods involve contact tape, tiles or planks that simply ‘click’ together, or the use of adhesive tabs – a combination of magnets and dry-tack adhesive.
While adhesive-free flooring has many benefits, perhaps the headline one for contractors is the time savings it can offer. Able to be laid straight onto the subfloor or even over many existing floorcoverings, minimal preparation is required in most cases, with no acoustic underlay or dampproof membrane needed.
The result being that installation time can be reduced by 50% and costs by 30%, when compared to using traditionally adhered floorcoverings. For contractors, these significant savings can enable you to complete more jobs in the same amount of time, reallocate manpower for increased productivity or even offer more competitive pricing to customers.
As there’s absolutely no need for adhesives, application or drying times also don’t need to be factored into the project, meaning newly laid floors can be walked on immediately after installation, allowing building operations to resume as normal with minimal disruption or downtime.
Moving away from installation to further into the future and when the time does eventually come to replace an adhesive-free floor, products are easy to uplift, while the absence of adhesive means they can be easily recycled or reused – all helping facilitate a greener and more circular approach. Subfloors are then left clean and sound ready for a repeat installation.
Despite all of this, there remains the potential for contractors to be wary around adhesive-free flooring, whether due to past experiences with lifting, rucking and moving, worry about its performance under heavy rolling loads, or a reluctance to switch from traditionally adhered solutions.
With new developments on the market and increased research and development, many products are now more dimensionally stable than ever before, with many even containing a double structural stabilisation system.
As well as this, adhesive-free flooring poses no different installation challenges than traditionally adhered products. The process and techniques to complete a job are the exact same, with the only difference being adhesive-free installation cuts the time to complete a job in half, with no need to wait for adhesives to cure before welding or being walked on.
Forbo’s newly updated Fast Fit collection features a trio of adhesive-free flooring products: Modul’up 19dB Fast Fit, Eternal Fast Fit and Surestep Fast Fit. Covering a range of application requirements, including safety and acoustic flooring, the collection offers proven performance (with over 1,000,000sq m installed each year) and the ideal solution for fast and hassle-free refurbishments.
Locally stocked in the UK for fast supply, all three products can be installed over existing flooring using the same tape and can be fitted on damp floors up to 92% relative humidity (RH). They can also be stuck down, depending on the installer’s preference.
Manufactured using 100% renewable electricity, up to 24% recycled content and phthalate-free, all three ranges are fully recyclable at the end of life when installed adhesive-free and are covered with a third-party verified EPD.
www.forbo-flooring.co.uk/fastfit
Craig Thornhill is technical services manager at Forbo Flooring Systems